O Canada – Time to Stand on Guard for Thee
- Mark Sandler
- Dec 17, 2025
- 9 min read
Updated: Dec 18, 2025
Yet another tragedy – this time in Sydney, Australia – focuses the world's attention, however fleetingly, on the existential risk to Jewish communities internationally. As did the slaughter in Manchester, England. And in Boulder, Colorado. And in Washington, D.C. All in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 barbarities.
My initial reaction this past Sunday, other than the obvious emotions of anger and sorrow, was to reach out to members of the Australian Jewish community to show solidarity. My initial thoughts, undoubtedly shared by the entire Canadian Jewish community, were obvious: This could easily have happened here and, G-d forbid, still could. Some express the probability as high, bordering on the inevitable, particularly if nothing changes for the better in this country.
ALCCA has reported on numerous plots to kill Canadian Jews that have been thwarted by our national security and law enforcement agencies in the last two years alone. Often, the plots originated with Islamists, sometimes with neo-Nazi white supremacists. Radicalized youth figured prominently in some of these terror plans. The terrorists represent a combination of group members (some state-sponsored), and lone wolves. They may even hate each other across an extremist divide but share a common loathing for Jews. Not exclusively Jews, but almost invariably Jews.
National security experts and law enforcement have publicly warned Canadians about the formidable challenges our country faces from ideologically, religiously, and politically motivated extremists. The Canadian Integrated Threat Assessment Centre reported that the risk of an extremist attack targeting Canada’s Jewish community is realistic. But are Canadians listening?
The Australian government was repeatedly warned about the danger of allowing antisemitic and anti-Zionist hate speech to become normalized in their country. We, and many others, have repeatedly issued similar warnings to all levels of government in Canada. But are they listening?
We have much to be thankful for as Canadians. Indeed, for much of my life, I proudly declared to the world, "I am Canadian." Less so, certainly right now. I haven't changed. Canada has.
For much of my life, I was proud to be a member of the progressive left, active (with many others) in promoting, through the law, the rights of all vulnerable communities to be free from hatred and discrimination. I haven't changed. The progressive left has.
I remain proud to be a Jew. And ready to call out antisemitism when and where it rears its ugly head. That pride hasn't changed. But the pervasiveness of Jew hatred has. Antisemitism no longer occasionally rears its ugly head. It is now a Hydra, the multi-headed serpent of Greek mythology – cut off one head and two replace it.
At the core of my identity as a Jew is being a Zionist. Zionism is simply the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in our ancestral lands. This is how Zionism is understood by well over 90% of Canadian Jews who support Israel's right to exist as a Jewish democratic state.
Even Prime Minister Trudeau, whose government failed to show the needed leadership on issues affecting our community, declared himself to be a Zionist and said that no one in Canada should ever be afraid to call themselves a Zionist.
But it is no longer safe to declare oneself to be a Zionist in Canada. Chants of "Death to all Zionists," "All Zionists are evil, genocidal and racist," "All Zionists off campus" are now normalized on our streets and campuses. Students are told not to even talk to Zionists as not to legitimize us.
It is also no longer safe to be a member of the so-called progressive left unless one disavows support for Israel's very existence. Demonization of Israel and all Israelis without exception is now a litmus test for acceptance to a club many of us can no longer be members of.
Don’t tell me this is just about the war in Gaza. The day after the October 7, 2023 atrocities, protestors were celebrating, justifying or denying these barbarities. This was well before Israel had militarily responded in Gaza to a true genocidal intent to eliminate it and its people.
Don’t tell me chants of “Globalize the Intifada” or “by any means necessary” are benign expressions of protest. Those who experienced the second intifada, including the slaughter of innocents in suicide bombings on Israeli buses, know better. They also know that the second intifada successfully derailed any existing momentum for peace.
We must be clear on why this is happening. Why terrorists in Canada plan to kill Jews. Why synagogues are regularly vandalized. Why mezuzahs are stolen from the doorposts of Jewish senior citizens. Why Uber drivers eject Jewish passengers. The answer is a disturbing one – not just for Jews but for all Canadians of good will.
