There was an upsurge of anti-Semitism in Canada in 1998, after two years
of decline. Two hundred and forty incidents were reported, a rise of 14
percent over 1997. An increased tendency to include anti-Semitic motifs in
criticism of Israel was noted. Efforts are being made to combat the continuing
proliferation of hate sites on the Internet, for example, the hearings against
Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel by a tribunal of the Canadian Human Rights
Commission.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
Canada's Jewish population numbers some 360,000, representing 1.3 percent
of the total population of 27 million. The largest communities are Toronto
(165,000) and Montreal (100,000). Other important Jewish centers are
Vancouver (30,000), Winnipeg (15,000) and Ottawa (12,000).
The impact of postwar immigration on the Canadian Jewish community
is perhaps the most significant difference between patterns in American and
Canadian Jewish immigration. During World War II the Canadian government
refused to allow Jews fleeing the Holocaust to enter the country.
However, thousands of Jewish war survivors were permitted entry in the late
1940s and 1950s. Thus, Holocaust survivors who came to Canada comprise
a more significant percentage of the total Jewish community there than in
the United States.
Canadian Jewry tends to be more traditional than the American Jewish
population, with approximately 40 percent identifying themselves as
Orthodox. In recent years the level of intermarriage has risen, but it still
remains significantly lower than the figure for American Jews.
The Canadian Jewish Congress, with six regional sub-divisions, is the
leading national Jewish organization. Canadian Jews publish some 20
newspapers and journals, including the Toronto-based Canadian Jewish
News.

THE EXTREME RIGHT SCENE
During the last few years, with many of Canada's neo-Nazi leaders involved
in legal battles, and the ideological shift to "leaderless resistance," there has
been a decline in organized hate crime activity in Canada. However, during
1998, some of the familiar leaders of the Canadian far right were again in the
news, leading to an upsurge of anti-Semitic activity in some regions.
In August 1998 Resistance Records, owned by the former Toronto
leader of the now-defunct Church of the Creator George Burdi (aka Eric
Hawthorne) was sold. The new owner is alleged to be Willis Carto, the
wealthy publisher of Spotlight Magazine, one of the most anti-Semitic
publications in America, and a founder of the Institute for Historical
Review, a leading disseminator of Holocaust denial. Carto's purchase was
seen as an affront to many of his disgruntled colleagues at the IHR to whom
he owes money after the IHR won a multimillion dollar civil lawsuit against
him (see ASW 1996/ 7).
Don Andrews, a Nazi sympathizer and convicted hatemonger, figured in
the press again in 1998. As of 1994, Andrews' organization, the Nationalist
Party, had launched a campaign to celebrate "European Heritage Day," but
when it was realized that the event was spearheaded by a neo-Nazi
organization, the various cities approached rejected it or revoked their
original decision. In 1998, Andrews tried a new tactic by attempting to get a
European heritage week declared in London, Ontario. When it was recognized
as a neo-Nazi attempt, an emergency vote was held by the municipal
government, and the week was canceled. There is still a lengthy process
involved before this case goes before the Ontario Human Rights
Commission.
Since the termination of his teaching job by the Peel Board of Education
(see ASW 1997/ 8), Paul Fromm (one of the founders of many fringe rightist
organizations, including the Edmund Burke Society, Canadians for Foreign
Aid Reform (C-FAR) and Canadian Association for Free Expression has been
traveling across Canada attempting to organize speaking engagements in
cities throughout the country. In 1997 Fromm challenged the Peel Board's
ruling by filing a grievance through the Ontario Secondary School Teachers'
Federation. His challenge continued through 1998 and is presently in
arbitration.
While the influence and impact of organized neo-Nazi groups remained
low, there were indications that the Heritage Front and others were starting
to rebuild their grassroots movements and were continuing to recruit,
particularly in suburban areas. According to police, the Heritage Front was
allegedly linked to the five White Power skinheads responsible for the
racially-motivated murder of a caretaker in Surrey, British Colombia (BC), in
April.

ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES
After two consecutive years of decline, anti-Semitism and hatemongering
again appear to be on the rise. Previously, in the 1990s, incidents of anti-Semitic
activity were linked to specific events, such as the Gulf War, the
Quebec referendum, or the rise of neo-Nazi organizations. With the decline
of organized hate groups in Canada, incidents of anti-Semitism in Canada
have become more diffuse in nature.

Anti-Semitic Incidents
There were 240 anti-Semitic incidents reported to the League for Human
Rights of B'nai B'rith (the League) in 1998. This represents an increase of 14
percent over the 212 incidents in 1997. Harassment (hate propaganda and
discrimination against individuals as well as threats and physical assault)
comprised the largest proportion of incidents for 1998 -- 198 -- an increase
of 29 percent over the 154 cases of harassment in 1997. It should be noted
that the numerous incidents of anti-Semitism spread over the Internet have
not been included in the data.
The number of reported incidents of anti-Semitic vandalism was 42, down
a significant 28 percent from the 58 incidents reported in 1997. This may be
attributed to the decline in organized hate group activity, a crackdown by
police hate crimes units and ongoing community vigilance and education.
Examination of the data reveals that the peak times for anti-Semitic incidents
to occur are Jewish holidays and celebrations, as well as Easter and
Christmas. Further, the summer -- a time for "Aryan Fests" and youth gang
restlessness -- is also a "hot" time. A similar pattern has been noted for
incidents of gay bashing, as reported by the 519 Church Street Community
Center.
As in the past, Toronto, Canada's largest and most ethnically diverse city,
had by far the greatest number of reported anti-Semitic incidents. This is
primarily due to the size and visibility of the Jewish population, the
continued presence of many of the activists of Canada's hate movement, and
the ethnic frictions which are usually evident in all large and ethnically
diverse cities. In regional Ontario (i. e., outside Toronto) there was a drastic
increase in anti-Semitic incidents, including a cemetery desecration. In 1997,
20 incidents were recorded, while in 1998 there were 33, up 65 percent, the
largest increase anywhere within Canada. As police hate crimes units crack
down on hate and bias crime in the big cities, it seems that hate groups are
moving their recruiting efforts and activities to small towns.
The Montreal statistics remained relatively unchanged, with 20 reported
incidents, one less than in 1997. The political climate was also very quiet in
terms of anti-Semitic rhetoric, which was characteristic of past years. The
Jewish community has historically opposed the separation of Quebec from
Canada, harboring certain fears about the potential consequences of
separation. Prior to the provincial election of 30 November 1998, the Jewish
community therefore had concerns that the re-election of the sovereignist
Parti Quèbecois government would give greater impetus to the separatist
movement. This did not materialize, as Jean Charest's Liberal Party, despite
losing the election, won the popular vote, thus showing the momentum of
the sovereignty movement.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents reported to B'nai B'rith's National
Capital Region in Ottawa in 1998 was 35, a 40 percent increase over the 25
incidents reported in 1997.

