Analysis: For Canadian Jews, the question is: What now?
Mark Carney was moved to reassure the Jewish community, yet, according to many leaders, he largely failed. 'It's all up to us now,' said one.
Author of the article: By Dave Gordon, Special to National Post Published Jun 08, 2026 Last updated 0 minutes ago 6 minute read
Prime Minister Mark Carney meets with audience members after speaking at Holy Blossom Temple synagogue in Toronto on Monday June 1, 2026. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk/Postmedia
A week after Mark Carney's June 1 speech at Toronto's Holy Blossom synagogue, Jewish Canadians have had a chance to come up for air, many coming to terms with the grim possibility that even a prime minister finally naming a 'crisis of antisemitism' may not translate into the protection they need, or the country they thought they lived in.
Carney was moved to reassure the Jewish community, yet, according to many leaders, he largely failed.
The prime minister acknowledged 'Canada's civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians,' but his answer is yet another committee, another study — involving no one with a deep familiarity on the topic — that some community members said leaves them just as exposed as before.
Canadian Jews, already traumatized and angry, are now wondering more than ever: what now? What is next?
Rabbi Adam Cutler, of Toronto's Adath Israel synagogue, concluded that 'we have to be open-eyed that the government is not a reliable partner.' With four police cars now surrounding the synagogue, he told the Post, 'security is foundational, but insufficient. I don't want to be a hostage in my own shul the rest of my life.' And in a sentiment echoed by many others, he said the Jewish community is now on its own. 'In terms of standing up for Jewish rights – for Jews to be proudly and openly Jewish, and proud Zionists — that's something we have to support ourselves. It's not that long ago that prime minister Trudeau stood up and proclaimed he was a Zionist. But his successor did not say the same thing, and that's telling.'
Matthew Taub, who attended the speech, said Carney 'scattered crumbs of concern, and acted like it was a feast.' The director of Canadian advocacy group Unapologetically Jewish said the prime minister was 'playing a politically-charged 4D chess game. He moved his knight, and now we respond, as a Jewish community, by moving our queen,' he told the Post. The counter-play he proposed: whereas Carney 'came on our turf to lecture us, to have us listen to our own problems,' Taub wants community leaders, as a group, to meet Carney on Parliament Hill, and 'have him sit and listen to us, while we tell him the real roots of the problems, and offer our own recommendations. All with the cameras on, too.'
Amir Epstein, director of Toronto-based pro-Israel advocacy group Tafsik, said Carney's speech vindicated the idea that it's time for Jews in Canada to start thinking about Plan B: moving elsewhere, as things get worse. 'We have nothing to expect from this government. They've made it very clear they're not interested in supporting the Jewish community. They've made it very clear that they don't really even see much of a problem,' he said. The U.S., though compelling for many as a next stage, could face worsening Jew-hatred, he believes, and so his suggested choices would be Israel or Panama 'because it's been incredibly friendly towards the Jewish community for over 100 years.'
