Thank you for the question.
It's not a question of my subjective assessment of whether there's been a rise. The objective statistics—provided not just by national agencies, but by police forces across the country—indicate that there's been an alarming rise. I hasten to add that even though the Jewish community is the single most targeted one, the increase has been pretty much across the board. I think what that suggests is that a normalization has been occurring over the last number of years of speech and action that would have previously been considered marginal or unacceptable.
That is why, for example, we are strong advocates of the social media literacy campaign. Given the role that social media platforms play within society today, we think that an exceedingly important target is educating Canadians on what constitutes fair speech and responsible speech and use of social media platforms, versus those who abuse it in ways that serve to marginalize, threaten, bully, intimidate and exclude different segments of society.
For us, the experience that we go through as a Jewish community is not just about us. It's instructive about what other marginalized and at-risk communities feel, because what starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews. We should take the statistics to heart and move prophylactically to put into place those things that are going to provide Canadians with adequate defence.