Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow professes herself perplexed as to the motivation behind a petty, mean, cowardly thief stealing sacred scrolls from the doors of Jewish seniors.

Is Chow so arrogant that she fails to recognize it is because of her, and politicians like her, that this kind of antisemitic criminality happens?

It is monumental hypocrisy on Chow’s part to drape herself in the Palestinian flag, kneel to the anti-Israel activists, permit protest and pandemonium on behalf of those committed to an anti-Israel/antisemitic agenda and then innocently wonder where all this Jew hatred comes from.

Last weekend, about 20 mezuzahs were forcibly taken off the doorways of homes belonging to elderly Jewish residents in community housing in Toronto’s North York neighbourhood.

Mezuzahs (meaning doorposts) are small containers within which are sacred scrolls that begin with a Jewish foundational prayer, the Shema.

It is a despicable thing for a thief, or thieves, to have ripped them from the doors, but it is just one more assault on the Jewish community since Israel was savagely and inhumanely attacked on October 7, 2023.

Chow’s response : “This is an outrageous and vile act of antisemitism. This is a public supportive housing building for seniors. They deserve to live in peace without fear of being targeted for being Jewish. I will be reaching out to (TSHC) leadership to investigate how this could happen.”

She’s right that this act is outrageous and vile and that seniors deserve to live in peace. But her reaching out to the TSHC (presumably the Toronto Seniors Housing Corporation) to find out how “this could happen” is expedient disingenuousness.

Toronto has been a cesspool of antisemitism for two years and Chow’s hollow words in that time have done nothing to clean things up.

The targeting of Jews accounted for 40 per cent of all hate crimes in Toronto in 2024, according to a police report this year, with incidents occurring on public streets, transit, as well as businesses and educational facilities.

Sixty per cent of antisemitic incidents in Ontario K-12 schools happen in Toronto, according to a Canadian government report .

The sight of city streets being blocked and demonstrators chanting pro-Hamas or antisemitic slogans has become all too common.

And violence ranges from a Toronto Jewish elementary girls’ school being shot at multiple times, to a Jewish deli being firebombed .

Just last month, Toronto’s Kehillat Shaarei Torah synagogue was attacked for the 10th time. Meanwhile, glass was broken and scuffles broke out at an event hosted by a  Toronto Metropolitan University student group called Students Supporting Israel.

The barrage of Jew hatred is relentless.

Yet Chow’s anti-Israel stance has been noticeable by her actions and her words.

A year ago, Chow missed a Toronto memorial to mark October 7. She later blamed miscommunication, a missing email and a busy work schedule. Thankfully, she was able to attend the all-important bike lane meeting held earlier that day.

Last month, Chow outraged many Jewish groups when she referred to “the genocide in Gaza” during a speech to the National Council of Canadian Muslims fundraising gala.

Of course, for Chow, politically and culturally, it’s the thing to do. There are more votes to be garnered from the Muslim community than Jewish seniors and in the social milieu in which the mayor moves advocating for Gaza is just so much more fashionable.

Promoting Gaza and denouncing Israel is left wing gold: it makes you look compassionate, caring and empathetic all the while spouting falsehoods, avoiding facts and keeping truth as far away from your arguments as possible.

Even the vehemently anti-Israel South African government couldn’t convince the International Court of Justice that a genocide was taking place. But why does Chow need proof?

And so, when mezuzahs are ripped from the doors of the elderly, no one is really surprised. Angry, yes, but not shocked that it happened. It’s just another incident, another statistic, one more number in the rising toll of antisemitic attacks.

Just another piece of vileness whose motivation somehow continues to confound Chow after two years of such atrocities.

Perhaps Chow should listen to the Jewish voices who have been saying constantly that she may be the problem.

“The permissive nature of the City’s response to the rising levels of incitement and intimidation aimed at the Jewish community continues to embolden those who wish to target Jewish Torontonians,” the Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada said after the mezuzah attacks.

“The time for words is over. Our political leaders — at all levels — must take action to protect the community,” said the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs on X.

Unfortunately, Chow is not listening, worse, she is not acting. And so, with a wind blowing from City Hall, a miasma of Jewish hatred spreads across Toronto.