Canadian Jewish organizations told JNS that questions remain after Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, announced a new national council on Monday to “combat racism and hate in all their forms and to guide the government of Canada as part of our efforts to build a fairer, more just, more inclusive society.”

Speaking at Holy Blossom Temple, a Reform synagogue in Toronto, Carney said that Marc Gold, a former member of the Canadian Senate, will join the council which will address Jew-hatred as its “first responsibility.” The prime minister called antisemitism a “scourge.”

Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada, told JNS that the speech was “a missed opportunity.”

The Jewish organization was hoping for an “announcement of true tactical changes that could positively show the lived experience of Jewish Canadians,” Robertson said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get that today.”

Carney’s recognition that Jew-hatred is a problem is “critical,” according to Robertson. But government systems “have failed us, and we require that they be fixed with urgency,” he told JNS.

B’nai Brith Canada has proposed eight actions items that the government can take to address the “national crisis” of Jew-hatred, according to Robertson.

“It was lots of rhetoric,” Robertson told JNS, of the prime minister’s speech. “One naturally has to question whether or not this council has the expertise and the ability to undertake what the prime minister said would be its priorities related to antisemitism.”

In April, B’nai Brith said that it recorded the most incidents of Jew-hatred in Canada in 2025 since it began tracking such numbers in 1982.

Carney said that Marc Miller, Canadian minister of identity and culture, will chair the new ministerial advisory council on rights, equality and inclusion.

The council will assess the “nature, the scale and the drivers” of antisemitism in Canada, coordinate a “whole-of-government approach,” monitor compliance at federal agencies and community initiatives, improve data collection on hate incidents and measure the impact of the government’s efforts, Carney said.

The measures are not “curtailments of freedom of expression,” the prime minister said. “They are not constraints on legitimate criticism of any government on any subject, anywhere.”

“Antisemitism has surged to levels not seen in the post-war period,” he said. “Last year, over two-thirds of all religion motivated hate crimes were directed to Jewish Canadians who make up only 1% of the population.”

The prime minister cited firebombs thrown at synagogues, students driven out of universities, attacks on Jewish-owned businesses and the desecration of a Holocaust memorial.

His government has been acting to protect Canadian citizens with six new pieces of legislation to address public safety and combat antisemitism and hatred, including the Combating Hate Act, which “significantly strengthens the criminal code by creating new offenses for intimidation and obstruction” at Jewish institutions, Carney said.

He also cited more $75 million in government-issued funds to protect Jewish institutions.

Melissa Lantsman, a member of the Canadian Parliament and deputy leader of the Conservative Party, stated that “Carney spoke at a synagogue about antisemitism three years into a documented crisis.”

“Gunshots into schools. Firebombs into businesses. Effigies of Jews hung in the streets. Full incitement of hatred against Canadians, weekly, in their own neighborhoods,” she stated. “Terrorists free to roam in our country, funding antisemitism in our institutions. A complete failure to enforce the most basic laws against a lawless mob.”

“Here are his ‘actions’: reviewing previous reviews. Studying studies. A new council, chaired by the government, tasked with assessing the government’s response to a crisis the government itself presided over, funded and fueled for years,” she wrote.

“’Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians’ is an extraordinary admission,” she stated. “It should have been followed by concrete actions and concrete consequences for those doing the failing. Didn’t happen.”

“Tonight, the prime minister showed you that he thinks you are stupid,” she added.

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