The Ministerial Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion announced back in February, after Prime Minister Mark Carney scrapped the special envoy roles on antisemitism and Islamophobia, was re-announced in his June 1 address at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple, quoting scripture, Elie Wiesel and Aristotle, and naming the one Jewish council member by name. Marc Gold was appointed to the senate by Justin Trudeau in 2016, serving as government leader for five years before retiring at age 75 last year. The lawyer, legal scholar and businessman previously led Federation CJA and the Canada-Israel Committee.
Gold declined an interview with The CJN on this subject, saying it was too early in the process and the council had not yet met. Following Carney’s speech, Thornhill MP and deputy opposition leader Melissa Lantsman told reporters that the prime minster offered nothing concrete and slammed the council, “headed by the very same minister of heritage who presided over funding antisemitism in his own department with people like Laith Marouf.” It’s cold comfort for Jews, she said, “without enforcing the laws that we already have on the books to put these perpetrators in jail... I don’t think there is a single Canadian or single Jewish Canadian who feels safer today.” Lantsman says Ottawa should ban “more than 700 IRGC terrorists that right now fundraise and intimidate” communities at the core of this conflict in Canadian streets.
She called for “defunding institutionalized antisemitism” within government, and to “see the laws that are on the books enforced.” Carney, she says, should speak to all Canadians in the House of Commons, “and not behind the closed-door rooms of a Liberal-friendly crowd in Toronto.” Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather disagrees, telling reporters, “Explaining to Canadians that an attack on Jewish communities is an attack on all of us is incredibly important.” That reminds Canadians, he said, that Jews have disproportionately contributed to Canada, “and to exclude Jews from public spaces, from hospitals that have their names on it because they have built them, from schools that they have set up, is unconscionable. And I think it will help.” The target audience wasn’t Jews at Holy Blossom or even Canadian Jewry, said Housefather—“although that was part of it. It was the Canadian population.” While championing the Bill C-9 Combatting Hate Act, Housefather says “antisemitism is not going to be conquered because we pass a law.
We can make something criminal, we can regulate it,” but unless Canadians of good faith call it out, “then nothing’s going to change.” The CJN asked Canadian Heritage for the council schedule, budget, members’ mandate, duration and compensation. A department spokesman responded that “information about the Council, including the terms of reference and member biographies, will be posted online in the near future.” Carney’s speech was also notable for its omissions, specifically other council members, like former Ontario Liberal MP and transport minister Omar Alghabra, whose associations and views have stirred controversy. As Canadian Arab Federation president in 2004, Alghabra objected to reporters calling Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade a terrorist group, despite Canada designating them as such in 2003.
Still, Alghabra called the designation a “biased qualifier.” In 2005, he criticized then-Toronto police chief Bill Blair for participating in a Walk With Israel event and for travelling to Israel. During a 2016 debate on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in Parliament, Alghabra said it’s “important to respect the right of Israel to exist,” that he did not favour boycotts, and noted “many BDS advocates are human rights champions,” while adding, “we must recognize that some BDS advocates may have antisemitic motives.” He also argued against double standards: “For example, criticizing the government of Israel for certain behaviour while excusing it when committed by others is unacceptable.” Skepticism remains In a June 5 letter to Carney from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, all 10 Canadian Federations and 33 Jewish institutions questioned the suitability of some council members because of their “positions on terrorist organizations and their support for campaigns that have made public institutions and campuses hostile to Jews.” That is diametrically opposed to principles articulated by Carney speech, they say, contradicting his message that antisemites “drove Jewish students from the common spaces on our university campuses.” They fear this may obstruct urgent federal action, and “has destroyed the credibility of the advisory council and undermined the force of your government’s stated commitment to confront antisemitism.” York Centre MP Roman Baber said Carney was “trolling” Canadian Jews last week, calling the council “an insult. That is the prime minister’s solution to synagogues being shot at and thugs harassing senior homes or marching in North York and chanting for intifada.” It’s about national security, says Baber, who called for support of his Bill C-257 criminalizing wilful promotion of terrorism.
“The Conservative leader and all of my Conservative colleagues will not tolerate this nonsense,” he said. Other council members Also named was Alberta- and B.C.-based lawyer Avnish Nanda, who launched a Charter challenge after the University of Alberta ordered police to dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment in May 2024, arguing the rights of former students and a faculty member were violated. No ruling has been issued, but for many young Canadian Jews, encampments ushered in a hostile campus climate where students felt marginalized, harassed and coerced to justify their identities, while administrators dithered or struggled to respond, and in some cases, faculty facilitated disruptions.
“Quite the appointment,” responded University of Alberta law student Rachel Cook, who testified to Parliament about her experiences, posting a May 2024 photo of a campus display featuring a swastika, “Death to ZOGs” (“Zionist Occupied Government”, a longstanding neo-Nazi and KKK trope), and tribute to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terrorist organization responsible for aircraft hijackings, massacres, assassination and bombings. Cook said speaking publicly about documented antisemitism “has been seen as a greater risk than the behaviour I’ve worked to draw attention to.” Other council members include retired Olympic speed skater Catriona Le May Doan, who won gold at Nagano and Salt Lake City. Holder of multiple world records, and a three-time Female Athlete of the Year, she retired in 2003, and has worked as a broadcaster, motivational speaker, and community advocate.
