October 7 & today · Canada · 2023–present
Nativist and neo-Nazi suspicion met anti-colonial collective blame and transnational militant networks in Canada’s renewed crisis.
Explore CanadaPublished by WTJPublication updated
2023–present
October 7 & today · October 7 & today
Nativist and neo-Nazi suspicion met anti-colonial collective blame and transnational militant networks in Canada’s renewed crisis.
A school becomes a police scene
In November 2023, Montreal police investigated a shooting at a Jewish school. Toronto’s Bais Chaya Mushka school was shot at twice in 2024. Police reported no injuries in those Toronto attacks and were still investigating the motive.
A school is where a community expects children to learn and grow. The shootings made security part of that expectation. Their place in the aftermath was concrete even while investigations continued: institutions visibly connected to Jewish life had become targets, and the people who used them had to live with the uncertainty.
Old outsiders become presumed Zionists
Canada once excluded Jewish refugees and treated Jewish neighbours as religious or national outsiders. Neo-Nazi movements preserved the hidden-controller story. After October 7, B’nai Brith researchers also found self-described anti-Zionists reviving dehumanization and Jewish-influence conspiracies. On both sides, changing the label could leave the Jewish target intact.
Anti-colonial activism became exclusion when Canadian Jewish institutions or students were treated as agents of Israel. Canada also listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity; US Treasury identified it as a fundraising front for the Marxist-Leninist PFLP. A separate prosecution alleged an ISIS-inspired plot against a Brooklyn Jewish centre by a Canada-resident suspect. These were distinct routes by which overseas militancy entered Canada’s aftermath, alongside the return of older prejudice in everyday political language.
- Canadian Museum for Human Rights · Canadian Museum for Human Rights · exclusion
- B'nai Brith Canada · B'nai Brith Canada · audit, 2024
- Canadian Special Envoy · Canadian Special Envoy · post-October 7 report
- US Treasury · US Treasury · Samidoun/PFLP designation
- US State Department · US State Department · PFLP historical description
- US Justice Department · US Justice Department · alleged ISIS anniversary plot
- B'nai Brith Canada · B'nai Brith Canada · audit, 2025
What it means to feel at home
Canadian police data showed a sharp increase in anti-Jewish hate crimes after October 7. The later decline did not return the figures to the earlier baseline. Jewish community reporting also described people withdrawing from public life or feeling less safe.
Some considered a move to Israel, and applications increased. Others remained and faced the question of how openly to live as Jews. These were different decisions, not one collective response. Together they show how hostility can narrow a sense of home even before a person decides whether to leave it.