Benjamin Spurr

Slam Chow for skipping debate event.

By Ben Spurr, City Hall Bureau Chief.

Two of Toronto's leading mayoral candidates told a packed North York synagogue they would do more than the current administration to protect the city's Jewish community from antisemitism in an early test of the fall campaign season.

Brad Bradford and Chris Alexander, who since nominations for the election closed last month, have emerged as the primary challengers to incumbent Olivia Chow in the October 26th contest, set for a pair-- sat for a pair of live interviews at the Adath Israel Congregation on Tuesday and denounced what they described as the scourge of rising antisemitism that has afflicted the city for the past three years.

Is it true that the mayor of Toronto is an anti-Semite? This comes up again as Olivia Chow refuses to participate in a mayoral debate to specifically discuss anti-Semitism in the city.

Ben Spurr in the Toronto Star tells us, Olivia Chow will not attend a Toronto mayoral debate next week about anti-Semitism and other public safety concerns.

Her team confirmed that with Ben Spurr.

Spurr writes, the decision could serve as fodder for critics who have accused the incumbent mayor of not taking anti-Jewish hate seriously and marks the latest challenge Chow has faced in navigating local concerns about anti-Semitism in the wake of the Israel-Gaza war.

Chao's excuses for not taking part are lame, I think.