Liberal Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather is denouncing a poster that appeared on a Montreal lamppost asking him to “get out of Canada.”
“My family has been here since the 19th century and we have indeed helped build this country,” Housefather said in a post on the social media site known as X.
“I am not going anywhere. Sorry antisemites. You may not like what I have to say but I will keep saying it and I will keep being a proud Jew and a Zionist.”
Images of the poster online showed it displaying the Israeli flag next to the flag of Nazi Germany, calling Housefather a “neo-Nazi” and describing Zionism as “terrorism.”
Global News reached out to Housefather, who said his team has reported this incident to the police. He declined to comment further.
The Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel has sparked a dramatic surge of antisemitism across Canada, according to a Global News investigation earlier this year based on documents, interviews and figures compiled from police forces.
In December 2023, police in Ottawa arrested a youth who has been charged with plotting a terrorist attack against the Jewish community.
Housefather has been working with parliamentarians on a committee study into antisemitism on Canadian campuses, amid rising fears from students who have said they feel unsafe.
The concerns come amid a global rise in antisemitism, and as members of the Jewish and Muslim communities have also reported increases in hate crimes since Oct. 7.
Earlier this year had said he was reflecting on his future within the Liberal party after an NDP-sponsored motion on the Israel-Hamas conflict passed with significant Liberal amendments on March 18.
He ultimately decided to remain in the caucus.
“The adoption of the motion and all the events that preceded it have angered me as much as they angered most of the Jewish Canadians that I have communicated with,” Housefather said earlier in the year.
“But I also know that my core values remain Liberal ones and after serious reflection I believe my greatest value to Canadians is staying in caucus to advocate for the centrist classical Liberal party that I believe in.”
–with files from Canadian Press