Propaganda and Holocaust Denial
In 1998 there was an increased tendency to include clear anti-Semitic motifs
in criticism of Israel on various websites, in the media and on university
campuses. Palestinian student activities, for instance, attempting to boost the
Palestinian cause, overstepped the bounds of legitimate debate in promoting
hatred against Israel and Jews. On days purporting to express solidarity with
Lebanon and with the Palestinians at the University of Ottawa and Carleton
University, anti-Semitic propaganda, reminiscent of age-old blood libels, was
distributed, repeating the claim that Israeli doctors had injected 300
Palestinian children with the AIDS virus. Inflammatory banners calling Israel
"a cancer on the Middle East" were prominently displayed.
Similarly, activities organized on Ottawa's Parliament Hill have twice
engendered anti-Jewish incidents. An ad with respect to one such activity
appeared in the Ottawa Citizen urging people to "stop the Holocaust against
the Palestinians." In December, a speaker at one of the meetings on
Parliament Hill claimed that the only reason Canada had not recognized
Palestinian rights was "the organized Jewish community." The speaker went
on to talk about the above-average incomes of the Jewish community in
Canada and, quoting a former ambassador, to claim that the Canada Israel
Committee controlled Canada's foreign policy in the Middle East.
At least two counterfeit posters were found trying to implicate Muslim
groups in anti-Jewish activity. One called for a meeting of the "Ottawa
Muslim Brotherhood Discussion Group" at the Main Library where members
would learn, among other things, how to kill Jews and homosexuals and
how to tell a Jew by smell.
In February 1998 Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Louis Farrakhan spoke
in Toronto to an audience of approximately 3,000. This was of great concern
to many communities in Toronto due to the NOI's history of sexism,
homophobia and anti-Semitism. This time there was little controversy, as
Farrakhan was careful not to make anti-Semitic pronouncements and classic
anti-Semitic texts were not sold at the event as they had been at previous
programs. However this toned-downed approach was short-lived. In June,
the NOI opened its first mosque in Canada, in Toronto, under the leadership
of Don Muhammad. The celebrations involved 500 core supporters. During
the ceremony Don Muhammad incited the crowd with typical NOI con-spiratorial
theories. While the NOI press release for the meeting declared
that, "members of the Nation of Islam ... have always professed, and proven
that they do not hate any group and they are not anti-Semitic," Muhammad
announced that there were serious questions as to whether six million Jews
actually died in the Holocaust. Jews, he said, had long been involved in
financing wars of nations in order to enrich themselves. "They loan billions
of dollars trying to take over the sovereignty of the governments and they
have to find a way to collect their debts" (NOW Magazine, 21
July 21).
The year 1998 also witnessed increased tension on Canadian university
campuses. The proliferation of Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic diatribes on
websites such as Radio Islam and unofficial Hizballah and Hamas sites, with
links to white supremacists and Holocaust deniers, has fueled the situation
on Canadian campuses. Anti-Semitic propaganda such as The International
Jew and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are being passed off in the guise
of anti-Israel commentary.
One of the more alarming trends in anti-Jewish activity in Canada in 1998
was the growing number of incidents involving messianic organizations
posing as "synagogues." These missionary organizations are in fact
evangelical Christian proselytizing groups, whose purpose is specifically to
target members of the Jewish community for conversion. Fraudulently
representing themselves as Jews, these so-called synagogues are elaborately
disguised Christian churches. Pamphleteering by missionizing organizations
increased in 1998, and included one anti-Semitic pamphlet called The Last
Call International. This pamphlet was distributed in a senior citizens' home
with primarily Jewish residents, some of whom were Holocaust survivors.
The Last Call International states that the Holocaust will happen again if the
Jews do not repent: "A mighty persecution is coming again, Jews are going
to be taken into Concentration Camps ... God is showing these things before
it happens so we can turn up to him and repent."

