Jew-hatred has been surging in Canada—as it has throughout the world—since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel. One thing that the Great White North has that no other country does is a handbook on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.
The federal government launched the guide on Oct. 31, reportedly fulfilling a 2022 commitment that Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, made to create an educational resource for understanding, recognizing and combating Jew-hatred.
“Canada is the first single country to produce a government handbook on the IHRA working definition,” Deborah Lyons, Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, told JNS.
Lyons said that her office, which led development of the handbook over 10 months, incorporated input from more than 150 stakeholders, including Jewish leaders, law enforcement, academia and many government officials.
The aim of the project was to guide school policies and campus codes of conduct, as well as “helping administrators and institutions draw the line as to what is and what is not antisemitism,” Lyons told JNS.
“It is crucial that this handbook becomes built into institutional processes that seek to address antisemitism, whether in workplaces, on university campuses, in the judiciary, in the legal system, in government or in civil society at large,” she said.
The guide has sections on Canadian Jewish history, antisemitism in the country and an introduction that addresses Jewish identity. It also features “real Canadian case studies,” which demonstrate each of the 11 contemporary examples of Jew-hatred that are part of the IHRA definition.
The handbook clarifies, as IHRA does on its website, that the working definition upholds free expression by distinguishing between legitimate critique and antisemitic hate.
“This guidance fosters a healthy, democratic environment for constructive dialogue,” Lyons said. She told JNS that her office has distributed the handbook to a large number of institutions, including government departments and universities.
Daniel Koren, founder and executive director of Allied Voices for Israel, told JNS that the Toronto charity is glad that the federal government issued the handbook.”
“All institutions at the municipal, provincial and federal levels” ought to use the guide to “combat anti-Jewish hatred whenever it rears its ugly head,” Koren said.
The antisemitism on Canadian streets “is motivated by anti-Zionist and anti-Israel hatred,” Koren said. “We just want to make it clear that the demonization of Israel, the world’s only Jewish state, is indeed a form of anti-Jewish hatred.”
“Legitimate criticism of Israel, however, is not only encouraged but shared by Israeli civilians, politicians and the like,” he added.
The handbook “is an invaluable tool in understanding and combating antisemitism,” Aaron Kucharczuk, co-founder of the Jewish Educators and Family Association of Canada, told JNS.
“It thoroughly describes and explains the IHRA definition of antisemitism and provides meaningful examples and practical guidance that educators need to keep our schools places of inclusion and respect for everyone,” Kucharczuk said.
As a father of three children in the Toronto District School Board system, he has been actively involved in addressing issues related to antisemitism and education policy.
“Unfortunately, despite the IHRA definition being approved by the federal and provincial government, schools boards have not adopted it and neither the IHRA definition nor the IHRA handbook are available to assist our educators in protecting our children against hate,” he said.
He noted that the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board recently rejected the IHRA handbook “outright” from being used in teacher training.
The government and Lyons “need to stand up to school board equity departments and get this incredibly important resource into our schools to protect Jewish students and educators from the unprecedented levels of hate and discrimination they continue to experience,” Kucharczuk said.
As of November 1, 2024, the IHRA definition has been adopted by 1,262 entities worldwide, including 45 countries, according to the Combat Antisemitism Movement. Canada adopted it in 2019.
The handbook’s release comes at a time when antisemitic incidents in Canada have been on the rise. Police data from July revealed a 71% increase in antisemitic hate crimes in Canada in 2023.
Anthony Housefather, Canadian special advisor on Jewish community relations and antisemitism, and Liberal parliamentarian from the Montreal-area, stated that “our federal government has taken great leadership” to “explain to Jews and non-Jews what antisemitism actually is, so that we can avoid it and avoid repeating it.”
Some critics, including the New Democrat Party, have said that the handbook could suppress political speech or criticism of Israel. Supporters argue that the definition explicitly states that criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country is not considered antisemitic.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the advocacy arm of the Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, praised the handbook.
“With antisemitism at historic levels, the need for governments, school boards, university administrations, unions and civil society organizations to identify and understand the phenomenon has never been more acute,” stated Richard Marceau, vice-president of external affairs and general counsel at CIJA.
