Shopify president fears for future of Jews in Canada as families contemplate what was ‘unthinkable five years ago’

Harley Finkelstein: “The test isn't whether the government describes the (antisemitism) problem well. It's whether a Jewish family feels safer walking into their community centre a year from now.” Photo by Allen McInnis/Montreal Gazette/Postmedia/File

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The president of Canada’s biggest tech company says antisemitism has been “normalized under the thinnest veil of advocacy,” and many members of the Jewish community are thinking about their future in Canada.

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Harley Finkelstein was confronted, again, by an aggressive protester at Montreal’s Startupfest on Wednesday, the third time in two years he has been aggressively challenged in public for his support of Israel.

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Finkelstein was verbally attacked while talking with former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre on stage. An anti-Israel political activist burst in, went to the side of the stage and filmed Finkelstein while asking about the Gaza war. Finkelstein told the protester he was embarrassing himself, and he was escorted out.

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Finkelstein discussed the event, and the current environment for Canada’s Jewish community, in an email interview with National Post:

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Why do you think this has happened repeatedly at Startupfest?

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It’s not about Startupfest. The festival is a celebration of entrepreneurship and one of the best things about the Canadian tech ecosystem. What’s changed is that visible Jews in public life have become targets, regardless of the venue or the topic. I’ve now been disrupted at a podcast about Jewish entrepreneurs, at the opening of a Jewish community centre, and at a fireside chat about building companies. None of those events had anything to do with politics. The only common thread is me, a proud Jew, on a stage.

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Was (the same protester) behind both instances?

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I don’t know who was behind it, and honestly, I’m not going to give any individual the profile they’re looking for. This is bigger than one person. What matters is the pattern, not the name.

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Can you share more about your emotional reaction? Your parents?

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My parents were sitting in the front row. My father (the son of Holocaust survivors) came to Canada in 1956 fleeing persecution in Hungary, because this country promised safety and the freedom to live openly as Jews. Watching their faces while a man screamed accusations at their son is something I won’t forget. Not because I was rattled. I wasn’t. But because they’ve seen this before, and they believed Canada was the place where their kids would never have to.

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What does this tell us about antisemitism in Canada today?

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That it has been normalized under the thinnest veil of advocacy. Jews are roughly one per cent of Canada’s population and account for about 70 per cent of religion-motivated hate crimes. Behaviour that would be instantly recognized as bigotry against any other community gets rationalized when Jews are the target. That’s the part that has to end. Naming it isn’t inflammatory. It’s necessary.