Candidates in the Eglinton–Lawrence federal riding participated in a virtual debate hosted by a Jewish advocacy group to outline how their parties would address rising antisemitism and other issues that matter to the Jewish community.
Hosted by B’nai Brith Canada, the debate featured candidates from the Liberal, Conservative and Green parties.
According to 2021 Census data, 25,000 Jewish people live in the Toronto riding, accounting for 22.23% of the region. Elections Canada in 2019 estimated that 16.5% of the federal riding was Jewish, with the third-highest Jewish population out of all the federal ridings in Canada.
The riding was represented by Liberal MP Marco Mendicino, who is not seeking re-election but instead serves as Carney’s chief of staff in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Rich Robertson, the director of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith hosted the event.
Candidates were asked how they would amend the Criminal Code to address the rise of antisemitic incidents in Canada. Just this week, B’nai Brith Canada released its annual antisemitism report, which found that antisemitic incidents of harassment, vandalism and violence rose by nearly 125 per cent in just two years.
Conservative candidate Karen Stintz asked Liberal candidate Vince Gasparro if he stood by comments made by Liberal Leader Mark Carney at a rally where he responded that he was “aware” of a “genocide” going on in Gaza and that’s why his government is imposing an arms embargo against Israel.
Instead of standing by Carney’s comments, Gasparro said that Carney had “made it clear” that he had misheard the comments and that Carney had stated that he supports Israel’s right to defend itself.
Gesparro pledged to support legislation that would create “bubble zones” enforcing harsher penalties on individuals who commit crimes near places of worship, schools, daycare centres and senior homes.
When asked what amendments to the Criminal Code the candidates would make to stem the rise of antisemitism, Gesparro also said he would support legislation to impose harsher penalties on people committing crimes while wearing masks.
Stintz said that the Liberals had nine years to tackle this issue and the result has only been a 251 per cent increase in crime and a quadrupling of hate crimes.
“Are you going to trust a government that has not enforced those laws for nine years, and has shown no intention to enforce them, to somehow change and enforce them moving forward?” she said. “If you want these laws enforced, you need to elect a government that is committed to providing not only the moral clarity and the resources to enforce these laws but also the expectation that, if a municipality and the province are not enforcing the laws on their books, then they will not be able to leverage federal funding.”
The Green party candidate argued that the solution was in more anti-hate education courses and DEI training, counter-radicalization programs in schools and for police to build trust with the community. He said the problem is that the justice system is “reactive instead of proactive.”
Robertson asked the candidates how they would handle listing groups under the terrorism watch list.
Stintz noted that Conservatives pressured the government to list organizations such as the Houthis, the IRGC, and Samidoun as terror groups. She said that had it not been for the advocacy of the Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman and Liberals concerned about losing a by-election the IRGC would not have been listed.
“We’ve already seen that terrorists have infiltrated Canada and around the globe, and they are threatening our security, threatening our safety, bringing hate onto our streets, burning our flag,” Stintz said. “Is the Liberal government doing anything to address it? They talk, but they don’t act.”
She said a Conservative government would cut foreign aid “bureaucracies that are promoting hate”, cut foreign aid to dictators, and cut funding to UNRWA, an organization with members repeatedly found to be aiding Hamas and terror in the Middle East.
Gesparro spoke about how important listing terror groups is to keep communities safe and said he would always support “any action” that makes the community safer.
The candidates were also asked how their party would tackle foreign interference, improve immigration and stop the spread of extremist ideas in Canada.
Stintz noted several instances recently where terrorists have entered Canada and were stopped by authorities before committing a terrorist act, and spoke about the success of the previous Conservative government’s immigration system.
“There’s estimates that up to 200,000 people have come into Canada, and we don’t know who they are, and we don’t know what they’re doing. That is an epic failure of the Liberal government over the last nine years,” she said. “And so now we’ve created a situation where we have all kinds of uncertainty in our immigration system that the US has already highlighted that we’re a security threat.”
She affirmed that Conservatives would make a foreign agent registry to track who’s operating in the country and who they are and to “make sure they are not interfering” in Canadian elections.
Gasparro took his time attacking Poilievre for not receiving security clearance to learn what is in the NSICOP report on foreign interference and lauded the fact that Carney appointed Ben Dianne from Montreal, a Jewish woman as Immigration minister.