There were fewer travellers flying from Canada to the United States this April compared to last year, while most of the major Canadian airports exceeded their pre-COVID numbers.

A new

report by Statistics Canada

released on Monday revealed more about the recent habits of those flying in and out of Canadian airports in April. It appears that the tension between Canada and the U.S. — amid an

ongoing trade war,
new travel policies

and repeated

calls for Canada to become the 51st state

— has had a lasting effect.

In April, two million passengers decided to travel by air within Canada. That number refers to Canadians and non-Canadian residents who passed through pre-board security screening at airport checkpoints. That was a nearly 7.5 per cent increase since last April. It even surpassed the amount of people who travelled domestically in April 2019, before the COVID pandemic.

Rather than flying to the U.S., 1.4 million passengers sought out international trips this April. That was an increase of seven per cent since the same time last year — and a 19 per cent increase since before the pandemic.

When it came to taking a trip to the United States,

travel south of the Canadian border continued on a downward trend

.

There were 1.1 million passengers who opted to fly to the U.S. in April. That was nearly 6 per cent less than the amount of travellers last year and “the third consecutive month of year-over-year decreases,” according to Statistics Canada. It was also a 12.5 per cent decrease since April 2019.

Travel to and from the U.S. is mostly concentrated at Canada’s four largest airports in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. When combined, they represent more than 90 per cent of traffic across the border, per Statistics Canada.

In April, for a third straight month, those airports “recorded year-over-year decreases in screened passenger counts for flights to the United States.” At Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International airport, there was a drop of 5.3 per cent of such travellers and at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International airport, a drop of 10.1 per cent.

At Vancouver’s international airport, that number fell by 7.6 per cent, and in Calgary, by 1.6 per cent.

However, there was still a surge of passengers travelling through eight of the largest airports in Canada this April. A total of 4.5 million of them went to airports in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Edmonton. That number was nearly four per cent higher than last year and nearly two per cent higher than in April 2019.

Six of the eight major airports surpassed their April 2019 volumes of screened passenger traffic in April 2025. Only the Edmonton and Ottawa airports recorded a lower volume.

Statistics Canada pointed out that Easter, which is a busy travel time, was in April in both 2025 and 2019, whereas last year it was in March.

• Here’s how many Americans came to Canada this April compared to last year
• ‘Best meeting we’ve had in 10 years’: Carney, premiers united on nation-building projects

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

OTTAWA — The Liberals downplayed a vote on the throne speech they narrowly lost Monday evening to all the opposition parties which urges the government to present an economic update or a budget before the House of Commons rises for the summer on June 20.

The sub-amendment, brought forward by Conservative interim leader Andrew Scheer, called for a “firm commitment” to present a fiscal overview of the country’s finances this spring “that incorporates measures aimed at unleashing Canada’s economic potential.”

It was adopted Monday by 166 votes — comprised of the Conservatives, the Bloc Québécois, the NDP and Green Party’s Elizabeth May — against 164 Liberal votes.

It is, however, a non-binding vote, meaning that the government is under no obligation to present a spring economic update or a budget. But the vote in this new minority Parliament showed how opposition parties can aspire to go up against the government and its razor-thin margin in the House.

Mark Gerretsen, the chief government whip who is responsible for ensuring that Liberal MPs attend and vote in the way the party desires, insisted nothing went wrong.

“We knew the outcome of what that vote was going to be,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Gerretsen said Liberals have 169 MPs, one of whom is the House Speaker, and four MPs did not vote because of “paired abstentions.” Those happen when parties agree to have a member sit out a vote because someone from another party is not able to attend.

“Every single person that was supposed to vote yesterday voted,” he said.

Justice Minister Sean Fraser admitted the government is in “new territory” with its minority mandate and parties can sway things on any given vote with very thin margins.

“I try not to bake feelings into these things. They’re math challenges, not problems with feelings. But we have to make sure that we do the work necessary to try to collaborate with parties across the aisle in order to implement the mandate that Canadians have given us.”

