The Canada affiliate of B’nai Brith has complained to the City of Toronto over the municipality’s decision to fly a PLO flag on City Hall on Monday, the group said on Thursday.

“Our complaint outlines clear violations of the City’s Flag-Raising Protocol and details how the decision to proceed with the event failed the Jewish community,” wrote B’nai B’rith Canada in a statement. “The City must correct this error, review how approval was granted, and amend its procedures to prevent a similar occurrence.”

The flying of the flag marked the anniversary of the PLO’s 1988 declaration of “Palestinian independence,” during the First Intifada. The PLO, or Palestinian Liberation Organization, was then a designated terrorist entity in Canada, B’nai Brith Canada noted.

Toronto city officials have defended flying the PLO flag, noting that the city’s official protocol says that, “The manner in which flags may be displayed in Canada is not governed by legislation, but rather by established practice which the City of Toronto also observes.”

B’nai B’rith Canada had protested the plan to fly the PLO flag on City Hall in advance, the statement noted. In September, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia announced formal recognition of a “State of Palestine” despite objections by Israel, the United States and mainstream Jewish community representatives in the recognizing countries.

“We formally notified the City of Toronto’s Chief of Protocol and External Relations that the event contravened the City’s Flag-Raising Protocol and demanded its cancellation,” they wrote. “We made clear that recognizing this anniversary would lend legitimacy to a history of terrorism and extremist violence and heighten fear within the Jewish community.”

Jewish residents in Toronto “are already facing unprecedented levels of harassment, threats, vandalism and intimidation. Allowing this event to proceed signalled disregard for that reality and disregard for the City’s own Flag-Raising Protocol,” the statement continued.

B’nai Brith Canada’s 2024 audit of antisemitic incidents documented an all-time record high of 6,219 cases, with a 58% increase in the “in-person” harassment category.

A report on antisemitism in 2025 published in May 2025 by Israel’s Ministry for Combating Antisemitism and Diaspora Affairs, stated that last year, Jew-hatred in Canada “escalated dramatically compared to previous years, affecting multiple dimensions of Jewish community life.”

These phenomena, the ministry’s report said, “occur alongside a significant increase in government funding for organizations operating against Israel, and parallel to a sense of helplessness from authorities in addressing the threats.”

In 2024, Canada “earned the dubious title of ‘champion of anti-Semitism’ with a more than 7.5-fold jump in antisemitic incidents in the past year,” said a statement that accompanied the report.

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