Waisuddin Akbari - Community Impact Statement of Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation

PO Box 77598, Sheppard Plaza PO, Toronto, ON, M3H 6A7

Community Impact Statement of R. Michael Teper

President, Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation

R. v. Waisuddin AKBARI (Case No. 4911998249110966000)

April 28, 2025

My name is Michael Teper and I am a Jew. I am the President of the Canadian Antisemitism

Education Foundation (“CAEF”), a Canadian registered charity dedicated to eradicating

antisemitism in Canada through public education and advocacy. We work closely with the

nationwide and grassroots Jewish community organizations in Canada.

On March 4, 2024, Waisuddin Akbari was found guilty of having threatened to cause explosions at synagogues across Toronto and to otherwise kill as many Jews as he could. He communicated these threats, at a BMW dealership, to a sales worker at the dealership who was a stranger to him, and without any prompting from the sales worker.

Toronto’s Jewish community, and the CAEF, take Mr. Akbari’s threats seriously and literally. We don’t think he was joking or puffing. Based on our experiences, we have no choice but to do so.

Since October 7, 2023, the Jewish community in Canada has suffered assaults on its safety unlike anything in the past sixty or seventy years. Jew-haters have firebombed synagogues.[1] Jew-haters have repeatedly fired their weapons at a Jewish girl’s school in the Toronto area.[2] Jew-haters have broken the windows of Jewish-owned delicatessens[3], Kosher restaurants[4] and of course synagogues5, time after time.

The 2023 Hate Crime Statistical Report of the Toronto Police Service states that out of the 365 hate-motivated criminal occurrences reported, 130 of them, being 36%, were directed against Jews.[6] By contrast, Jews constituted 4.5% of the population of Toronto, as counted in the 2021 Census. In brief, we are targeted for a full eight times our demographic share of hate. We therefore do not view Mr. Akbari’s threats in isolation, but against the backdrop of this epidemic of hate crime targeting Jews.

The impact of Mr. Akbari’s threats must not be underestimated. These threats were widely

reported both in the general media[7] and in the Jewish press[8]. These threats, along with many other acts of intimidation both reported and unreported, make Jews in the Greater Toronto Area, and across Canada, reasonably fear for what might happen to them as they go about their daily routines.

In this context, some Jews are giving up on life in Canada. As evidenced by media stories such as this, they are leaving the country.[9] Many Jews are afraid to drop off their children at the local daycare.[10] Our institutions are constantly on the watch for graffiti and vandalism and break-ins.[11]

Our religious and community institutions are forced to divert their financial resources away from programming, maintaining and building our infrastructure, and direct these funds instead towards hiring security guards and police officers.[12] Based on bitter historical experience, we feel that Canada “is on a very dark trajectory that will not end well.”[13]

But we Jews have the right to stay in this country, to prosper and lead robust and meaningful lives, and to be Jewish in public.

We have a right to worship in synagogues on our religious holidays, and indeed every day, without fearing that by merely entering the building, we are risking our lives.

We have the right to construct synagogues and community centers that are attractive and

welcoming, not hidden by walls and fences and constantly patrolled by heavily armed guards, as is the case in many other parts of the world.

We have the right to gather in large numbers at our synagogues and community centers to celebrate major life cycle events such as baby-namings, bar mitzvahs and weddings, without gambling that our celebrations could turn into tragedies, such as the 1994 bombing of the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina in Buenos Aires, in which 85 lives were taken and over 300 seriously injured.

We demand from Canadian society and its governments, including their judicial branches, the right to conduct our affairs in peace, without fear of being blown up by Mr. Akbari or any like-minded individuals. We petition for that level of protection from all our governments. It’s not too much to ask.

We ask that the court ensure that justice consists of a fit and proper communication of the wrong done in this case to the Jewish community’s sense of security, and to the public.

Thank you for your consideration.

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^[1] ‘Deeply disturbing’: Montreal police investigating two firebombings at Jewish institutions | Globalnews.ca

^[2] Third Shooting at Bais Chaya Mushka School | UJA Federation of Greater Toronto  December 20, 2024.

^[3] Fire, graffiti at Jewish-owned business 'targeted,' being probed as hate-motivated: Toronto police | CBC News 

^[4] Jewish organizations outraged after kosher restaurant location, office broken into | CBC News January 3, 2024.

^[5] Windows smashed at 2 Toronto synagogues | CBC News  June 30, 2024

^[6] Toronto Police Service 2023 Annual Hate Crime Statistical Report 

^[7] Man convicted of threatening to bomb ‘every’ Toronto synagogue, ‘kill as many Jews as possible’ | Globalnews.ca Marh 25, 2025

^[8] Waisuddin Akbari Convicted For Extremist Threats Against Toronto Synagogues | THEJ.CA March 26, 2025.

^[9] Why some Jews are giving up on Canada | National Post  https://nationalpost.com/opinion/why-some-jews-aregiving-up-on-canada  June 27, 2024.  

^[10] WARMINGTON: Terrifying threats made against Jewish school and daycare | Toronto Sun November 17, 2023.

^[11] What life is like for Canadian Jews after Hamas attack: We feel scared | National Post https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/what-life-is-like-for-canadian-jews.  December 21, 2023.

[12] Jewish Security Network launched in Toronto to combat antisemitism | National Post Jewish Security Network launched in Toronto to combat antisemitism | National Post September 12, 2024.

[13] https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadas-jews-tipping-point October 2, 2024.