Montreal, December 9, 2024 — The Anti-Racism program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) today released a joint report on anti-Palestinian racism (APR) in Canada, documenting 988 incidents of APR in 2023—a staggering near-doubling from 506 incidents reported in 2022. In an alarming find, the study revealed that APR surged proportionately eightfold following October 7, 2023, coinciding with the launch of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Titled Anti-Palestinian Racism in Canada: 2023 Annual Report (in .pdf), the study expands on last year’s inaugural report, underscoring the systemic nature of APR in Canadian society. The new annual study points to widespread defamation, erasure, and dehumanization of Palestinians, especially among right-wing media and right-wing non-profit organizations. The study concludes that many of the incidents of APR in 2023 were driven by attempts to apply the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. IHRA puts on chill on discussion around Palestinian rights and resistance because it conflates criticism of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism.
“We knew that anti-Palestinian racism was a growing problem in Canada, but the explosion of APR in the final months of 2023 was sobering,” explained Thomas Woodley, Director of Operations for the CJPME Foundation. “Some forms of APR grew over 10-fold, as right-wing commentators sought to dehumanize Palestinians facing genocide in Gaza, and sought to portray solidarity demonstrations in Canada as security threats.” The ARPCF emphasizes how anti-Palestinian racism operates not as isolated incidents but as a systemic problem across political circles, institutions, media, and society.
This non-exhaustive study identified examples of APR based on the landmark description published in May 2022 by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA). All of the 988 incidents of APR documented in the study are institutional on-line incidents – still publicly accessible – published by right-wing media (including the National Post and the Toronto Sun) and right-wing NGOs (including Honest Reporting Canada, and the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation.) Of the 988 documented incidents, 77% involved defamatory slander, with Palestinians frequently labeled as terrorist sympathizers or inherently antisemitic. Media outlets, were responsible for over half of all APR incidents, with the National Post alone accounting for 30% of the total.
The report urges federal and provincial governments to:
- Address Structural Barriers: Introduce policies that protect Palestinian narratives in education, media, and public discourse, especially in reference to the Nakba and Gaza genocide.
- Integrate APR into National Strategies: Embed concrete APR protections into Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy and employment equity laws.
- Roll back institutional adoption of IHRA and retract the government’s IHRA handbook: Replace IHRA with a framework to combat antisemitism that does not engender new forms of discrimination.
The report makes clear that APR is a pervasive problem in Canada, one requiring urgent action. On a weekly basis, there are news reports about Canadians being defamed, suspended, arrested and worse because of their advocacy for Palestinian rights and liberation. The ARPCF and CJPME call on the government and other institutions to take concrete action to protect free expression on Palestine-Israel. Both organizations, as well their partners are committed to challenging, and dismantling systemic discrimination against Palestinians and their allies in Canada.
About the ARPCF – The mandate of the Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) is to create public awareness about racism in Canada. This mandate falls in line with the Foundation’s broader purpose of monitoring and combating manifestations of racism, xenophobia, and discrimination by increasing public awareness of such biases.
About CJPME – Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is a non-profit and secular organization bringing together men and women of all backgrounds who labour to see justice and peace take root again in the Middle East. Its mission is to empower decision-makers to view all sides with fairness and to promote the equitable and sustainable development of the region.
For more information, please contact us, 514-389-8668
ARPCF, [email protected] www.cjpmefoundation.org
The whole or parts of this press release can be reproduced without permission.
– 30 –