{"id":192292,"date":"2025-09-01T20:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T20:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/192292\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T20:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T20:07:10","slug":"liberal-mps-call-for-action-against-antisemitism-after-stabbing-of-jewish-woman-in-ottawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/192292\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberal MPs call for action against antisemitism after stabbing of Jewish woman in Ottawa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather in Ottawa in May, 2024. Housefather and 31 other Liberal lawmakers released a letter decrying a ‘deplorable’ rise in antisemitism.Spencer Colby\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Nearly a fifth of the Liberal caucus has issued a letter calling for more to be done to address a rise in antisemitism after a Jewish woman in her 70s was stabbed at an Ottawa grocery store<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather posted the letter on social media he signed along with 31 other Liberal lawmakers that decries what the letter calls the \u201cdeplorable\u201d rise in antisemitism<\/a>, warning it is \u201cbecoming normalized\u201d in Canada.<\/p>\n

Ottawa police charged 71-year-old Joseph Rooke with aggravated assault and possession of a dangerous weapon over the stabbing last week, and are treating the incident as a \u201chate-motivated crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notes from the middle: The impossible task of writing about Oct. 7 and the Israel-Hamas war<\/a><\/p>\n

Opinion: There is a growing list of unsafe places for the Jewish community in Canada<\/a><\/p>\n

The grocery store is known for having a large kosher food section and the MPs said in their letter that Rooke was known for making \u201cvirulent antisemitic comments\u201d on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree years ago, such an incident would have been shocking. Today, much less so,\u201d said the letter, posted Aug. 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom attacks on synagogues, Jewish schools and monuments, Jewish-owned businesses, Jewish community organizations and lately individual Jews themselves, antisemitism is becoming normalized.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter said the MPs support the recommendations from a House of Commons justice committee report published last year, which includes earmarking funds for policing and prosecution of hate crimes.<\/p>\n

The letter also said the MPs stand behind the government\u2019s \u201ccommitment to quickly bring forward changes to the Criminal Code this fall to prevent unlawful fear and intimidation outside places of worship, schools and community centres.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman criticized the federal Liberals on social media for what she described as a poor showing of support from within the governing party, which has 169 MPs in the House of Commons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest don\u2019t see a problem \u2013 or see votes,\u201d she wrote in a post on X on Aug. 31. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter ten years of power, your plea to \u2019the government\u2019 is pathetic. You are the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MPs\u2019 letter said the spread of hate, which is flowing from the war in Gaza that broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, is a \u201ccall to action for all Canadians, all levels of government, law enforcement, schools, public institutions and places of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Liberal Party\u2019s platform included a pledge to make it a criminal offence to wilfully obstruct access to places of worship, schools and community centres, as well as make it a criminal offence to intimidate or threaten people at those locations.<\/p>\n

There were 920 police-reported hate crimes against Jewish people last year, according to data from Statistics Canada, part of a massive surge in recent years that eclipses hate-crimes against other religious groups.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday called the grocery-store attack \u201csenseless\u201d and \u201cdeeply disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo Canada\u2019s Jewish community: you are not alone. We stand with you against hate and threats to your safety, and we will act to confront antisemitism wherever it appears,\u201d Carney said in a post on social media on Aug. 29.<\/p>\n

The call for action comes just ahead of an internal caucus gathering by the governing party next week and Parliament\u2019s return on Sept. 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Liberal MP Anthony Housefather in Ottawa in May, 2024. Housefather and 31 other…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":192293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":{"0":"post-192292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-news","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}