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said last month

there would be no federal budget in the spring

, but a fall economic statement. Shortly after, Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government would present a budget during the fall session instead.

“We will have a much more comprehensive, effective, ambitious, prudent budget in the fall,” he said during a media availability in Rome, where he was to commemorate Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass. “You do these things right and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Carney added “there’s not much value in trying to rush through a budget in a very narrow window” given that the spring session was set to last four weeks. He also noted the trade war and defence commitments are bound to change the government’s numbers.

The decision to not table a spring budget has sparked criticism amongst opposition parties, who said they are left in the dark on the country’s current fiscal situation.

The government tabled a fall economic update last December that showed finances were in a worse state than expected, but the exercise was overshadowed by

Chrystia Freeland’s sudden and dramatic resignation

as finance minister hours before it was tabled.

Government House leader Steven MacKinnon noted that Monday’s vote to attempt to force the government to table a spring economic update or a budget is non-binding and said he suspects MPs are “going to see a lot more” of those resolutions.

MacKinnon said the real test for the government would come during the vote for the actual throne speech — which is a confidence vote — expected to happen Wednesday evening.

National Post,

with a file from the Canadian Press

calevesque@postmedia.com

Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.

In a black outer robe trimmed with a thin golden line and a traditional white turban, Imam Mohammad Tawhidi warmly greeted and welcomed guests to a hall on the second floor of a modest two-storey building in Toronto, even personally escorting some to their seats. The occasion

,

on March 31, was an Eid reception to mark the end of Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month of fasting and prayer, and it was the first such reception of the

Global Imams Council

’s new western headquarters in Canada.

The charismatic Tawhidi serves as a governing member of the council, comprised of faith leaders and scholars of all Islamic sects. The group advocates against Islamic extremism and promotes peaceful and meaningful relations with Jewish people and the Jewish nation.

Inside, the room buzzed with diversity, as community leaders, activists and even Jewish rabbis came to hear Tawhidi’s powerful speech calling for peace and unity among all faiths. Widely known as the “Imam of Peace,” Tawhidi was born in Qom, a religious city in Iran, but his parents are from Iraq. The cleric later fled the regime of Saddam Hussein and eventually settled in Australia. Coming from a long line of Shia clerics, he proudly says, “We are Shia Orthodox — orthodox in our beliefs and conservative in our traditions.”

Educated in Islamic studies, Tawhidi is pursuing a doctorate in Islamic jurisprudence. He was ordained as an imam in Qom, Iran, in 2010, and again in Iraq in 2013.

Unlike other Muslim imams, Tawhidi has sat with Jewish rabbis in synagogues, and Christian priests in churches. He has publicly denounced groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, calling them terrorist organizations. He says Jerusalem rightfully belongs to the Jewish people, which earned him praise from interfaith advocates around the world, and threats from extremist Muslims.

National Post sat with Tawihidi to learn more about his views. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why are you known as the Imam of Peace?

Why not? That’s my question. Why not? In fact, every imam should be an imam of peace, not just me.

An imam is someone who represents the teachings of God, the wishes of God, and everything that comes down from God should be (about) peace, and what revolves around peace and what helps us reach either inner peace or social harmony, to make our lives better, not to turn our lives into misery, right?

So, anyone who says (they) represent anything to do with religion and God should be a representative of nothing but peace and positivity. So why not?

But the reasons for the name are multiple. Initially, I was referred to as an Imam of Peace in Australia. Why? Because putting me in a box was very necessary, at least for the Western world. I didn’t fit with the fundamentalists, and I didn’t fit with the extremists, and I didn’t fit with the traditionalists, and I didn’t fit with the political Islamists. So, I found myself in my own corner with my own followers and friends, and so I adopted the name. It helped me greatly in identifying myself. It’s a question of who is this guy and what does he do?

