Three weeks after Ottawa unveiled new measures and legislation to combat hate, Jewish groups want Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to put its money where its mouth is.

Leading up to the Nov. 4 federal budget, B’nai Brith Canada and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) are seeking action on community safety—but at opposite ends of the security pipeline.

B’nai Brith made recommendations to proactively combat antisemitism in its July submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) while calling on the federal government to use the Budget Implementation Act (BIA) to eliminate a loophole that allowed listed terrorist entity Samidoun to continue operating as a non-profit corporation. 

The brief called for investments to counter violent extremism with more funding for national security agencies; requiring all federal grant recipients to comply with Canada’s Anti-Racism Strategy (which references the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance antisemitism definition); enhancing young Canadians’ understanding of contemporary antisemitism; and making existing antisemitism training for federal public servants mandatory. 

In its December 2024 report, FINA endorsed reviewing all grant programs to ensure only projects aligning with Canada’s Anti-Racism strategy receive federal funding. (That report also recommended continued financing and increasing contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA].)

Tying grants to anti-racism

Conditioning grant eligibility isn’t new; the Canada Summer Jobs Program already excludes companies and activities that discriminate in any way, advocate intolerance or discrimination, or actively work to undermine access to sexual health services.

B’nai Brith Canada’s research and advocacy director, Richard Robertson, told The CJN that his organization worked with the government and others following the Laith Marouf scandal, which saw the Department of Canadian Heritage fund a known anti-Israel activist and antisemite to offer anti-racism training to media outlets in Canada. That led to a declaration/attestation for Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Program grants.

“We’d like to see that replicated across all government agencies involved in grant programs,” said Robertson, “so that all individuals and programs receiving federal funding commit to abiding by Canada’s anti-racism strategies.” 

Nor is the call for mandatory training reinventing the wheel, says Roberston, noting the Treasury Board already developed training. “It’s just about making sure that it’s undertaken by all of our public service, so public servants are able to properly identify and address instances of contemporary antisemitism that may arise through the course of their work.”

There was no ask involving physical security and infrastructure through the Canada Community Security Program (CCSP), Robertson insisting maintaining that the rise in extremism and radicalization is the greatest threat to the long-term vitality and well-being of Canadian Jews. “Our submission was strategically designed to implore the federal government to invest in resources that will combat the growth of extremism radicalization in this country,” he said, “for training for the public service, attestation forms—all of these designed to ensure that our government is investing in the fight against racism and hatred proactively.” 

In other words: first lines of defence, rather than last. “I hope to one day live in a Canada where security funding for institutions is no longer needed, because our government has proactively combatted rising levels of extremism, radicalization, incitement and division. That is where we believe the funding is most urgently needed.”

In the crosshairs

Meanwhile, CIJA CEO Noah Shack wrote to Prime Minister Carney, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree in the hours following the October 2 Yom Kippur terrorist attack at a synagogue in Manchester, England. 

He reminded them that “Jewish Canadians have been in the crosshairs” since October 7, 2023, with schools shot at, synagogues firebombed and desecrated, Jewish-owned businesses targeted, coordinated efforts to exclude Jews from public life, and violent assaults. “The numbers speak for themselves: a Jewish Canadian is 25 times more likely to experience a hate crime than any other Canadian.” (According to Statistics Canada, there were 920 police-reported hate crimes against Jews in 2024, exceeding all hate crimes targeting other religious groups that year combined.)

Following the announcement of new legislation to protect access to places of worship, schools, and community centres, he urged the government preparing its first budget “to consider the urgent need to invest in strengthening security for the Jewish community—to help safeguard lives within these institutions.”

The CCSP, which replaced the Security Infrastructure Program last year, has been a crucial resource to enhance security, disbursing more than $40 million to more than 940 projects helping all Canadian communities at risk of hate-motivated crimes to date. 

That’s a sum equal to the annual amount spent solely by Canada’s Jewish community, which comprises less than one percent of the country’s population. Security costs for Canadian Jewish communities total more than $40 million due to the spike in threats and attacks, Shack told The CJN, the cost extending beyond financial, but also affecting Canadian Jews’ ability to live Jewish lives and pass on traditions to their children.

The U.K. model

CIJA is suggesting significant budget increases, similar to the United Kingdom, whose Jewish population totals some 300,000, about two-thirds the size of Canada’s. The U.K. government this year announced a four-year funding package of approximately CAD$33.5 million annually to the Community Security Trust (CST), whose mandate begins with the physical protection and defence of the country’s Jews, and which gained charitable status in 1994. 

