A federal progress report published Sept. 24 says Ottawa is treating anti-Zionism as a driver of anti-Jewish hate, prompting mixed reactions from groups and politicians.
The Story
Ottawa says it is seeking to better recognize and respond to “contemporary manifestations of antisemitism, including anti-Zionism,” according to a federal progress report published Sept. 24 by Public Safety Canada.
The progress report, released as federal efforts promised in January to combat antisemitism, described anti-Zionism as a modern manifestation of antisemitism and cited a 2024 government report that the text says did not mention anti-Zionism.
The report pointed to a Windsor man sentenced in April for public incitement of hatred after using “Zionists” as a derogatory term for Jews, and it said this was “particularly important” because Ontario is increasingly seeing the use of the term by protesters attempting to shield hateful speech from criminal liability.
The federal report did not weigh in on terminology in a broader way, and a Senate human rights committee study in April avoided weighing in on the terminology while focusing on how to stop hatred, according to the text; committee chair Sen. Paulette Senior said the focus was on stopping hatred.
In the coverage, the Canadian Oxford Dictionary definition of Zionism is provided as “a movement originally for the re-establishment and now the development of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel,” and the text also describes a definition of Zionism from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs as supporting the idea that the Jewish people have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland.
Opponents of Zionism, as described in the text, argue the term embodies a colonial mentality and allows the Israeli government to subjugate Palestinians and expand borders.
The text also lays out definitions of anti-Zionism offered by organizations including Independent Jewish Voices, which defines anti-Zionism as rejecting Jewish settler-colonialism in Palestine and saying Palestinians deserve dignity and safety, and the Association for Canadian Studies, which says anti-Zionism refers to a movement calling for the erasure of Israel and denying Jews the right to self-determination in part of their ancestral homeland.
Supporters of the government’s shift cited in the text include CIJA, which said anti-Zionism is driving violence against Canadians and that demonization of Israel offers a “green light for extremists” targeting the Jewish community.
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather welcomed the federal shift, saying the report makes clear the government recognizes anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism, and University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist is quoted in the text as writing that anti-Zionism is too often “thinly veiled antisemitism.”
Opponents cited in the text include Independent Jewish Voices and the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council, both of which said Ottawa’s approach could suppress free speech or collapse the distinction between political expression and antisemitism.
← More stories