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michaelgeistsblog_feed) wrote2025-09-01 12:45 pm
Grocery Shopping While Jewish in Canada in 2025
In my family, it was always the “kosher Loblaws.” Featuring Ottawa’s only large kosher food section, the Loblaws location at College Square in the west end of the city is our destination several times per week for everything from groceries, to prescription refills, to challah bread for Shabbat. My Globe and Mail opinion piece published this weekend notes that as the only such store in Ottawa, it serves as both a place to see familiar faces and a reminder of the small size of the Jewish community here.
Last week, a 71-year-old man from Cornwall, Ont., is alleged to have entered the store and stabbed a Jewish grandmother multiple times in the back. The grandmother, well known in the Jewish community here, is thankfully now at home recovering. But the initial fears that this might be an antisemitic attack appear to have been borne out, as a review of the alleged attacker’s social media feed reveals a steady stream of antisemitic hate stretching back years. On Friday, Ottawa police announced they will be investigating the incident as a hate-motivated crime.
For the Jewish community, this means yet more security measures as grocery stores get added to a list that now includes synagogues, community events, schools, senior homes and campus lectures – a growing number of places requiring added security and secrecy to keep the community protected. For individuals, it means rethinking placing mezuzahs on the outside of doors, wearing a kippah or Star of David, or participating in Jewish events, given fears of heightened safety risks. The cumulative effect is the gradual erasure of a visible Jewish presence in Canada.
This event hits very close to home, raising the question of how it can happen in a country like Canada in 2025. There is no single answer – antisemitism has been a scourge for thousands of years – but the failure of Canadian leaders in confronting it must surely be at the very top of the list.
No politician can single-handedly prevent antisemitic attacks, just as no community or campus leader can guarantee the safety of all community members. But for nearly two years, the rise of antisemitism has too often been met with inaction and generic statements against all forms of hate, or assurances that this behaviour wasn’t reflective of Canadian values. Unfortunately, this has proven nowhere near enough.
The words themselves have been wholly inadequate. Fearing political blowback, too many leaders have been unwilling to lean into support for the Jewish community with unequivocal condemnation of antisemitism without caveats or references to other forms of hate. Too many have avoided community events, leaving the unmistakable impression that the Jewish community is on its own.
The result is a torrent of hate online and in our streets that targets Jews directly, or is thinly disguised with claims that the opposition is only to Zionists, who represent the vast majority of the Jewish community supporting self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland.
Despite promises of more effective legislation and mandates for police to enforce the laws, far more can be done. Bubble-zone legislation to protect vulnerable community institutions is still needed, alongside the enforcement of existing laws so that the rights of all members of the community are respected.
And these issues are not merely a local matter. Last week, Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador after evidence emerged that two violent antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne were state-sponsored by Iran. In other words, this is now a national security matter and should be treated as such.
Into the void of inaction comes an escalation of risk. Legitimate political protests outside of government consulates have morphed into actions at campus buildings, hospitals, synagogues, community parades and senior homes, blurring the line between political opposition and the direct targeting of the Jewish community. And as politicians remain silent and law enforcement stays on the sidelines, the language becomes more violent in nature amidst allegations of criminality directed at an entire community. Viewed in that light, an elderly man shifting hateful words to violent action becomes not only understandable, but seemingly inevitable.
As I reviewed the accused attacker’s social media feed, I was struck by more than just the open antisemitism. Several of the posts sparked banal responses from others. Some cheered him on while others merely asked how he was doing and paid no mind to the hate they had just read. Whether you are a politician, a community leader, or just an average citizen, we all must play a part to bring this normalcy of antisemitism to an end.
The post Grocery Shopping While Jewish in Canada in 2025 appeared first on Michael Geist.
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