“We support our people, we want the war to end peacefully, that’s all,”Canadian Jewish News journalist says

Ellin Bessner, host of The Canadian Jewish News podcast CJN Daily, says the surprise attack Hamas launched on Israel on Oct.7 has led to an increase in hate crimes that Canadian Jews haven’t experienced since the Second World War.

Ellin Bessner at Global News Studios. Photo credit: Teresa Kaszuba Photo credit: Teresa Kaszuba

“It’s physically and mentally exhausting as a Jewish journalist to see people screaming at you that they hate you, that you should die, that you should go back to the ovens. We support our people, we want the war to end peacefully, that’s all,” she says.

Toronto police chief Myron Demkiw said at a Toronto Police Board meeting on March 18 that there has been a 93 per cent increase in the number of reported hate crimes in Toronto since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza compared to the same time period a year earlier.

Of the 84 reported hate crimes, 56 percent of them have been antisemitic in nature.

Hate crime statistics Photo credit: Victoria Hincapie

Photo Credit: Victoria Hincapie

Photo credit: Victoria Hincapie

Photo credit: Victoria Hincapie

Bessner says that when she started working in news outlets like CTV News and CBC News, she wasn’t encouraged to report on things happening in her own community.

“They felt one couldn’t be objective, so when the opportunity came in 2021 to work for The Canadian Jewish News and start up the CJN daily podcast, which didn’t exist before, I accepted the offer,” she says.

Bessner has worked in the journalism industry for over 20 years, at CTV News, CBC News, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and other organizations.

Bessner says she really wanted to write and tell stories about her own community.

“CJN had been running for 64 years. So for me, it was really important to join something that throughout my whole childhood and life was so respected. I can finally talk about my own people, my own community, and what affects them,” she says.

Bessner says Jewish journalists should cover stories affecting their communities even if they aren’t fully objective.

“I covered lots of protests this past five months. It’s not like we are covering an event such as an animal rights protest, where one is not an animal. So, in other words, this is personal because you can’t be as objective as you would like to be when they are your own relatives, the ones getting slaughtered in Israel, and your own country where your family has lots of relatives and friends,” she says.

Demkiw says there have been more than 500 demonstrations across the city since October of last year.

Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca has proposed to introduce a bylaw that would potentially ban demonstrations within 100 metres from places of worship, child-care centres, schools and hospitals. Anyone who violates the bylaw could be fined up to $100,000.

Bessner says this bylaw would keep people away from Jewish schools and institutions if they are protesting.

“That’s what has to happen. We need protection. Something more needs to be done. Our community, I’m sure, is lobbying for more global protection of our rights to be in Canada, just like everybody else has a right. We only ask for fairness in human rights and free speech and for protests intimidating Canada’s Jewish citizens to not be allowed. because we do not do that to anyone else,” she says.