Let's start with the Islamists. Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas. Hezbollah. Islamic Jihad. The Iranian terror regime (not its people). The Houthi rebels. ISIS. Boko Haram. The list is seemingly endless. They seek a worldwide caliphate. They make no secret of it to those who are listening. But too few are listening.
The Houthi emblem says it all:
God is great
Death to America
Death to Israel
Curse on the Jews
Victory to Islam
This leaves no room for ambiguity. The Jewish state stands in their way. Jews stand in their way. America stands in their way. Indeed, all civilized societies should stand in their way except that some Western countries appear to be barely hanging on. Some are so afraid of being labelled Islamophobic that they are unwilling to respond or heed the warnings of their own national security experts. Politicians too frequently see this as a matter of voting demographics – numbers of Muslims v. Jews. But it shouldn’t be.
Our Muslim allies reject the radicalization of their faith that Islamism represents. It should be their values that our federal government adopts as Canadian values. It should be their courageous voices that are seen to represent their community.
But all too often, they are unheard. Or too frequently, like-minded Muslims are understandably afraid to be heard. Islamism threatens Jews and non-Jews alike. Our non-Jewish allies recognize that Islamism is an attack on civilization. Their voices are needed to ensure politicians see this as a law and order issue, as an attack on democratic values, not as a Jewish issue. But all too often, they are too few in number.
Palestinians are not true beneficiaries of Islamism. Sadly, Islamists care little or nothing about Palestinian lives. Palestinians are not merely collateral damage in the Islamists’ pursuit of Israel's destruction. Palestinian deaths are a calculated means to an end. It was recently reported that Hamas was deliberately withholding and destroying large quantities of baby formula and nutritional shakes in Gaza to promote its false narrative about Israel. The reporting was largely ignored by mainstream media because it doesn't fit the prevailing narrative.
I am unaware of any other conflict in which combatants not only shamelessly use their civilian population as human shields but regard their deaths as a beneficial, essential tool to demonize their opponent. The more deaths, the better.
Islamists succeed in Western societies because of their enablers, the far-left – although the “far-left” more accurately describes their ideology, not their increasingly central role in our society.
One might have hoped that Western liberal society would not suspend its critical faculties altogether in its haste to adopt anti-Israel orthodoxy. Alas, any such hopes were quickly dashed. Few even ask the obvious questions: for example, if Israel were as immoral and genocidal as portrayed, why would Hamas use its civilians as human shields? What would be the point if Israel seeks the extermination of Gaza’s entire population? Hamas knows the answer. It relies on the answer. Using civilians as human shields, and hospitals and schools as military operation centres limits the options of a country that attempts to comply with the law.
It is well-documented that Israel adopts a range of measures, however imperfect, including multiple pre-strike warnings to the civilian population through cell phone messages and leaflets, creation of relocation sites, delayed or cancelled operations, so as to attempt to minimize civilian casualties. It is impossible to reconcile these actions with the libel that Israel is committing genocide (which involves a specific intent to physically destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group). But enablers are unencumbered by the facts or the law.
These enablers are often far-left anti-Zionists who deny Israel's very right to exist and portray themselves as anti-Israel, not antisemitic. As one commentator said, somewhat sardonically, they love Jews as long as Jews are homeless.
I am not talking about those who criticize Israel's government, policies, far-right politicians, violent West Bank settlers, or even the conduct of the war. Want to criticize Israel? Get in line. Israelis are vociferous in condemning their own government. It is called democracy, however flawed.
But anti-Zionists don't merely criticize Israel. They divide the world into colonizers and the colonized. The colonizers are white privileged, undeserving of protection against discrimination. Israel is the colonizer and Palestinians the colonized. Accordingly, the Jewish state should be eliminated.
