The Carney Government has explicitly linked national security and economic security. What does it mean then if our domestic security situation undermines both? 

Recent Globe and Mail reporting revealed that the federal government’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre (ITAC) has warned “a violent extremist attack targeting the Jewish community in Canada is a realistic possibility in the next six months.” This comes after three synagogues in Toronto were struck by gunfire, and other incidents targeting temples, Jewish businesses and neighbourhoods, and multiple disrupted terrorist plots targeting Jews. 

In the past weeks the Government of Canada announced $10 million to help the Jewish community bolster their own security measures and the Toronto Police Service sent armed officers to protect synagogues. It’s helpful, but a sad admission that the domestic security situation is bad and that Jews face very real dangers that others in Canadian society might not.

The Government of Canada and City of Toronto’s pivot to protect Jews are necessary and a direct rebuke to the troubling trend of treating harassment and vitriol toward Canadian Jews as protected protest speech against Israel – a conflation that is, at face value, antisemitism. It is the start of the recognition that Jewish security is national security. Nonetheless, despite this shift, a Jewish restaurant in North York was shot on April 5^th – an unfortunate reminder we have a way to go before that security is real.  

Prime Minister Mark Carney stated that Canada will “identify the perpetrators of [the synagogue shootings] and bring them ⁠to the full weight of justice.” However, those who are motivated to violence might recognize the Prime Minister’s words as an empty threat. According to the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAEF), the Crown has withdrawn or diverted nearly half of all hate crime charges related to antisemitism, sometimes due to “lack of public interest” and sometimes because perpetrators promise “to obey the law” in the future. Terrorism suspects have been released on bail after being arrested in connection to plots against Jews, including one with alleged ties to ISIS. Michael Teper, a lawyer and CAEF president, has argued the Crown’s failures send “a powerful message of impunity to those who would attack the Jewish community.” 

Meanwhile, Canadian concern about antisemitism is reportedly declining, while hate crimes against Jews are skyrocketing. 

Canada is not alone in experiencing the rise of antisemitism, but unlike our peers — particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom — our government is failing to recognize the connection between Jew hatred, extremism and foreign interference. To that end, while we don’t know who shot the synagogues in Toronto, the ITAC report suggests the incidents were connected to a similar shooting at the American consulate in Toronto. We know Quds Day protestors expressed solidarity with the Ayatollahs while waving antisemitic placards. As per the Prime Minister’s thesis, the national security situation can impact our economic security. 

Several days before the ITAC report was released, Jewish communities met with other faith communities, and business and political leaders at the Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now conference, billed as the largest summit to combat hate and antisemitism in the world. Canada sent no senior leaders, and was cast as a place of growing extremism. 

Republicans, Democrats, and business and cultural leaders alike — Jewish and non-Jewish — framed antisemitism as antithetical to American values. To them, attacks against Jews are attacks against their fellow citizens and a sign of societal crisis. Speakers referenced Jew hatred as a wedge driven by foreign adversaries and an endemic feature of hostile nations. They aren’t alone in their views. 

According to a 2024 Gallup Poll, 81 per cent of Americans see antisemitism as a problem, and 49 per cent as a serious problem. A separate poll in 2025 found that 90 per cent of the American general public believes that antisemitism impacts society as a whole. Combatting hatred against Jews is a mainstream consensus. 

Sometime soon we will need to ask American CEOs and congressional allies to spend scarce political capital to defend a trade deal with us. Our pitch has always been that we share similar values and we are a safe, stable bet. Synagogue shootings are international news, so how do we think they perceive our country when Canada is seen as a safe haven for antisemitism? 

Carney offered an answer to that while in Davos, when he stated “Canada has what the world wants … and the values to which many others aspire.” What happens if our largest trading partners don’t want Canadian antisemitism or ambivalence towards the extremism that threatens them too? That’s why keeping Canadians safe at home is crucial when it comes to linking economic and national security.

Dan Pujdak is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and the chief strategy officer of Blackbird Strategies.

The views expressed are those of the author(s). National Newswatch Inc. publishes a range of perspectives and does not necessarily endorse the opinions presented.