Dehumanizing each other gets us nowhere

One day after Doug Ford squandered an opportunity to unite people against antisemitism — blaming immigrants for recent attacks — Toronto police offered more sobering evidence of how deeply divided we are as a community.

- MARTIN REGG COHN

Demonstrators gather on Parliament Hill last December in support of the Jewish community. When people are dehumanized in the Middle East, we Canadians can choose to take sides and dehumanize, or we can opt to find common ground in the pursuit of peace, Martin Regg Cohn writes.

The premier offered no information to back up his loose talk about outsiders last week. The police, by contrast, provided a more substantive breakdown of rising hate crimes by category, and the numbers tell their own story:

“Anti-Jewish (36 per cent), anti-2SLGBTQI+ (18 per cent), antiBlack (13 per cent), and anti-Muslim (seven per cent),” according to the report.

“Antisemitic occurrences increased from 65 in 2022 to 135 occurrences in 2023. Of the 135 occurrences in 2023, 130 were anti-Jewish and five were anti-Israeli occurrences. Anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab occurrences increased from 12 in 2022 to 36 occurrences in 2023. Of the 36 occurrences in 2023, 27 were anti-Muslim, eight were anti-Palestinian occurrences and one was an anti-Arab occurrence.”

Against the backdrop of war in the Middle East, what’s the connection between global animus and domestic antisemitism? As the report notes, “There was a 32 per cent increase in the number of reported hate crimes after Oct. 7” — a reference to the Hamas massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis, which provoked the inevitable overreaction leading to more than 36,000 Gazans dead (including combatants).