In the Middle East, people know where you stand either by knowing your tribal positions, or they know which school of thought you associate with, or they know your teachers, so they can put you in a box. But in the West, they don’t know. They see a guy with a turban and a beard — is he good? Is he safe? What’s the deal? And someone with a message like me, who is an imam and a preacher, it’s important for me to make it easier for them to understand because I am in their society. They’re not in my society. I’m in the West. So, I’m speaking to an audience that is both Muslim and Western, and I’m speaking in their language, and they have the right to know who’s talking about their affairs and issues in society, providing advice and so on. It helps everyone that I identify myself proudly as what I stand for. In my social media profiles, I describe myself with two words: peace advocate. (Those) two words explain exactly who I am.

What is the Global Imams Council (GIC)? What are you doing with your colleagues as a governing member?

The Global Imams Council is a council of Sunni and Shia Muslim clerics, imams, jurists, some of them are diplomats, representing all Muslim schools of thought, sects and denominations with no discrimination. We are a very, very diverse council, and the only one of its kind in the world. There are Sunni councils and there are Shia councils and there are Sufi councils. We are the only imam council in the world that is international and embracing of all Muslims. This, in itself, is a huge achievement.

We represent Islam and Muslims through the organizations, schools and institutes that our imams have and run, and the pulpits they have, and through our affiliations with the seminaries and grand muftis around the world, and the grand Ayatollahs who are aligned with our view of peace.

Why did GIC move its Western headquarters to Toronto?

Firstly, as a global council, you need to maintain your global presence. And in the West, the city that has one of the largest numbers of diplomatic corps and diplomatic missions in the world is Toronto. Through Toronto, we have been successful in engaging multiple countries over the last two years, starting with Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Georgia; and in the future, we’re talking to Azerbaijan and other countries. Also, some Muslim groups, Muslim schools of thought, and their leaders all begin from Toronto.

I am also married to a Canadian, and I have a Canadian daughter. I have been active in Toronto since 2018 and got married in Canada in 2022.

You have attracted criticism from a number of corners. For example, you said Jerusalem is a land for Jews and were labelled a pro-Israel imam. You have also been called “far right” and other things. What is your response to that?

I have not said anything. God said Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. In the Holy Qur’an, Chapter Five, Verse 20 onwards, God tells Moses to take his people into the Holy Land and to never leave. So, who are the people of Moses? The people who follow the Torah, who are Jews, the nation of Moses. That’s God’s wish.

I don’t care if they went or they didn’t go; that’s not my concern. My concern is God’s wishes. That is what God wants. This is a land title for where the Jews should exist on this Earth. I am not pro-Israel. I’m not a politician. I am pro-Qur’an. I am pro

my

Qur’an. I am pro the wishes of my God. This is a very different distinction, and I do not care a single bit about political narratives. I only care about what is in my Qur’an. That is my constitution in life.

God doesn’t care about human politics or useless arguments between humans. God cares about what he ordered us to do and if we abided by it or not. That’s what I believe. On the Day of Judgment, God is not going to ask me about any political view. He’s going to ask me how did I receive his book and what did I do with it? So, I am a defender of God’s book.

If the Jewish people were claiming Mecca is theirs, it would be a different argument. But they’re not. They’re claiming what God gave them, and the land title is in my book, so how can I refuse it? So, I did not say anything from myself. I am quoting the Qur’an, and I’m allowed to quote the Qur’an.

When it comes to “far right,” I am not far right. I did not even know what the term “far right” meant until 2015. I grew up in a Muslim society, largely speaking Arabic, and I went to a Muslim private school. I lived in the Middle East for most of my teenage years, and I studied in the Middle East. The first time I heard the term “far right” was when Donald Trump was running for office in 2015, and the headlines were saying, “far right,” “far right.”

I did not know anything about left wing and right wing in the West. To me, the West was of two categories: the Westerners who liked us and our Prophet, and the Westerners who hated us and our Prophet. That’s how we understood it, that’s how we were raised in Muslim private schools in Australia. We didn’t get into political terminologies — leftists and socialism and the right and capitalism. This is very foreign to us, but we became accustomed to these terminologies after 2015 because of the news and headlines.

