Canadian Jewish organizations are calling on the Liberal government to remove obstacles to the application of a relatively new provision of the Criminal Code against Holocaust denial, in a context of rising anti-Semitism.
Shimon Koffler Fogel, CEO of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said his organization had asked liberals to criminalize Holocaust denial, noting that similar laws exist in France and Germany. He believes that this was an important symbolic measure.
The Liberal government included an amendment to the Criminal Code in the 2022 budget implementation bill to prohibit the communication of a statement that “deliberately promotes anti-Semitism by tolerating, denying or minimizing the Holocaust,” except in a private conversation.
More than a year after the creation of the new criminal offense against Holocaust denial, the Federal Ministry of Justice “is not aware of any accusation or prosecution” under the offense created for Holocaust denial, a spokesperson said in a November 9 statement.
The Canadian legal system had already responded to Holocaust denial in other ways, such as in the case of the highly publicized trial of Ernst Zündel. He was accused of deliberately spreading false news after publishing a pamphlet questioning the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust.
However, the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in a 1992 ruling which struck down the section of the Criminal Code relating to false news, on the grounds that it violated the right to freedom of expression protected by the Charter.
British Columbia, Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta also state that they have no record of any such charges, prosecutions or police referrals regarding this offense. Ontario said it could not compile the data in time.
Chantalle Aubertin, spokesperson for Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani, said in a statement on Saturday that there are several provisions regarding hatred in the Criminal Code and that being motivated by hatred can be considered an aggravating circumstance. for any infraction.
“Decisions regarding criminal investigations and prosecutions are made by independent law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities,” she wrote.
Rise of anti-Semitism
Police, political leaders and members of the Jewish community have denounced an alarming rise in anti-Semitism in Canada since the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, including hundreds of civilians. , and took around 240 people hostage.
Since then, more than 11,500 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing war, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which is regularly bombarded by Israeli airstrikes and whose access to water, Electricity and other supplies have been cut off by Israel.
Dan Panneton, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Friends Center, a human rights organization focused on Holocaust education and programs to combat anti-Semitism, says Holocaust denial is easily detected “in communities the most extremist online.
For him, this demonstrates “a blind spot” in the law.
A post circulating online accuses Israel of fabricating some of the violence used by Hamas in the October 7 attacks and then questions whether they may have lied about details of a previous major genocide.
The message was posted last month on the Instagram account of “Toronto4Palestine,” which describes itself online as a “community movement amplifying oppressed voices.” The account, with about 41,000 followers and which promotes pro-Palestinian rallies, acknowledged receiving a direct message asking questions about the post, but as of Sunday morning had not yet provided a response.
Mr. Fogel acknowledges that there are challenges when it comes to enforcing the new law, which he says could be addressed by better training of police and prosecutors on the forms that Holocaust denial takes. Shoah.
He adds that Holocaust denial can take the form of conspiratorial discourse accusing Jews of wanting to control the world, rejecting crimes committed by the Nazis during World War II, and downplaying evidence and historical records.
“This is perhaps not motivated by the same thing, nor even by far-right negationism,” he put into perspective. But ultimately it confines [la Shoah] in the margins, as something not worth considering or from which we can learn moral lessons about how to conduct society. »
Ineffective laws
The laws themselves were designed to be consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression.
Kenneth Grad is a lawyer and doctoral student at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. He says it’s difficult to argue that criminal hate speech laws are effective when you consider the relatively low number of prosecutions and convictions compared to other offenses. But he said banning Holocaust denial could be seen as effective in terms of the symbolism it carries.
According to him, federal and provincial legislators could instead take inspiration from the Canadian Human Rights Act and reintroduce a section targeting speech likely to expose people to hatred – including online – on the basis of their race, gender, religion or any other prohibited grounds of discrimination.
More than six million Jews in Europe were systematically killed by Nazi Germany, as well as its allies, during the Holocaust.