ROBINSON: Racism in BC's anti-racism committee?

Canada has an antisemitism problem.

The Jewish community has been experiencing a tremendous rise in anti-Jewish hate, the likes of which have never been seen in this country. B’nai Brith has been tracking reports of antisemitism since 1982 and 2025 has been the worst year for acts of hatred toward Jews in Canada.

A record 6,800 incidents have been reported in 2025, and it is suspected that the actual number of incidents is likely much higher. The 2025 numbers are 145% higher than 2022, the year before the Hamas’ attack on Israel. It’s no wonder that on June 1, Prime Minister Mark Carney decided to finally recognize that Jew hatred in this country needs to be named and addressed.

As Mark Carney was making his announcement that they were going to start to address antisemitism, the BC government demonstrated that it was ahead of the curve and actually released its Anti-Racism Plan — a two-year project intended to identify and address systemic racism within government ministries. 

The BC Antiracism Action Plan boasts 15 action items to address racism that affects First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples and 22 additional action items that affect other racialized communities, including Muslims and Jews. 

To assist in the development of the plan, the Ministry of the Attorney General put together a provincial Committee on Anti-Racism comprised of representatives of different ethnic and racial backgrounds.

According to the Anti-Racism Plan, the reason for the committee was that those with lived experience of racism would be able to inform the process and to make sure that the “voices of those most affected by racism are reflected in decision making, and that engagement with communities is ongoing, meaningful and informs implementation.”

I am sure that there were many submissions and presentations made to this group. I am sure they read reports, shared information and hopefully learned from each other too. But I had been hearing that the committee’s only Jewish person was not feeling heard about the experiences of antisemitism and Jew hatred. These whispers were reinforced just a couple of days after the release of the report.

Maayan Kreitzman, an antisemitism educator and trainer posted to social media about her experiences doing an antisemitism/antizionism training with the Provincial Committee on Antiracism and some of the public service from the Ministry of the Attorney General, including staff from the antiracism and multiculturalism branch.

In her post, Ms. Kreitzman noted that the main reason for the invitation to do this antisemitism training was that the committee’s only Jewish person threatened to quit if the government committee didn’t host an antisemitism/antizionism training for the committee and the staff. 

Furthermore, she explained that, “in the Q&A the other trainer who led the session described a scenario where on the first day of class a student said they were Israeli as people were introducing themselves, and another student called her a colonizer and got up and left the room.”

“My fellow trainer asked if folks believe that behaviour to be acceptable,” she added. “A staff member in this antiracism branch replied ‘Yeah, that's voting with your feet’.”

Last time I checked, a person’s national origin is a protected class under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. For a staff member from the Attorney General’s Ministry, a staff member who is responsible for the Antiracism Action Plan, to say that it is perfectly acceptable to discriminate based on country of origin is a pretty big deal, and it’s very telling. 

It’s no wonder the Provincial Committee on Antiracism’s only Jewish person was feeling frustrated and unheard. 

To add insult to injury, according to Maayan, a follow up conversation with Ministry staff encouraging more training on the human rights code and anti-Israel discrimination was met with an apology for any “hurt feelings.” There was no meaningful conversation or even acknowledgement to address how Ministry staff are engaging in antisemitic, discriminatory and anti-Israel behaviours. 

BC Premier David Eby re-affirmed his government’s commitment to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition during his estimates in May of this year, a definition of antisemitism that has been adopted by over 40 nations, including Canada in 2019. 

During the estimates, he also noted that government did not need to address antisemitism in the public service because some of the senior public service would meet periodically with representatives of the organized Jewish community. Yet, the very people responsible for implementing government’s anti-racism action plan are engaging in antisemitism as defined in IHRA and clearly demonstrate that anti Jewish sentiment is indeed embedded in BC’s public service. Clearly, those periodic meetings with members of the Jewish community are not enough.

Yes, Prime Minister Carney, Canada does have a serious antisemitism/antizionism Jew-hating problem, and it appears to be alive and well in Eby’s government and BC’s public service.

But Eby says not to worry, we meet sometimes with members of the Jewish community.

Selina Robinson MA was a family therapist for over 25 years before entering politics in 2008, first as a city counsellor, then as an MLA. She held several cabinet portfolios in the BC government, including municipal affairs & housing, post-secondary education, and finance. Amid rising antisemitism following the October 7 terrorist attacks, Robinson, a Jew, found herself targeted by anti-Israel activists and was fired from cabinet by Premier Eby. She wrote about her experience as a progressive Jew in government in her memoir, Truth Be Told.