So, I don’t have an ideology that is political. I have an Islamic ideology. My belief system is Islamic. It’s not political Islam. It’s purely Islamic. I cannot be right wing or left wing, because I put my religion first. I have a quote about this. I say, “Listen, I’m not left wing or right wing. I am human wing.”

And if you really come down to my views on things, you will find that I have a lot in common with people who are in the centre. I believe in family values. I also believe in lower taxes. I’m an immigrant, right? So, I cannot be anti-immigration. The real issue is who I am now, the person I am. I have to be accessible, and I have to engage people of all backgrounds, because my message is universal.

As an imam, you’re visiting synagogues, churches, you’re meeting with rabbis. Isn’t that quite rare among Muslims?

Do you vote green? Red? Blue? I don’t ask. I go and I sit with the Jews, and I sit with the Christians, and we don’t even speak politics. We only speak about peace and interfaith and what is common between us. We don’t engage in cheap talk. Political talk is cheap talk. It changes, and we cannot measure our friendships based on political positions, right? But there are some exceptions. For example, we must all agree that Hamas is a political entity and should be destroyed. Hezbollah is a political party, and the militia to the political party must be destroyed.

These are views on political organizations that we care about. We care about where people stand when it comes to these Islamist Muslim Brotherhood extremist organizations, right? I’m not interested in arguing about things that change. No, I’m only interested in discussing what concerns the principles that cannot be violated.

Health care and taxes and wage gaps — these things will always be in the political sphere, discussed and argued and written about. These are harmless topics. But there are principles one should never violate. Hamas is a terrorist organization. The

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

is a terrorist organization. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, and this is what I ensure is common between us and whoever we sit with. Otherwise, we don’t sit with them. We don’t sit with anyone who disagrees that Hamas is a terrorist organization. This is as political as we go. We don’t have any other politics or political views.

Thanks for inviting me to the opening of GIC. I listened to your speech about fighting extremism. How closely are you working with communities here?

Firstly, what we are doing is we are representing Muslims in a professional way that has never been done before. We are doing so through Parliamentarians, through the media, through provincial governments, through meetings with the federal government, with the police. And we’re also representing the Muslim diaspora in Canada while having our activities in the Middle East. So, we explain to Muslim leaders in the Middle East — jurists and grand muftis — the situations and challenges and needs of the Muslim community in the West.

Secondly, we are making sure — and this is very important — that the extremists are not the only voices representing the Muslim community, because in a democracy you cannot silence people. They will always have the right to freedom of speech and belief and expression, but the extremist should never be the only voice that represents Islam and the Muslim community.

Thirdly, we are actually working on projects that are needed in the Muslim community. We are working on an education curriculum that revolves around a culture of peace that is in line with the Abraham Accords (agreements between Israel and several Arab nations to foster mutual understanding and co-operation) and the teachings that make the Abraham Accords a real, lived reality in Canada.

The Abraham Accords

mirror the values of Canada. What are Canadian values? Harmony, peace, coexistence, bridge-building, interfaith, multiculturalism, diversity, acceptance of one another. All these values are literally what formed the Abraham Accords. So, it’s very important to make that link with the Muslim world that is shifting and changing toward peace and harmony. The GIC in Canada is translating that into a Canadian context for the Muslim community and the broader, tolerant Canadian majority.

• A Muslim in Israel: I was taught Jews unjustly took this land. I found acceptance
• Avi Benlolo: The Jewish community is under attack — will you stand with us?

A complaint filed against the Canadian Association of Professional Employees union president Nathan Prier on Monday argues he used social media to “harass, slander, and defame Jewish CAPE members,” according to a document obtained by National Post.

The complaint filed with the union by member Jackie Luffman says that Prier made a “sockpuppet account” on Reddit, which publicly presents as a third-party account but is actually manipulated by the user to rally support for their own posts.

In April, Prier shared an article on the “CanadaPublicServants” community in which he was quoted speaking about the need for unions to divest from Tesla. Reddit moderators identified Prier — a federal economist with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada — after they were alerted to suspicious behaviour in the forum, pinning a note to the post explaining that his fake account was “deleted after Mr. Prier was challenged on his deception.”

