Independent Jewish Voices, Jewish Faculty Network, and United Jewish People’s Order Canada cautiously welcome the announcement of Canada’s new Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion. We expect this new body to address antisemitism through a broader anti-racist lens, rather than in ways that entrench or contribute to other forms of discrimination, notably anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia.  We were alarmed to learn that the now former Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia was not consulted prior...

Israel has brazenly barred a Canadian parliamentary delegation—including six Members of Parliament—from entering the occupied West Bank. This obstruction confirms exactly what we know about Israel’s apartheid rule over the territory: it is a brutal regime of military domination, suffocating restrictions, and collective punishment. It treats Palestinians as a captive population to be hidden from international scrutiny while paving the way for total annexation. It is an intolerable humiliation that five of the blocked MPs...

Although a ceasefire has brought some respite from killing and destruction in Gaza, true peace remains a distant and ever-elusive hope so long as the brutal and illegal occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel continues, and so long as the long-term and undisguised aim of Zionism remains an ethno-supremacist state under Jewish dominance from the river to the sea. Tragically, this project is supported by many misguided organizations claiming to speak on behalf of Canada's Jewish community,...

A letter from IJV's National Coordinator, Corey Balsam To our community, In a few hours, I’ll walk into the Senate to testify before the Human Rights Committee on antisemitism. I’m here with Rabbi David Mivasair and racial justice scholar Joshua Sealy-Harrington. Together, we’re making sure the voices of genuine anti-racists are finally heard in Parliament. This moment didn’t happen by chance. For years, Zionist lobby groups like CIJA have tried to silence Jewish voices like...

The Canadian federal government’s Bill C-9, the “Combatting Hate Act” is a dangerous bill that could be used to protect hate in Canada, not fight against it. The legislation criminalizes protests against activities happening within certain buildings, regardless of the nature of the activity itself. This means if hateful views or events are being hosted in synagogues, churches, or mosques, people cannot protest them without risk of a prison sentence. This protection is also offered...

We welcome the news of a ceasefire agreement with cautious hope. The safety and preservation of Palestinian life is our foremost concern. Any agreement that will bring an immediate end to this genocide, the bombing and starvation, is cause for hope and relief. For two years, Palestinians have endured a genocide conducted in full view of the entire world with no accountability or consequences for the engineers of this atrocity. We have seen Israel break ceasefire...