An Officer of the Order of Canada, and Canada’s 2022 Beijing Chef de Mission, she has spoken openly about her Christian faith and supported various Christian charities. Martine Roy is an LGBTQ+ rights advocate who was discharged from the Canadian Armed Forces in 1984 because of her sexual orientation during the “LGBT Purge,” when some 9,000 people were followed, interrogated, abused and traumatized in the military, RCMP and federal public service. A leading plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit against the federal government, her efforts helped win a historic settlement and formal apology from Ottawa in 2017.
She was named Member of the Order of Canada in 2023. Dr. Aftab Erfan is an Iranian-born urban planner, scholar and leader in public dialogue and conflict resolution with degrees from the University of British Columbia and McGill.
She served as Vancouver’s first chief equity officer, director of dialogue and conflict engagement at UBC, and executive director of the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. Erfan’s work focuses on community engagement, conflict transformation and difficult conversations on public issues.
Canadian Indigenous leader Gary LaPlante of Moosomin First Nation is known for advancing Indigenous rights, intergovernmental relations and reconciliation. A key player in reconciliation efforts between Stoney Knoll First Nation descendants and Mennonite farmers in Saskatchewan, praised as a model of dialogue and relationship-building, in 2019, he was inducted as a Knight of the Order of Saint George. More community reactions Israel’s Ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, said Carney’s speech was aimed at a Jewish community that feels abandoned.
“We share one thing for sure, that Israel must be part of this story. Attacks dehumanizing and delegitimizing Israel have an impact on how Jews are attacked and you see it more and more. You see more violence.
I think there are more Jewish institutions attacked in Canada than anywhere else around the world. This is alarming.” After Carney’s speech, B’nai Brith Canada CEO Simon Wolle told The CJN’s Ellin Bessner that the “massive elephant in the room” was contemporary antisemitism “hidden in the language of anti-Zionist rhetoric.” Carney never said “anti-Zionism,” despite its centrality in the global hate movement driving the harassment of Canadian Jews, the vast majority of whom — by the most common definition — are Zionists. He said a council that took months to create is “not going to make a Jewish parent feel safer when their kid is walking to school.” Wolle called for action on extremist influences in Canada, notably elements of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Who is in this country, potentially with funding, that are bad actors and undermining the values that Canada stands for? Why are we not addressing these things?” Appointed by former prime minister Brian Mulroney to chair Canada’s Multiculturalism Advisory Council from 1990-1994, Karen Mock told The CJN the new council is a good idea but suffers from structural and communication problems. The former national director of the League for Human Rights said governance is an issue.
“It’s very confusing. When you drill down, it looks as if (Culture and Identity) Minister Marc Miller is chairing or leading this committee. I’ve never heard of an advisory council or advisory committee chaired by a minister.
The advice of the committee is supposed to be given to the minister. Structurally, there’s a problem to start with.” She notes criticisms over lack of specifics and timelines, calling the announcement premature. “The Prime Minister can easily say a mea culpa,” she says, and acknowledge it’s incomplete, “that there is room for improvement and that there can be more members appointed.” In the first part of his speech, “Mark Carney said all the right things.
Except for what was left out. If it was for a Jewish audience primarily, and allies, and not to the whole country, he should have talked a little bit more and been advised by good advisors on how to word and include some of the sources of what is happening.” Toronto-based advocacy group Tafsik said Jewish organizations “embarrassed themselves” by giving Carney a platform and a standing ovation. “It was pathetic,” CEO Amir Epstein told The CJN.
“Either the prime minister is intentionally gaslighting the Jewish community and spitting in our face, or he is being led by a nefarious advisor serving their own agenda.” Not everyone agrees. The Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis lauded Carney’s speech, but added that “harsh criticism of Israel from the Canadian government has too often created a permission structure for antisemitism across Canada.... Critics rightly note that Prime Minister Carney failed to name anti-Israel, anti-Zionist activism as a proximate cause of growing antisemitism in Canada.
The prime minister himself has been hypercritical of Israel in ways that are utilized to justify horrific antisemitism.” Maytal Kowalski, executive director of the progressive Zionist organization JSpaceCanada, said “members of our community are rightfully scared, concerned, and in need of immediate safety and protection. If we want to address the cause rather than merely the symptom, we must confront the deeper resurgence of hate, conspiracism, and polarization in Canada.” Kowalski appreciated Carney’s address “and willingness to engage these difficult realities. Much as we argue in our discussions about Israel, to love a country is to work toward its best self.” Author Joel has spent his entire adult life scribbling.
For two decades, he freelanced for more than a dozen North American and European trade publications, writing on home decor, HR, agriculture, defense technologies and more. Having lived at 14 addresses in and around Greater Montreal, for 17 years he worked as reporter for a local community newspaper, covering the education, political and municipal beats in seven cities and boroughs. He loves to bike, swim, watch NBA and kvetch about politics.