Prier confirmed to National Post the anonymous account was his.

• Opinion: Us, them and we — Canada’s fight to end antisemitism
• New survey finds people holding very negative opinions of Israel are more likely to be antisemitic

Luffman’s complaint details dozens of controversial statements Prier is said to have made about Jews and Israel on the anonymous account. According to the complaint, most of the comments were posted on CAPE’s unofficial Reddit page — “USS_CAPE” — home to nearly 80,000 users, during back-and-forth debates on the channel with other union members in late 2024. The complaint says many of his posts are speckled with references to “Zios,” a phrase used by anti-Zionists to describe Zionists.

“Your points are all correct but stop wasting energy explaining this to zios,” Prier reassures one user in a debate about the conflict between Israel and Hamas in November 2024, “they stand proudly with a rape and torture state, and despite their fake tears about their bastardized version of racism and discrimination, they’re not worth the effort.”

“Zios trying to weaponize DEI language to shill for a rape and torture state is very funny btw,” he wrote a few days later. The following day, he responded to one pro-Israel user: “I’ll say Jim Crow Jewish supremacists from now on, which more accurately describes you.”

On the anonymous account, Prier shares his views that CAPE should play a defining role in global affairs. During a discussion, he writes, “It’s time for the international community to civilize Israel and unions can play a role like they did in ending South African apartheid or in forcing Truth and Reconciliation for the Canadian genocide.”

“Oh and people don’t find your racial supremacy cute or inspiring, you Jim Crow hacks,” he responds to one user a minute later.

Prier argues against the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. The non-legally binding definition deems comparing Jews or Israel to the Nazis and classic tropes of Jewish control of finance as antisemitic.

“Gaza is like the Warsaw Ghetto (there I’ve violated IHRA),” he writes, taking aim at the definition adopted by dozens of countries, the federal government and several provinces.

Asked for comment, Prier wrote a short statement to the Post acknowledging the now-deleted account was operated by him.

“What’s happening in Israel and Palestine is a deeply emotional issue for many people, including me,” Prier wrote, adding he’s “always been clear that I believe in justice for Palestinians and fighting antisemitism. I support a peaceful resolution to the war in Gaza.”

“My comments on Reddit were posted to a personal account and reflect my personal beliefs. I was not speaking as the President of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees.”

Laura Gauthier, the senior communications adviser of CAPE, said the union would not comment on internal matters involving members or staff.

“All complaints are handled in accordance with applicable laws and internal policies, which are designed to ensure confidentiality and fairness,” she said in a note to the Post.

Luffman’s complaint argues that Prier’s conduct violated CAPE’s Code of Ethics for Elected or Appointed Officers, specifically bylaws pertaining to harassment and slander. She is calling for Prier’s resignation, because his “statements exemplify a distorted and racist view of Jews and the national movement with which the vast majority of them in Canada identify.”

She denounced Prier’s language as “horribly vile,” writing he “denies legitimacy to the Jewish people, uses derogatory language to depict Jews as supremacists, echoes tropes of Jewish control or dominance, makes comparisons of Jews confined in the Warsaw Ghetto to Israeli policy, and crosses the line from critique to vilification.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) echoed Luffman’s call, telling the Post the organization lacked confidence in Prier’s leadership to represent CAPE’s diverse constituency fairly.

“The use of antisemitic tropes and hostile language by Nathan Prier raises serious questions about fitness to represent a diverse union membership and alignment with the Public Service Code of Values and Ethics,” CIJA general counsel Richard Marceau wrote the Post.

“The fact that he is using a hidden identity speaks to (a) lack of transparency at a minimum, but also to a completely unacceptable level of dishonesty for someone in such an important position. In brief, if accountability has any meaning, Nathan Prier should resign from his position.”

