FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Canadian Party of Quebec Unveils Comprehensive Strategy to Combat Antisemitism

MONTREAL, September 25, 2026 — The Canadian Party of Quebec (CaPQ) today unveiled a provincial strategy to combat antisemitism and strengthen the security of Jewish Quebecers through measures addressing education, community security, law enforcement and institutional accountability.

Party Leader Joseph Cianflone and Joyce Stoliar Shanks, CaPQ candidate in D’Arcy-McGee, presented the policy at a press conference at Place José-Rizal in Montreal’s Mackenzie-King Park.

“Antisemitism is not a problem that can be solved by statements of condemnation alone,” said Cianflone. “It requires prevention, education, rigorous enforcement of our laws and genuine accountability.”

B’nai Brith Canada documented 6,800 antisemitic incidents nationally in 2025, including 573 in Quebec.

A six-part action plan

The CaPQ strategy proposes:

• Holocaust and antisemitism education: Strengthen Holocaust education, teacher training and educational resources, while expanding education about antisemitism, extremism and social cohesion.
• Putting the IHRA definition into practice: Provide relevant institutions, educators, police and publicly funded organizations with training and guidance based on Quebec’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism.
• Security for vulnerable institutions: Establish a Community Security Fund to help synagogues, Jewish schools and community institutions facing elevated risks improve physical security.
• Provincial coordination on hate crime: Improve coordination among police services and strengthen specialized prosecutorial capacity for hate-motivated offences.
• Transparency and enforcement: Introduce standardized public reporting on hate-motivated incidents, investigations, charges and prosecutions, while respecting privacy and due process.
• Institutional accountability: Require publicly funded institutions to maintain effective non-discrimination policies, complaint mechanisms and procedures for responding to harassment, intimidation and criminal conduct.

The party would also examine narrowly tailored access-zone measures around vulnerable institutions where necessary to prevent targeted intimidation or obstruction.

“The anxiety and trauma ... are real”

Stoliar Shanks described security measures that have become part of everyday life for members of Montreal’s Jewish community, including a reinforced synagogue door and security screening at a Jewish community centre.

“The anxiety and trauma that children, students, parents, families and worshippers live with on a daily basis are real and unacceptable,” she said.

She emphasized that the underlying principle extends beyond the Jewish community.

“Not one segment of our society should be living in fear for their safety and their lives,” Stoliar Shanks said. “Every person in Quebec should be able to live with the same sense of security.”

Protecting democratic freedoms

The CaPQ stressed that its proposals target antisemitism, threats, violence, vandalism, criminal harassment and targeted intimidation—not legitimate political disagreement or peaceful protest.

“Peaceful protest and legitimate political debate are essential rights that must always be protected in a free society,” Cianflone said. “Criticism of government policy is not criminal conduct.”

The party maintains that every Quebecer, regardless of religion or background, should be able to live, work, worship, study and participate in public life without fear of discrimination, intimidation or violence.

Media Contact:
Will Twolan
Communications
Canadian Party of Quebec
E-mail: media@particanadienquebec.ca

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BACKGROUND MATERIAL / DOCUMENTATION

ADDENDUM I — PREPARED REMARKS BY JOSEPH CIANFLONE

Prepared remarks

Mesdames et messieurs, chers concitoyens,

L'antisémitisme n'est pas un problème qui se résout par de simples déclarations de condamnation. Il exige de la prévention, de l'éducation, de la rigueur dans l'application de nos lois et une véritable reddition de comptes.

Depuis trop longtemps, l'antisémitisme prend de l'ampleur au Canada, et plus particulièrement ici même, au Québec. Les chiffres sont aussi clairs qu'alarmants : les données nationales démontrent que la communauté juive est visée de façon disproportionnée par les crimes haineux à caractère religieux. Derrière ces statistiques, ce sont des personnes réelles, des familles, des voisins, qui en viennent à se demander s'ils ont encore leur place dans notre société.

Au Parti canadien du Québec, notre doctrine repose sur une conviction fondamentale : la démocratie est fondamentalement incompatible avec le nationalisme, qu'il soit linguistique, religieux ou de toute autre nature. Lorsque le nationalisme cherche à imposer une conformité idéologique ou à diviser les citoyens, ce sont toujours les minorités qui en subissent les premières conséquences.

L'égal traitement de chaque citoyen devant la loi et la protection absolue des libertés fondamentales doivent demeurer les piliers de notre État et de notre nation québécoise démocratique.

C'est pourquoi nous sommes rassemblés aujourd'hui pour dire haut et fort : trop, c'est trop.

To all Quebecers, and to every Canadian watching today: the crisis we face is not abstract. It is unfolding in our streets, on our university campuses, and in the daily lives of our fellow citizens.

The latest national audit from B’nai Brith Canada reveals a staggering reality: 6,800 antisemitic incidents were documented across Canada in a single year—an average of nearly 19 incidents every single day. Here in Quebec, 573 incidents were recorded.

Synagogues and community institutions are being targeted. Students walking through university corridors face intimidation and targeted harassment. In Montreal, a Jewish man was physically assaulted in a public park; Jewish groups have been excluded from civic events; and walls at McGill University were defaced with explicit threats of violence.

Recent violent attacks across the country, such as the alarming assault in Belleville, serve as a stark wake-up call that online radicalization and unbridled hatred inevitably spill over into physical violence against fellow Canadians who share our values and our traditions, and who are targeted simply because of who they are.

