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Prime Minister Mark Carney warned this week that Jewish Canadians are being "brutally targeted," while also announcing a new anti-racism council that reportedly includes two members with troubling views on the Jewish state.
Following Carney's speech on antisemitism, critics reacted with anger at the makeup of the council and questioned how a body meant to fight hate and antisemitism includes two members who are reportedly hostile to the concerns of the Jewish community.
Omar Alghabra, a former Liberal party cabinet minister and Member of Parliament, has faced criticism for publicly mourning former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The former leader of the PLO was described by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies as "the father of modern terrorism ." In the days following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel, he declined a request to condemn them, when asked by Canada's Rebel News .
Alghabra has also faced scrutiny over past comments regarding Israel. In 2005, he criticized Toronto's police chief for participating in and leading a "Walk with Israel" event, according to The Jerusalem Post. He described the event as "a show of solidarity for a foreign state currently in the midst of an unresolved conflict" and referred to Israel as "a country that is conducting a brutal and the longest contemporary military occupation in the world."
CANADA’S CARNEY UNDER PRESSURE TO ACT AFTER SYNAGOGUES SHOT AT IN LATEST ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a press conference after a Cabinet meeting to discuss both trade negotiations with the U.S. and the situation in the Middle East, at the National Press Theater in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on July 30, 2025. (DAVE CHAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Canada's opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, pointed to a separate encounter with him involving a terrorist organization. "I remember Mr. Alghabra lobbying me before he was in politics to keep Hezbollah legal, so I'm not sure that he's the right guy to combat antisemitism," he told reporters.
Howeer, the Jerusalem Post reported that Alghabra had described Hamas as a terrorist organization during a 2016 parliamentary debate.
The other controversial member of the council, Avnish Nanda, represented efforts to keep a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Alberta in place. Critics of the encampment argued it created a hostile atmosphere for Jewish students following Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.
The then Minister of Transport, Omar Alghabra, speaks with the Toronto Star at an editorial board meeting at the Well building in Toronto. (Lance McMillan/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
In April, B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights released a report showing that 6,800 antisemitic incidents took place in the country in 2025, representing a 9.4% increase over 2024. On average, this represented 18.6 incidents a day and was the "highest volume" the group has recorded since it began tracking incidents.
"I'm a Canadian-born Jew serving as rabbi of the vibrant Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem community in Montreal, and I was truly shocked to learn that among the people chosen to sit on Prime Minister Carney's newest council is Omar Alghabra, who publicly mourned the death of Yasser Arafat and remained silent when asked to condemn the attacks of October 7th," Rabbi Zolly Claman of Montreal's Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem Congregation told Fox News Digital.
The Talmud Torah Elementary School in Montreal was one of two schools hit with gunfire this week, according to Montreal police. (Google Maps)
"Canadian Jews are struggling to understand how our prime minister believed this would be a constructive appointment," Claman said.
When announcing the new Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion, Carney stated, "The council has a clear mission to combat racism and hate in all their forms and to guide the Government of Canada as part of our efforts to build a fairer, more just, more inclusive society," He also said that, "The crisis of antisemitism in Canada today is specific, it’s severe, and it demands a targeted response. And that is what our government is fully committed to," Reuters reported.
FROM AUSCHWITZ, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR ISSUES URGENT WARNING OVER RISING ANTISEMITISM IN CANADA
When asked about Prime Minister Mark Carney's announcement , B'nai Brith Canada, one of the country's leading Jewish advocacy organizations said that while it welcomed the prime minister's acknowledgment of rising antisemitism, it believes additional action is needed to address what it views as a growing crisis facing Canada's Jewish community.
Anti-Israel protesters hold antisemitic posters in Edmonton, Alberta, on April 13, 2025. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via AP)
"B'nai Brith Canada acknowledges the Prime Minister's solidarity with the Jewish community," Simon Wolle, the organization's chief executive officer, told Fox News Digital. "He was right to ma…
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