'Genocide in Gaza': Jewish groups call for Olivia Chow to apologize, resign for anti-Israel remarks
Several Canadian Jewish organizations are rebuking Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow for proclaiming Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza is a genocide during a fundraiser on Saturday night.
Speaking at the National Council of Canadian Muslims fundraising gala at Pearson Convention Centre, Chow, in a brief clip circulating on social media, says “the genocide in Gaza impact us all.”
“A common bond to shared humanity is tested and I will speak out when children anywhere are feeling the pain and violence and hunger,” she continues to some applause.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow accused Israel and the Jewish people of genocide pic.twitter.com/OLZDmlav1a
— Israel Now (@neveragainlive1) November 2, 2025
In another edited clip from the event shared by the Canada-Israel Friendship Association , Chow draws a parallel between affected Palestinian families and her mother’s history, having been a child in China at the time of Japan’s invasion during World War II.
“At just 13 years old, alone after my grandmother died of dysentery, she was responsible for keeping her two brothers alive.”
National Post has contacted the mayor’s office for comment.
Tafsik Organization, a Canadian Jewish civil rights group, was among the first to denounce Chow’s comments, calling them “disgraceful, reckless and dangerously irresponsible” in a social media post.
“Those three words were a slap in the face to Jews in Toronto, across Canada, and around the world — an unforgivable betrayal and a disgraceful distortion of reality,” executive director Amir Epstein said in an accompanying statement discounting the genocide claim.
“We call for Mayor Olivia Chow to be formally excommunicated and permanently rejected by the Jewish community and all Jewish organizations,” he said, noting that she is no longer welcome at Tafsik events and calling on other Jewish organizations to follow suit.
Tafsik tagged B’nai Brith Canada, the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Toronto, Friends of the Jewish National Fund of Canada, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center in its post, all of whom were contacted by National Post for comment. The latter declined to comment at this time.
Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith’s director of research and advocacy, called for Chow to retract her words and apologize and said the group is “exploring every option available to us to ensure that she is held accountable.”
“At a time when the Toronto Mayor should be working to de-escalate tensions and repair the fractures that have been plaguing the city since the October 7 terror acts, she used her influence to further incite and divide,” Robertson wrote in a statement to National Post.
“The Mayor, through her decision to callously spread disinformation, has emboldened those who wish to use geopolitical issues to justify the spread of hate domestically. At a time when she should be doing everything in her power to combat antisemitism, she has chosen to instigate those who engage against the Jewish community.”
The CIJA told National Post in an email that it had sent a letter directly to Chow and, in accompanying statement, CEO Noah Shack said “such language distorts fact and law, and it legitimizes the hostility and intimidation that Jewish Torontonians are already facing in record numbers.”
“By echoing that narrative, Mayor Chow lends support to those spreading malicious libels and undermines public confidence in her commitment to the safety, dignity, and inclusion of all Torontonians.”
The Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAEF) criticized Chow for having “the audacity to compare” Israel’s war on a terrorist organization to Japan’s invasion and also denounced the allegation of genocide.
Such a claim “is not only false and defamatory” to Israel and its people, they said in a statement , but also “a calculated insult to the almost two hundred thousand Jews in the Greater Toronto Area who support Israel, and it exposes the Jewish community to material risk of violence.
“Given the multiple violent attacks against Toronto’s Jewish businesses and community institutions since the October 7, 2023 massacre, Mayor Chow’s words will do more of the same. This is reprehensible and inexcusable.”
In addition to asking for Chow to be banned from all Jewish events, CAEF called for her immediate resignation.
The Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI), meanwhile, also called for Chow to walk back the genocide claim and offer a public apology.
“These reckless and irresponsible remarks only serve to inflame tensions, distort the truth, and fuel antisemitism,” founder and CEO Avi Benlolo said in a statement . “At a time when Jewish communities are facing unprecedented levels of hate, it is unacceptable for the Mayor of Canada’s largest city to repeat a false and incendiary claim that has no basis in fact or law.”
Mayor Olivia Chow must apologize for claiming there is a genocide in Gaza @cityoftoronto @oliviachow @CdnPressNews pic.twitter.com/4HpSdIIH4x
— Avi Abraham Benlolo (@AviBenlolo) November 2, 2025
Dimitris Soudas, a former director of communications for former prime minister Stephen Harper, suggested the mayor had more pressing matters in Toronto than “pandering” to a crowd.
“But somehow, Olivia Chow finds time to make international political statements, recognizing a ‘genocide’ in Gaza without once condemning Hamas,” he wrote on X , adding “Fix Toronto first, Mayor Chow.”
“I can barely find the words to register my anger and disappointment at yet another ‘progressive’ who has bought into the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas narrative,” Sinai Health palliative care doctor Dr. Hershl Berman posted to X.
“@MayorOliviaChow ought to know better, and she has demonstrated that she is not fit to serve as Mayor.”
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