Luffman remains hopeful her complaint will trigger an external investigation, but sees Prier’s behaviour as part of a troubling pattern within CAPE, the country’s third-largest federal public service union representing over 20,000 members. In November 2023, Prier’s predecessor, Camille Awada,

resigned after anti-Israel social media posts

he allegedly made years earlier began circulating among union members.

“The European Zionists are the true Aryan race. They look down at the world as if we are cattle. Israel is the illegitimate Zionist terrorist apartheid state that is the root of all evil!” Awada reportedly wrote on Facebook in January 2019. A few days earlier, he reportedly referred to Israel as that “illegitimate Zionist lunatic terrorist apartheid state.”

Luffman received confirmation that her complaint was registered on Wednesday, but said in a brief written comment she did not wish to weigh in on the story as the investigation unfolds.

“I have faith in the process and look forward to receiving the report from the third-party investigator,” she maintained.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Before launching his music career earlier this year, Xav Trudeau, the oldest son of former prime minister Justin Trudeau, flew mostly under the public’s radar.

But with three tracks already released and piling up plays — his debut,

Til the Nights Done

, just eclipsed 100,000 on Spotify and 170,000 on YouTube — Xav is starting to come to their attention.

The feedback is not always positive, however.

“When I started releasing music… I get so much hate on social media just because of who my dad is,” the 17-year-old R&B singer-rapper admitted during a broad interview on Toronto-based entertainment podcast

The Brandon Gonez Show.

“If you don’t like the music, just keep scrolling. You can comment if you want, it’s only going to help my algorithm.”

Having grown from a little boy to a young man during his father’s three terms in office, Xav said he’s well acquainted with the negativity that has followed his family, but he’s developed the ability to block it all out.

He also tried to set the record straight on future political ambitions.

“I’ve seen like what my dad has had to do and what he’s had to sacrifice, and it’s not really worth it for me,” he said, broaching the subject himself. “He’s done well, it’s just it’s not my thing.”

Gonez pointed out that a young Trudeau once said something similar when asked if he would follow in the footsteps of his father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

In a 1995 interview with CTV News, a 23-year-old Trudeau said it would “never” happen. He was elected as a member of parliament for Quebec 13 years later.

Xav is set to graduate from high school this year and told Gonez he plans to attend McGill University in Montreal in the fall.

The school is one of Justin Trudeau’s alma maters, and the city is home to the federal riding of Papineau, which he held for almost 18 years. It’s also the hometown of Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, Xav’s mother, and his late prime ministerial grandfather.

“Montreal is like home to me,” he said.

Xav said he hopes to release a full album before classes start in the fall.

• Trudeau says he doesn’t ‘have social media’ when son asks why he hasn’t watched one of his music videos
• Watch: Justin Trudeau’s son Xav released his first RnB single — ‘Til The Nights Done’

 

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

In the wake of another antisemitic attack in the U.S., organizations representing the Canadian Jewish community condemned the incident and renewed their call for governments to take concrete steps to prevent more like it.

On Sunday in Boulder, Colo., eight people were injured, some with serious burns, when 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman allegedly used Molotov cocktails and an improvised flamethrower on a small group of people assembled to raise attention for the remaining 58 Israeli hostages in Gaza.

He reportedly yelled “Free Palestine” as he did so.

Soliman has since been charged with federal hate crime and other charges, and the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism.

Abraham Global Peace Initiative CEO and founder Avi Benlolo said he was saddened by the incident but “not surprised.”

It’s the byproduct, he said, of demonstrators becoming “much more hostile, much more desperate” in an effort to seek attention. And he thinks it’s only going to escalate.

“I think we’re going to see more Colorados,” he told National Post Monday.

In a post to X, B’nai Brith Canada called it “a cowardly act of hate-filled violence” and suggested this and other recent antisemitic attacks “are emblematic of what happens when radical extremism is allowed to flourish and when hatred is incited without consequence.”

B’nai Brith Canada stands in solidarity with the Jewish community in Boulder, Colorado. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack.
Targeting a group that was peacefully gathered to call for the release of the hostages is a cowardly act of hate filled…

— B’nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) June 1, 2025

Less than two weeks ago in Washington, D.C., two Israeli Embassy staff members — Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26 — were shot and killed by a gunman who later yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested.