Internet. Two anti-Semitic websites came to the attention of the Canadian
Jewish community in 1998: Jew Watch, a vehemently anti-Semitic website,
was listed by an Internet search engine in the "Jewish Resources" section.
The Ottawa office of B'nai B'rith Canada complained to the operators of the
search engine and it was removed from that section. A second troubling
website was Ressources Patriotiques Euro-Quebecoises. The Simon
Wiesenthal Center complained to the Quebec police and to the service
provider about the website's anti-Semitic content. The service provider
agreed to remove the site, indicating a possible trend of providers' taking
responsibility for the content of the sites they host.
For more than a year, racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic postings
had been appearing on the Now Magazine Readers' Forum, a discussion
group where individuals can meet online over a variety of issues. Despite
letters from the League and from the City of Toronto's Community Advisory
Committee on Anti-Hate and Anti-Racism, Now Magazine refused to edit the
messages, on the grounds of freedom of speech. On 18 August 1998, three
postings were made on the forum by someone calling himself Adolf Hitler,
who threatened to kill Jews, specifically targeting B'nai B'rith Canada's
executive vice president. Realizing that the posting was well beyond the
realm of free speech (issuing a death threat is a criminal act in Canada), Now
Magazine installed software, enabling staff to screen all postings on the
forum before they can be viewed on the chatline. Several weeks later
someone admitted online to posting the threats, as well as other racist
materials. Despite the confession, the complications of Internet crime make
it hard to track who actually sent the threats. As of early 1998, no arrest has
been made, although police are still on the case.
These death threats were part of an alarming trend, in 1988, of
proliferation of hate on the Internet. Several specifically targeted individuals
and Jewish organizations across Canada received anti-Semitic e-mail
messages. Furthermore, these anti-Semitic Internet trends in Canada are
symbolic of the general global proliferation of hate material on newsgroups,
Internet chat systems and the World Wide Web.
Nevertheless, efforts are being made to combat this phenomenon as, for
instance, in the Zündel hearings, under consideration since 1997 by a tribunal
of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The case is a complicated
one and focuses on many issues. The Zundelsite is registered under the
name Ingrid Rimland of San Diego, which makes it difficult to hold Zündel
responsible under Canadian law. Is the Internet a telephonic device (a
necessary condition of 13( 1) of the Human Rights Act)? Does the Canadian
Human Rights Act have the jurisdiction to deal with the Internet? Does the
material on the Zundelsite constitute hate propaganda or not? (See also
Countering Anti-Semitism and Hate in Canada Today in this volume.)
After the commission had produced expert witnesses to establish jurisdic-tion
and to affirm that the Internet was a telephonic device, Zündel brought
several so-called expert witnesses for the defense, including Bernard Klatt
(see below), provider of Internet services to various racist sites, and Mark
Weber, now the editor of the pseudo-historical, Holocaust-denying Journal
of Historical Review. To date, four of Zündel's "expert witnesses," amongst
them French denier Robert Faurisson, have had their credentials partly or
totally refuted by the tribunal. The Zündel hearings were due to resume in
March 1999.
In addition to the Zündel case, there were several successful interventions
in countering hate on the Internet in 1998, In March 1998, the League met
with BC Tel, urging the phone company to adopt a policy against the
proliferation of hate speech on the Internet. A client of BC Tel, Fairview
Technology Center Ltd. (FTCNet), owned by Bernard Klatt of Oliver, BC, was
providing Internet service to more than twenty racist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant
websites, most notably those of the Heritage Front, the
Euro-Christian Defense League and the Charlemagne Hammerskins
(for the latter, see also France and the UK). BC Tel was unwilling to cancel
its contract with Fairview or to request that Klatt remove the illegal materials
from his server. Eventually, as a result of various pressures, BC Tel added a
liability clause to Klatt's contract, thereby making him responsible for any
illicit material housed on his server at Fairview. Klatt decided not to renew
his contract with BC Tel, and was effectively driven out of business in
Canada.

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA
Holocaust Denial
Throughout 1998, Ernst Zündel, based in Toronto, continued to publish and
disseminate Holocaust denial material worldwide, both on the Internet and
through the exports of his publishing house, Samisdat. In parallel, a tribunal
of the Canadian Human Rights Commission carried on hearings in
connection with the two complaints against his website, filed in 1996 by the
Toronto Mayor's Committee on Community and Race Relations and by Ms.
Sabina Citron.

Holocaust Commemoration and Education
The Ontario government passed an unprecedented bill proclaiming Yom
Hashoah (Holocaust Day) an official commemorative day in the Province of
Ontario. Efforts are underway to establish a Holocaust museum in Ottawa,
and to have the federal government consider decreeing a national Holocaust
memorial day.
On 18 November 1998 the Canadian government officially recognized the
contributions of Holocaust survivors to Canada. Fifty survivors were honored
in a ceremony on Parliament Hill in the presence of the deputy prime
minister and the minister of state for multiculturalism. The 50 were chosen
to represent all Canadian survivors, and to commemorate the 50th anniversary
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The program, entitled
"Zachor -- We Remember," was the joint initiative of several national Jewish
organizations.
The Canadian government renewed its commitment to prosecute and
deport Nazi war criminals, and twelve more cases were under consideration
in 1998. In November 1998, B'nai B'rith hosted a significant conference on
Nazi war criminals, and in co-operation with the Kleinman Foundation,
co-sponsored the conference "Building History: Legal Memory and
Contemporary Judgements," focusing on Holocaust awareness through
education, history and the arts.
The 1998 Holocaust and Hope Educators' Study Tour to Germany, Poland
and Israel, and the 1998 Holocaust and Hope Student Study Tour both
contributed immeasurably to the development of Holocaust education across
Canada. Teachers and students returned to conduct workshops and seminars,
and to develop curricula that aid in countering Holocaust denial and
help students recognize and reject hate propaganda.

