This week’s Law Bytes podcast featured a look at the year in review in digital law and policy. Before wrapping up for the year, the next three posts over the holidays will highlight my most popular posts, podcast episodes, and Substacks of the past year. Today’s post starts with the top posts, in which two issues dominated: lawful access and antisemitism. While most of the top ten involves those two issues, the top post of the year featured an analysis of the government’s approach to the digital services tax, which ultimately resulted in an embarrassing climbdown by the government.
Post Tagged with: "antisemitism"
Confronting Antisemitism in Canada: If Leaders Won’t Call It Out Without Qualifiers, They Can’t Address It
The devastating consequences of the rise of antisemitism is in the spotlight this week in the wake of the horrific Chanukah Massacre in Australia over the weekend. In addition to my post on the issue, I appeared yesterday on CBC Radio’s syndication, conducting 14 interviews in rapid succession with stations from coast to coast [clip here]. Most of the interviews followed a similar script, focusing on the rise of antisemitism in Canada as documented by Statistics Canada, lamented the troubling range of violent antisemitic incidents (including the Ottawa grocery store stabbing and the Toronto intimidation marches in Jewish neighbourhoods), and described life as Jew in Canada in 2025, which invariably necessitates a police presence at schools and synagogues alongside measures to hide Jewish symbols and identity in public.
“Shock” and the Bondi Beach Chanukah Massacre
The political response to terrorist attacks – particularly those involving antisemitism – now follow a fairly standard formula relying on a word salad of expressing sadness, assurances that the government stands with the Jewish community, and affirmations that antisemitism has no place in [insert country/province/city here]. While those comments often ring hollow, it is the frequent claims of “shock” that I find most disingenuous. In the aftermath of this weekend’s horrific Chanukah Massacre in Bondi Beach, Australia that left 15 dead including a Chabad rabbi, a holocaust survivor, ten-year old child and many others, you simply cannot claim to be shocked that such an incident would occur. Yet there is the Guardian reporting “communities express shock”, while EU President Ursula von der Leyen, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Lydon, and Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere all say they were shocked by the attack.
Grocery Shopping While Jewish
In my family, it was always the “kosher Loblaws.” Featuring Ottawa’s only large kosher food section, the Loblaws location at College Square in the west end of the city is our destination several times per week for everything from groceries, to prescription refills, to challah bread for Shabbat. My Globe and Mail opinion piece published this weekend notes that as the only such store in Ottawa, it serves as both a place to see familiar faces and a reminder of the small size of the Jewish community here.
Last week, a 71-year-old man from Cornwall, Ont., is alleged to have entered the store and stabbed a Jewish grandmother multiple times in the back. The grandmother, well known in the Jewish community here, is thankfully now at home recovering. But the initial fears that this might be an antisemitic attack appear to have been borne out, as a review of the alleged attacker’s social media feed reveals a steady stream of antisemitic hate stretching back years. On Friday, Ottawa police announced they will be investigating the incident as a hate-motivated crime.
For the Jewish community, this means yet more security measures as grocery stores get added to a list that now includes synagogues, community events, schools, senior homes and campus lectures – a growing number of places requiring added security and secrecy to keep the community protected. For individuals, it means rethinking placing mezuzahs on the outside of doors, wearing a kippah or Star of David, or participating in Jewish events, given fears of heightened safety risks. The cumulative effect is the gradual erasure of a visible Jewish presence in Canada.
Out of Nowhere: TIFF Undermines Artistic Freedom of Expression With Forced Name Change of October 7th Documentary
The controversy over the Toronto International Film Festival decision to remove a Canadian made October 7th documentary film from its lineup focused primarily on the absurd demand for copyright clearances of clips taken by Hamas terrorists on the day of the attack. While TIFF reversed its decision given the enormous backlash over what many rightly perceived to be censorship, another aspect of TIFF’s demands remain in place. According to media reports, the initial title of the documentary was Out of Nowhere: The Ultimate Rescue. TIFF demanded that the name be changed in order to be included in the program, leading to the new title, The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue. TIFF staff apparently objected to the phrase “Out of Nowhere”, which suggests that staff believes both that (1) the October 7th attack was not out of nowhere, and (2) that it was appropriate to limit artistic freedom of expression by substituting its political views over those of the creator.
Recent Posts
The Year in Review: Top Ten Michael Geist Substacks 
The Year in Review: Top Ten Law Bytes Podcast Episodes 
The Year in Review: Top Ten Posts 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 254: Looking Back at the Year in Canadian Digital Law and Policy 
Confronting Antisemitism in Canada: If Leaders Won’t Call It Out Without Qualifiers, They Can’t Address It