According to a statement from the Trust to The CJN, the CST relies almost entirely on direct community donations for core funding, as there is no centralized federation funding structure in the U.K. Those funds pay for CST’s operating costs and for contributions to the cost of security equipment and infrastructure at community buildings, including more than 500 synagogues and Jewish community sites across the country.

Separate from its operating costs, the Trust administers annual state funding on behalf of the U.K. Home Office to pay for Jewish schools, synagogues and other premises to hire security guards from private firms.  In 2024, CST, staffed by some 100 employees and 2,000 volunteers, managed government funding for commercial security guards to over 200 educational establishments, summer and winter camps for 28 youth movements, over 260 synagogues, nearly 50 high-profile communal buildings, and multisite operations that covered over 100 Jewish communal and commercial sites within close proximity to each other.

Public Safety Canada spokesperson Noémie Allard told The CJN that the 2025-26 CCSP core budget funding for all communities is $16.6 million but may be bolstered in response to emerging priorities or evolving community needs, “determined through broader government initiatives or budgetary decisions.”

Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather notes that the program allocated some $81.5 million, beginning in 2023 until 2029, adding, “we had gotten many of the community’s requests for changes to the program accepted, but these are additional needs that still need to be met.” He told The CJN his budget priorities are “funding for 24 by 7 operations centers and permanent security guards as well as consideration of direct funding of a community trust type operation as exists in the U.K.”

The CCSP emphasizes proactive measures to enhance safety without isolating physical barriers, said Allard, based on principles of crime prevention through environmental design. That means rather than barricading or fortifying locations, eligible enhancements “focus on visibility, access control, natural surveillance and environmental design to deter threats.” 

The program supports expenditures such as modest security hardware; minor renovations; developing security assessments and emergency plans; training activities for security equipment; preparing for and responding to hate-motivated incidents; and time-limited hiring of security personnel.

Moving beyond individual institutions 

Shack says increased funds are required for more than simply hiring extra security for high holidays, installing gates or cement bollards. “It’s all of it, together, with new infrastructure for a coordinated approach to security in places like Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, taking our security posture as a community to the next level.” That means moving beyond individual institutions, but looking after the most vulnerable communities, like the Community Security Network in Montreal and the Jewish Security Network in Toronto. 

Earlier this year, Deputy Opposition Leader and Thornhill MP Melissa Lantsman wrote Anandasangaree about “continued concerns” with management of the CCSP and its SIP predecessor, which she says remain unaddressed. “Applications for items previously covered by the CCSP and the SIP, including internal security blinds, automated vehicular gates, emergency crash bars, and the ancillary fees for security cameras, continue to be denied by your government with little to no explanation.”

Consequently, she says, synagogues, community centres, and other places are often forced to go without needed security infrastructure while “crimes against Jews are skyrocketing across Canada by triple digits or more.” This budget round, Lantsman’s office is asking for increased funding for security infrastructure and for Ottawa to fully review its funding, “and end any arrangements where money could end up supporting terrorism, (ex. ceasing all funding to UNRWA).” 

Without specifying a dollar amount, Shack says the point is that the threat facing Jewish Canadians is no different than that facing Jews in Britain, France or Australia, “and it’s important that we’re doing everything we can to address that. We shouldn’t have to shoulder that all on our own.” 

Nor is there a single magic wand: “We need to make sure that police have the resources they need to be present and do their jobs, and we need to make sure that the right cops are available to do the right jobs to keep our community safe.” It’s not about shuffling resources around, but something sustainable until the threat level changes. That means money for prosecutors, money for cops, “not just for them to exist, but also to be properly trained. You can’t just throw a body at the problem.” 

Draw lessons from Manchester

The warning signs are here, says Shack, “and we should draw lessons from Manchester, and ensure that we are looking after these critical components.” While Manchester is an ocean and several time zones away, “it’s almost like it’s just next door… I wish it wasn’t so, but this is the reality and we need government to be our partner. We should absolutely not wait for the worst to take place before we prepare to deal with it.”

He insists there’s an important distinction between being prepared and resolved when facing challenges and being fearful: “Everybody is entitled to their feelings and how they’re going to respond to the moment, but we have to look at how we can keep ourselves safe and continue to thrive as a community. Not hiding, not fearing, but being prepared and having eyes wide open to the threats.”

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