We cannot—and will not—stand idly by while hatred becomes normalized in Canada.

Today, the Canadian Party of Quebec is introducing a comprehensive policy to combat antisemitism and restore safety, dignity, and public accountability across our province.

Our policy is built around one simple, unshakeable principle: Jewish Quebecers must be able to live, work, worship, study, and participate fully in public life without fear of harassment, intimidation, or violence.

Our action plan establishes six concrete pillars:

1. Holocaust and Antisemitism Education: Strengthening mandatory educational programs across schools and universities to combat disinformation, online radicalization, and Holocaust denial at their root.

2. Operationalizing the IHRA Definition: Moving beyond symbolic gestures by putting Quebec’s existing commitment to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism into actual, practical enforcement.

3. Security for Vulnerable Institutions: Enhancing provincial funding and security resources for synagogues, schools, and community centres facing elevated risk.

4. Provincial Coordination on Hate Crimes: Establishing streamlined, proactive provincial oversight and dedicated coordination among law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute hate crimes effectively.

5. Transparency and Enforcement: Ensuring clear reporting standards and public transparency on how law enforcement addresses hate crimes and targeted harassment.

6. Institutional Accountability: Holding publicly funded institutions—including universities and municipalities—fully accountable when they fail to protect individuals from discrimination, harassment, or ideological coercion.

Let me be unequivocal about democratic liberties: peaceful protest and legitimate political debate are essential rights that must always be protected in a free society. Criticism of government policy is not criminal conduct.

In Canada, we share a mutual respect for international law that must be sacred and sacrosanct, starting first with our own behaviour as citizens and neighbours, as leaders of the international rules-based order.

Threats, physical violence, vandalism, harassment, and targeted intimidation cannot be excused or tolerated simply because they take place during a political demonstration.

This effort is ultimately about something far broader than any single policy. It is a test of whether Quebec’s institutions can protect all nine million of its residents equally, whether our laws are applied consistently, and whether our public spaces remain open to everyone without fear or discrimination.

The standard we establish today to protect the Jewish community is the exact same standard that safeguards public security, individual liberty, and democratic integrity for every Quebecer, regardless of how they look, how they pray, who they love, where their grandparents are from, or what language they speak at home.

At a time when the integrity of our provincial election is being compromised by linguistic nationalism; and when Amnesty International has had to clearly warn about the “authoritarian drift” of our politicians, who also happened to spend this year debating the removal of our individual rights, and will do it again shortly under the guise of a “constitution,” we must stand strong and united across all communities against this most ancient hate.

Antisemitism and indifference to it are intolerable preconditions for the further decline of our democracy.

Nationalism breeds nationalism… until nations crumble.

Patriotic promotion and maintenance of our cultures, our heritage, and our collective nation is a unifying, respectful force, regardless of any citizen’s ethnic background and descriptors.

Antisemitism has no place in Quebec. And neither does indifference to it, or any other form of nationalism.

It is time for leadership, accountability, and unwavering action.

Thank you. Merci.

ADDENDUM II — PREPARED REMARKS BY JOYCE STOLIAR SHANKS

Prepared remarks

Good morning, and thank you for being with us here today, whether in person or joining us later online.

My name is Joyce Stoliar Shanks. I am running in the riding of D’Arcy-McGee, and I am honoured to be here today with Joe Cianflone, Leader of the Canadian Party of Quebec, to present this much-needed policy against antisemitism.

I am a proud Quebecer, a proud Canadian, and I am proud to be Jewish.

We are also grateful for the help and support Canadian Women Against Antisemitism provided in developing this policy.

The issue of antisemitism does not plague us only here in our province, our home. As you have heard in the recent news out of Belleville, Ontario, just days ago on Yom Kippur, hate crimes against your neighbours, your friends, and your colleagues have reached alarming levels.

Antisemitism has risen dramatically in recent years. National statistics show that Jewish Canadians are disproportionately targeted by religiously motivated hate crime. These statistics represent not just crime, but an epidemic of hate.

I’d like to share some personal perspective here—a reality check, if you will.

A few weeks ago, I went to play mah-jong at a local synagogue in Côte-Saint-Luc. I struggled to open the door because it was unbelievably heavy. One of the ladies who came in with me explained, “Oh, that’s because they made it bulletproof.”

Then, the following week, I went into the Cummings Centre, just down the street. On my way in, I was stopped so that my bags could be put through an X-ray scanner looking for weapons of any kind.

On campus, some students at McGill University have taken their mezuzahs off their doors out of fear for their safety following threats made against them. Parents of children at private Jewish schools have measures and strategies in place in the event of threats or actions against them.

Since October 7, each time my colleague’s phone would ring at work and show a call from the school in the middle of the day, her heart would skip a beat. If the call started with, “Your son is fine,” she could breathe again—but that was not always the case.

The anxiety and trauma that children, students, parents, families, and worshippers live with every day are real and unacceptable.

This is not okay.

Measures involving education, protection, and accountability absolutely need to be enacted. In summary, that is what this policy is about.

Not one segment of our society should be living in fear for their safety and their lives. So while this policy is designed to combat antisemitism, it is important to note that every person in Quebec should be able to live with the same sense of security and the knowledge that their government and authorities are doing what is required to protect and serve their citizens.

I want to thank you again for taking the time to be here, and I want you to know that the Canadian Party of Quebec is committed to putting measures in place to protect and serve all those who call Quebec home.