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM
Despite an apparent increase in incidents of systemic discrimination, positive
steps were taken in 1998 to combat anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry in
Canada. Several charges were brought, workplaces were taking steps toward
training, and communities rallied against cutbacks and government
backsliding on anti-racism and anti-hate initiatives.

Legal and Public Activity
A number of important court cases took place in 1998 involving the
promotion of hatred of Jews. In 1998, a decision was handed down in the
1997 appeal by the Liberty Net hateline to the Supreme Court of Canada. The
Supreme Court upheld the right of the Canadian Human Rights Commission
to obtain temporary cease and desist orders against telephone hate lines
until the cases could be decided by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Following a complaint by the Pacific Region of the Canadian Jewish
Congress, a BC human rights tribunal deemed a single article by North Shore
News journalist Doug Collins to be anti-Semitic but not likely to promote
hatred of or contempt for Jews. Another complaint, launched by B'nai
B'rith's Victoria representative, Harry Abrams, dealt with a greater corpus of
Collins' work. Abram's case was argued before the tribunal in July 1998 with
the League as intervener, along with the BC Human Rights Commission and
the attorney general of the province. In early February 1999 the tribunal
handed down its verdict that the series of Collins' articles was likely to
expose groups to hatred and contempt. Collins and the North Shore News
were ordered to pay $2,000 to Harry Abrams "for injury to dignity and
feelings of self respect" and not to publish similar articles. The North Shore
News was also ordered to print a summary of the ruling and to apologize for
the articles.
In March, the City of Oliver, where Fairview Technology Center is
located, canceled a room rental booked by Klatt, that was to have been used
to host many of Canada's most notorious racists. Moreover, the townspeople
themselves came out in force to protest.
The year 1998 saw a huge increase in community activism. Use of public
library meeting spaces by hate groups continued in Victoria in 1998, but in
June, a multi-party community anti-racism coalition was formed, and a
crowd of over 400 angry citizens protested Doug Christie's Canadian Free
League meeting in a Victoria library. In the wake of this concerted
community action, a multi-party BC human rights complaint has been filed
by a group including organized labor, a women's advocacy group, and the
Green Party, as well as the Jewish community of Victoria. Several of the
community leaders in this coalition, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, have been
harassed by anti-Semitic hate mail.
A setback for the anti-racist movement in BC was experienced in 1998
with the court's finding in favor of Eileen and Klaus Pressler in their
defamation suit against Dr. David Lethbridge. The couple sued CHBC (a
Kelowna television station) and Lethbridge, a psychology professor and
human rights activist, on the basis of one eight-minute television news story
in 1993 that allegedly impugned their reputations by "unfairly casting them
as white supremacists and neo-Nazi hate-mongers." These are the same
people who, under the rubric of the "Council of Public Affairs," regularly
sponsored Holocaust denier David Irving's Canadian speaking tours prior to
his deportation, and are well known as harboring and espousing Holocaust
denial and anti-Semitic views.

Education, Training and Research
Several public education campaigns continued throughout 1998 to promote
awareness of anti-Semitism, racism and hate and to stress the importance of
reporting incidents. Posters, public service announcements, newspaper
advertisements and a League hot-line encouraged Canadians to rally against
anti-Semitism and hate, and to report all incidents.
In 1998 the Canadian Race Relations Foundation commissioned the
League to do a cross-Canada study on the impact and effectiveness of public
education campaigns in raising awareness and promoting positive race
relations in Canada. Information was sought from 350 organizations across
the country, and the results will provide valuable insights for improving
future public awareness in this important area.
Throughout 1998, work continued on "Taking Action Against Hate," a
project, designed to provide practical strategies and training for communities
to respond to and counter hate group activities. The training manual and
resource materials will be available in the coming year. In the meantime, the
League continues to provide training for school boards, policing services,
government agencies and community groups, through its Education and
Training Centre.