Antisemitism concerns keep synagogue address secret for Toronto mayoral debate

Toronto’s leading mayoral candidates have been invited to debate antisemitism next month. Mayor Olivia Chow has not said if she will attend.

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The debate is set for Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. at a synagogue in Toronto. The address is going only to people who register, and police and professional security will be on site.

Eric Frydman, president of Jewish Lawyers of Canada, which is hosting, said in an email to National Post that security has become a significant consideration for community events run by Jewish organizations. He pointed to two locations of a Jewish-owned bakery in Toronto that were targeted, one by gunfire, and to a Jewish girls’ school he said has been shot at on three separate occasions.

“These incidents make clear that security concerns facing the community are no longer abstract,” he wrote.

Roughly 800 people have registered, Frydman wrote, and he expects a room of about 1,200. Canadaland founder Jesse Brown will moderate. Brown posted Tuesday that critics say he will not be impartial, that they are correct, and that Chow would be treated fairly if she takes part.

Candidates will be asked how City Hall should respond when any community is targeted by intimidation, harassment or violence, the organization said in a news release. Frydman said in the release that anti-Jewish occurrences accounted for 82 per cent of all religiously motivated hate crimes reported by Toronto police in 2025.

That is a share of one category, not of all hate crimes, and it is city data. Statistics Canada put the national share at 71 per cent last year. Toronto police reported that religiously motivated hate crimes fell 49 per cent from 2024, and that hate crimes overall are up 40 per cent so far this year.

Frydman wrote that the organization invited announced candidates polling at or above roughly five per cent in publicly available polling. Three cleared it, out of more than 30 people registered to run. Nominations close Friday, and the election is Oct. 26. The debate opens Jewish Leadership in Canada Week, which the organization is running Sept. 8 to 13.

Chris Alexander’s campaign confirmed Tuesday that he will attend. On his first day at City Hall he would set up a Mayor’s Crisis Group to Combat Antisemitism working with police, schools and other levels of government, he said in a statement, with progress tracked on a public dashboard.

“Somewhere in Toronto, a parent is deciding whether their child can wear a Star of David on the subway tomorrow,” Alexander said. “That is the calculation now.”

He said he had fought antisemitism as an ambassador and at the cabinet table, and that Toronto “has never had a real plan.”

Alexander, a former immigration minister and ambassador to Afghanistan, entered the race July 29. Sixty-one per cent of Torontonians said they were not familiar with him in a poll released this month.

Brad Bradford’s campaign did not say whether he will attend, though the release lists him as confirmed.

“We appreciate the opportunity to participate in debates across the city,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement. “It’s important debates platform the two leading candidates: Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford. We’re grateful for the invitation from this and all debate organisers.”

The statement did not name the Sept. 8 debate or its host. Antisemitism has been part of Bradford’s campaign. He told National Post in June that he led the push for safe access zones around places of worship, and that Chow fought him every step of the way.

“I will never stand at a podium and offer a declaration of a genocide, that I am unqualified to opine over,” he told National Post, referring to Chow.

His most recent policy announcement was about addiction. Bradford posted Monday that Toronto needs mandatory addiction treatment in the most severe cases.

Chow has an open invitation with no expiry date, Frydman wrote, and the organization has been in touch with her campaign. At a news conference in July, after a weekend of shootings that left three people dead, Chow said police had her full support and that she had urged the federal public safety minister to work with his American counterparts on illegal guns.

A Liaison Strategies survey of 1,000 Toronto residents conducted Aug. 4 and 5 put Chow at 47 per cent among decided and leaning voters, Bradford at 40 and Alexander at 10. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

All three have confirmed for a different debate. The Daily Bread Food Bank is holding one Sept. 14 in Etobicoke on poverty, affordability and housing, using the same five per cent threshold drawn from rolling polling by the same firm.

Sahar Raza, the food bank’s vice-president of research and advocacy, said she learned of the Sept. 8 debate in the previous 24 hours. She said her own event exists to put the cost of living in front of the candidates.

“Everything driving people to food banks, those are policy failures,” Raza said.

She said the city has been doing a good job with what it has.

“There’s only so much that a municipality can do to resolve the issues that we’re facing,” Raza said.

Frydman is still waiting on the mayor.

“We very much hope she will participate and take the opportunity to speak directly to the community about her vision for Toronto, public safety and the rise in antisemitism,” he wrote.

Chow’s campaign and the mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

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