As a Jewish Canadian, the last two years have felt like watching a wave come in slow motion. The targets have been familiar: synagogues, schools, community centres, and businesses, but the emboldening of those targeting the community continues to grow and morph, with complete inaction from all levels of government.

This isn’t abstract. It’s a lived reality for Canadian citizens. Families walking to synagogues being harassed, university campuses where Jewish students are told they are not welcome, schools being shot at, and businesses being vandalized. You start altering your route home, as you get accustomed to seeing police at your synagogue, events you’re attending and even dropping your kids off at school.

Faced with this, it would be comforting to believe that Ottawa’s new hate-crimes legislation, Bill C-9, is the answer. While the problem is very real, the Criminal Code already possesses multiple provisions which criminalize threats, harassment, intimidation, hate propaganda, and mischief against religious property. The problem is not a lack of law. It is a lack of enforcement and political will.

Sections like 319 (advocating genocide or hatred), 430 (mischief toward religious property), 264 (harassment), 423 (intimidation), and the anti-terrorism provisions already cover many of the acts now used to justify Bill C-9.

As the Canadian Constitution Foundation Litigation Director, Christine Van Geyn told MPs studying Bill C-9, “Canada already has a robust legal framework to address hate and hate-motivated crimes. The answer to a lack of enforcement is not to create........

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