A petition calling for Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow to resign over her failure to attend a memorial on the one-year marking of the Oct. 7 terror attack has now reached over 11,000 signatures.
The petition was launched after the mayor was absent from a Jewish community-led vigil honouring the victims of the attack. The Hamas-led terror attack killed over 1,200 victims, eight of whom were Canadian citizens. The terrorist militants also abducted over 250 civilians, including babies, women and the elderly, nearly 100 of whom are still being held as captives by Hamas.
Chow said she did not receive emails from various Jewish community groups that were lost in the city email inbox. The city was conducting an internal investigation with its IT department to determine how the “mistake” could have occurred.
Chow said on a NewsTalk1010 radio show last week that she “really regrets” not “being able” to attend the vigil.
Instead, Chow was “caught up” in a long discussion on bike lanes, and by the time she was finished, she was “exhausted.”
The petition was launched by a Toronto resident, Richard F, who claims to be personally affected by the growing tide of antisemitism in Toronto.
According to a recent Toronto Police Services press release at the beginning of this month, 350 hate crimes, a 40% increase from the previous year, were reported to the hate crimes unit since the Oct. 7 terror attack.
The Jewish community faced the brunt of that increase, with a nearly 70% increase in hate crimes targeting Jews from the same period last year.
“I have expected our city’s leaders to take a stand against this rising hatred, but instead, I have witnessed an alarming lack of response,” the petition author said. “Mayor Olivia Chow has been consistently absent at crucial moments when we needed her to stand with the Jewish community. It is concerning to see our Mayor failing to show up to support her city’s citizens during such troubling times.”
The petition continues saying Chow has not taken “sufficient action” to shut down hate protests targeting the Jewish community.
“This ambivalence sends a disheartening message to the Jewish citizens of Toronto, making us feel isolated and overlooked in our own city,” the petition said.
It said public servants have an obligation to serve their citizens with compassion, empathy and fairness, an obligation the petition signers claim Chow has failed to do.
“The situation is beyond disappointing; it’s alarming and cannot continue. We implore all concerned citizens and those who value justice and equal representation to join us in demanding the resignation of Mayor Olivia Chow,” it said. “Her failure to support the Jewish community of Toronto is indicative of a broader inability to serve her populace effectively.”
Chow did not respond to True North’s requests to comment before the deadline provided.