Hamas’s infiltration of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — during which 1,195 people were killed and 251 more were taken hostage — and the Israeli military’s response have led to a wave of antisemitic attacks in Western countries, including Canada.

And while there haven’t been any hate crimes resulting in the deaths of Jewish people in Canada, there has been a marked increase in other offences in the 19 months since hostilities began with the terrorist group in Gaza.

In 2023, of the 1,284 hate crimes targeting a religion — a jump of 67 per cent from 2022 — 900 were against Jewish people, that’s over 70 per cent of all hate crimes and a 71 per cent increase over the previous year, according to

Statistics Canada police-reported hate crime data.

There were more than four times as many antisemitic hate crimes as the second-most targeted religious minority, Muslims.

In Toronto, antisemitic hate crime spiked 76 per cent in 2023 over the year prior, with almost 68 of the 146 occurring after October, according to the

Toronto Police public safety data portal.

That figure climbed 20.5 per cent in 2024 with 176 reported hate crimes targeting Jewish people, which represented 81 per cent of all religion bias hate offences.

That includes

three shootings at Bais Chaya Mushka

Elementary School in North York — which was unoccupied at the time — and vandalism at the

Kehillat Shaarei Torah synagogue

, among other unpublicized incidents.

In response to the attack in Colorado, Toronto police said Monday officers would maintain a heightened presence around places of worship, community centres, schools and other faith-based locations as they have since the Washington attack.

Meanwhile, in Vancouver, police data from December 2022 to December 2023 showed

a 62 per cent increase in antisemitism

, while officials in Montreal accounted for 212 in the calendar year following Oct. 7, 131 of which were reported before January 2024,

The Canadian Jewish News reported.

In March, the city’s Congregation Beth Tikvah was

hit with a firebomb

just over a year after being damaged in a similar attack that included a fire at a nearby Federation CJA building.

Benlolo conceded the attacks on both sides of the border are adding to unease felt by Canadian Jews, but he said “mobs of people” more radicalized than their southern counterparts partaking in extremist activism is a clear and present danger.

“If you’re in Florida, as an example, you’ll never see these kinds of rallies and obstruction of Jewish events. The authorities and, basically, the community just won’t allow it,” he said, comparing the sometimes violent anti-Israel demonstrations to those seen in Germany before the Nazis rose to power.

“They are marching through Jewish neighbourhoods. They are obstructing Jewish businesses. They are trying to shut down events. They’re calling venues and trying to shut them down. So, there is a complete and utter obstruction of daily life if you are a Jewish person. It feels like we’re back in the 1930s.”

He said Ottawa needs to start taking antisemitism more seriously as a threat in Canada. As it stands, he said Jewish people feel abandoned by the federal government.

“And that’s been leading to us feeling now, and that feeling is growing, that there is tacit approval, particularly by this incoming government, that we haven’t seen the condemnations that you would think, and the action taken that you would think,” Benlolo said.

“Sadly, it feels like a political decision by the government.”

While Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken a critical stance on Israel’s war efforts, he

condemned the Washington shootings on

X, at which time he also reiterated a campaign promise “to introduce legislation to make it a criminal offence to intentionally and wilfully obstruct access to any place of worship, schools, and community centres; and a criminal offence to wilfully intimidate or threaten those attending services at these locations.”

B’Nai Brith and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs also called for action in separate posts to X.

“We call upon Canadian leaders to confront the extremism and incitement compromising the vitality of our society and to take immediate action to ensure the well-being of all Canadians,”

CJIA posted.

“Anti-Israel and anti-Jewish radicalization is a growing threat in North America that demands a forceful response from authorities,”

B’Nai Brith wrote.

“We need decisive action to protect our community and all Canadians.”

National Post, with files from the Canadian Press and the Associated Press

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s legislation to fast-track projects deemed in the national interest is expected to be tabled in the House of Commons in a matter of days but is already facing some resistance from the Assembly of First Nations.

