Canada Nixes Office to Combat Antisemitism • Jewish Breaking News

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Wednesday a plan to replace the office of the special envoy to combat antisemitism and preserve Holocaust remembrance with a new “rights, equality and inclusion” council.

Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had appointed Deborah Lyons, former Canadian ambassador to Israel, to the position of special envoy in October 2023. But Lyons stepped down early, before finishing her term.

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Lyons, who is herself not Jewish, said she accepted the position to model good allyship, but found that the job tore at her “physically and emotionally.”

“I’ve been really quite amazed and often become quite despondent and despairing about the fact that it was hard to get people to speak up, to speak with clarity, to speak with conviction about what we were seeing happening here on Canadian soil,” she said in an interview.

When she stepped down from her post, she said she did so “with a heavy heart.”

“A position that I loved dearly but brought forth so many challenges, some deep disappointments, but in the end, some real achievements which I know will sustain the Jewish community and Canada in years to come,” she said.

After the former ambassador resigned, Carney did not fill the position, leaving it vacant until now.

The Canadian government said in a statement that the new council “will be comprised of prominent Canadians from academia as well as experts and community leaders, with a mission to foster social cohesion, rally Canadians around shared identity, combat racism and hate in all their forms and help guide the efforts of the government of Canada.”

The council will also be involved in “consulting and partnering with communities from coast to coast to build bridges between communities and combat all forms of racism and hate, including antisemitism and Islamophobia,” the government said.

The CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, Sacha Roytman, said he had been proud to work with Lyons and blasted Carney for his decision to replace the position with a new council.

“In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 massacre, Canadians woke up to the stark reality that antisemitism was surging uncontrollably, both across the globe and throughout Canada itself,” he said.

“It is bad enough that the last occupant of the office, Deborah Lyons, felt the moral obligation to resign last July,” he added, “but Prime Minister Mark Carney’s disastrous decision today to eliminate the position altogether marked a shameful choice to double down on weak leadership, showing that Canada’s government is sadly not up to the task at this critical moment.”

Since Carney is unwilling to fight Jew-hatred, “then CAM and our Canadian partners will,” he said. “We are now working to establish a Canadian branch and plan to soon host the first-ever Canadian Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism.”

“Before then, we hope that Prime Minister Carney does what is right and changes course immediately,” he concluded.

B’nai Brith’s Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy, also issued a statement, warning that the government must take care not to “compromise its own efforts to combat antisemitism.”

He said the government took this decision shortly after B’nai Brith had requested a royal commission of inquiry on Jew-hatred from Parliament.