There are so many problems associated with this distorted view of Jews and Israel, and the misuse of this analytical framework in explaining the Middle East. For example:
over 3000 years of Jewish connection to the land of Israel.
the displacement of Palestinians from Israel in 1948 followed the rejection of the UN approved partition of the Middle East into two states and the first of multiple wars initiated against the Jewish state by all of its neighbours.
the endorsement of multiple Israeli governments of a two-state solution.
the withdrawal of Israel from Gaza in 2005, leading to the election of a terror group focused on creating a terror infrastructure, rather than improving the lives of its people.
the doubling of the Gazan population since 2005
the 20%+ Israeli Arab citizens who serve as doctors, lawyers, judges, politicians and in some instances, as members of the IDF.
Israel as a refuge for hundreds of thousands of racialized Jews persecuted by Israel’s neighbours.
Israel has many problems, much to challenge, much to learn. Many Israelis admit that Israel’s military occupation of much of the West Bank must end – for the sake of both Palestinians and Israeli democratic values.
Many Israelis are deeply disturbed by the composition of the current government and seek change. But the calculated, well-orchestrated delegitimization of Israel, all its citizens and all those who support its existence is fundamentally different – it can only be described as virulent antisemitism that emboldens violence against Jews worldwide.
Many anti-Zionists admittedly don't seek to kill Jews. These anti-Zionists rationalize their actions by targeting Zionism, not Jews. They ensure that the 1% of Jews who are anti-Zionists are showcased -- after all, it is said, how can they be antisemitic if their movement includes Jews. But they are complicit in antisemitism nonetheless. They allow virtually all Jews to be demonized by distorting the meaning of Zionism – by characterizing it as a movement that regards Jews as superior, a meaning rejected by the vast majority of Jews.
It is easy to demonize people and their beliefs when you misstate what they stand for.
When some anti-Zionists, in common cause with Islamists, celebrate, justify or deny Hamas’s atrocities on October 7, they empower Hamas. Support in Western societies for Hamas signals that it is okay to slaughter and rape and burn Jews. It is okay to hold children hostages and murder them in cold blood. Since the world refuses to hold Hamas truly accountable for its malevolent deeds, it is given licence to continue. The same licence is given to extremists who hold diaspora Jews collectively responsible for what takes place in the Middle East.
In the last 48 hours, many governments have condemned the killings in Sydney, Australia as antisemitic acts of terror. These include both outright supporters of terror and those who enable it. Ireland, Iran, Turkey, the Netherlands, the Palestinian Authority. Condolences expressed by the Government of Iran, already exposed as the instigator of prior terror acts against Australian Jewry, were particularly galling – only surpassed by the seriousness with which these condolences were reported on by the media.
And now, as if all of this isn’t bad enough, Jew haters are pumping out stories and photographs on social media that Jewish victims in Australia were painting fake blood on their bodies and that Israel staged the massacre. Canadians, are you listening?
We will not see a change for the better in Canada until all law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and judges recognize the distinction between protected speech and hate speech.
Until politicians, regardless of their views on the Middle East conflict, unequivocally acknowledge that Canadian Jews and their allies have the right to support Israel’s existence without fear or marginalization. Until governments get serious about Islamism. Until Canadians chant “Free Palestine from Hamas.” Until Canadians, especially non-Jews, make their voices heard in numbers never seen before.
Canadians should no longer be under any illusions about what is happening in our country. Are Canadians ready to listen? And do they mean it when they sing, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee?
About the Author
Mark Sandler, LL.B., LL.D. (honoris causa), ALCCA’s Chair, is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading criminal lawyers and pro bono advocates. He has been involved in combatting antisemitism for over 40 years. He has lectured extensively on legal remedies to combat hate and has promoted respectful Muslim-Jewish, Sikh-Jewish and Black-Jewish dialogues. He has appeared before Parliamentary committees and in the Supreme Court of Canada on multiple occasions on issues relating to antisemitism and hate activities. He is a former member of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, a three-time elected Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, and recipient of the criminal profession’s highest honour, the G. Arthur Martin Medal, for his contributions to the administration of criminal justice.