In a letter to Carney dated May 30, AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak wrote that the proposed bill, in its current form, “suggests a serious threat to First Nations exercise of Treaty rights, inherent rights, title and jurisdiction.”

Woodhouse Nepinak insisted First Nations’ “free, prior and informed consent” must be obtained before any major infrastructure and energy projects move ahead.

“Otherwise, this legislation like so many before it, will become (mired) in conflict and protracted litigation, because First Nations rights have once again been ignored,” she wrote in an apparent warning to the newly elected prime minister.

Woodhouse Nepinak was asked to weigh in on the proposed legislation by senior officials of the Privy Council Office (PCO), who sent her a letter dated May 23.

“Now more than ever, the future of Canada’s economy depends on a collaborative and coordinated approach among federal, provincial, territorial and Indigenous governments,” wrote Christiane Fox, deputy clerk, and Mollie Johnson, deputy secretary to the cabinet.

Carney

held a first ministers’ meeting in Saskatoon on Monday

to discuss plans to knock down provincial trade barriers and fast-track national projects. He

also met with oil and gas executives

, as well as Indigenous leaders, over the weekend about those plans.

Fox and Johnson said the “One Canadian Economy” legislation is expected to be tabled in early June. It will not only include a framework to remove federal barriers to internal trade but provide faster regulatory approval for projects through a new office for major projects.

According to last week’s speech from the throne, the government expects the time needed to approve projects to be reduced from five years to two through the creation of this new office, all while upholding Canada’s “Constitutional obligations to Indigenous peoples.”

The government also vowed to strike co-operation agreements “with every interested province and territory within six months to realize its goal of ‘one project, one review.’”

In their letter, the senior PCO officials asked Woodhouse Nepinak to provide the AFN’s comments by May 30, which she did.

“We understand the timelines are accelerated, but immediate cooperation is required to secure our national interests,” wrote Fox and Johnson.

Woodhouse Nepinak met with Carney on Thursday to discuss the proposed legislation.

She told National Post in an interview that while the organization supports efforts to better protect Canada’s economy against uncertainty coming from the U.S., “First Nations are very concerned that this federal proposal has the potential to violate many collective rights of First Nations, respecting our lands, waters, resources, inherent title rights.”

Woodhouse Nepinak said they need to see the full draft of the proposed legislation to fully analyze it. “We’re concerned because First Nations need to have the time to analyze it, to review it legally,” she said.

She said giving the AFN a “seven-day window” to respond to the proposal when all they received were “pieces” is “so unacceptable.”

“It cannot trample over First Nations’ inherent treaty rights, and they need to make sure that they’re having a conversation with First Nations across the country and not just the AFN.”

Woodhouse Nepinak said the federal government needs to focus on dealing with the infrastructure on First Nations reserves and the issue of insufficient housing, schools and clean drinking water in communities. “Let’s fast-track schools, why don’t we talk about that?”

Asked whether she believes the legislation will be challenged in the courts, Woodhouse Nepinak said: “I’m just going to say that First Nations will do whatever they need to do to protect our rights and our inherent rights in this country, and we won’t be trampled on.”

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, complained about being excluded from the first ministers’ meeting. The FSIN was, however, invited to a meeting on Sunday, which it attended.

“The Prime Minister and Premiers will be making decisions about our traditional territory without our voices at the table despite the fact Saskatchewan is First Nation ancestral and traditional lands,” said FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron in a press release.

“This continues the colonial pattern of excluding First Nations from decisions that directly affect our people and our lands.”

Nunavut Premier PJ Akeeagok told reporters before the meeting that many of the “nation-building projects” that would be discussed are initiatives from Indigenous groups.

He said the four projects in Nunavut that he is pushing for are being led by the Inuit.

“So, they are coming here to the table through the solutions they’ve pushed forward, and I feel very honoured to be able to advance and push and support these major projects.”

National Post

calevesque@postmedia.com

staylor@postmedia.com

Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our newsletters here.