Sep 9, 2026 · 39 min · 9 segments
Jerry opens the show with a look at the Toronto mayoral race, following criticism of Olivia Chow for skipping a debate focused on antisemitism while other candidates pledged to address the issue. He…
Jerry AgarHost
Rocco RossiGuest
Paul SpeckGuest
Mark McQueenGuest
If 82% of the hate-motivated attacks in Toronto were perpetrated against the 9.6% of the population that's Muslim, would Mayor Olivia Chow care? Well, I hope so.
If 82% of the hate-motivated attacks in Toronto were against the 9.6% of the population that's Black, would she care? Well, I hope so.
Now, that covers a lot of territory, but if the hate-motivated attacks against that demographic were two and a half times representation, would Olivia Chow care? Again, I would hope so.
Personally, I would hope she'd care if 82% of hate attacks in the city were perpetrated against the 7.5% of us who are the Irish population in this city.
But as Rosie Dimanno points out in the Toronto Star, while hate crimes in Toronto fell by 50% in 2025 compared to the year before, according to police statistics, anti-Jewish occurrences accounted for 82% of incidents motivated by religion despite Jews comprising a mere 3% of the city's population.
Does Olivia Chow care? Despite some lip service to the idea that antisemitism is unacceptable, it's difficult to say that she does.
John Tory commented on this on Moore in the Morning this morning, and, you know, he kind of addresses the recent lip service from Olivia Chow.
She stood next to the police chief.
This is something she should've done a year and a half ago on antisemitism, or two years ago.
Uh, stood beside the police chief and said, "Whatever he needs to do to fix this in the city, I'll be behind him," and she didn't.
And so to me, to go now to stand beside the police chief and talk about what they're doing on the high holidays is just not gonna cut it.
Uh, and the business about her campaigning and that all starting, and that that's the reason why she couldn't go, we talked about this yesterday or the day before, that's just baloney.
In fact, she tries hard to not show up to any occasion that features Jews or, as with last night's debate, focuses on the hate in this city.
Chow always has excuses, but Rosie Dimanno writes, "I don't believe you, Mayor Olivia Chow.
Not even Torontonians who may share views that you won't say out loud believe you.
Neither of your two rival candidates, Chris Alexander and Brad Bradford, who participated in a debate Tuesday evening on skyrocketing antisemitism in this city believes you.
Chow skipped the raising of Israel's flag at City Hall on Israel Independence Day, which she deemed a bit divisive.
She was offered a chance to change the date since she says she's not starting her campaign until today.
She was offered a chance to ask for a different moderator if she objected to Jesse Brown, who's been critical of her, but no.
To quote Dimanno again, this is from Dimanno, "Israel may be a politically toxic subject.
There is a solid distinction between opposition to the grotesquely punitive policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Palestinians, nearly 74,000 killed in Gaza in Israel's retaliatory military campaign," according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and there's a difference between all of that and blatant Jew hate.
That has nothing to do with Jamaicans who live in this city, making up, by the way, about 2.25% of the population.
Mayoral candidate Chris Alexander said, "We've allowed people to harass the Jewish population, to go into neighborhoods where there's no reason to protest except to intimidate.
It's harassment, and it needs to stop." Councillor James Pasternak, after he itemized the firebombings, the gunfire, the every Sunday morning protest at Bathurst and Sheppard said, "Some elected officials even see votes in the mob." I truly believe this should be part of your consideration as you vote for mayor October 26th, so much so that I'm going to repeat something I said in my ome- opening commentary on one of the shows last week.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair shared a private conversation where Joly justified her stance on Middle East policy by asking, "Thomas, have you seen the demographics of my riding?" Progress Toronto makes no pretense to be an interested third-party civic group.
She has served on the board of the Iranian Canadian Congress, a group that supports the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is listed by the Canadian government as a terrorist group.
There's at least 3,000 years of history demonstrating that there's no shortage of politicians who are willing to sacrifice the Jews to get what they want.
I really truly believe that if 82% of the hate-motivated attacks in Toronto were against any other minority demographic in this city, Olivia Chow would care, and doesn't appear to now, and so would you.
If you're one of those people, are, are the Jews expendable? Is, is, is that the idea? You just really don't care? What if 82% of crimes of the nature we're talking about, hate crimes, were perpetrated against gay people in the city of Toronto? Would this city be boiling with commentary and people bringing solutions and, uh, just r- rending of garments and pulling of hair? I think so.
And all I'm saying here is I'm asking you to ask yourself if you don't care, why not? You know, it's like that question, if Anne Frank showed up at your house, would you have hidden her? It's a tough question.
We're in a different situation here but, you know, how far are we from being not so different? Um, somebody writes a text message.
"Olivia Chow has sold her integrity for votes." Well, that's the comparison to Melanie Joly.
And not everybody in Mu- who is Muslim in Toronto hates Jews, so, um, y- it's not gonna be the total 9.6%.
And I'm just imploring you here to put a little thinking into what you care about and who you care about.
If all of those other minority groups matter, and they do, and the majority matters, why not that tiny population? Well, I guess as I said, there was thousands of years of history of people sacrificing the Jews in order to get what they want.
And if that's Toronto, then it's very hard to be proud of Toronto, isn't it? Donald Trump bans Canadian alcohol and dairy imports and boosts tariffs.
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If 82% of the hate-motivated attacks in Toronto were perpetrated against the 9.6% of the population that's Muslim, would Mayor Olivia Chow care? Well, I hope so.
If 82% of the hate-motivated attacks in Toronto were against the 9.6% of the population that's Black, would she care? Well, I hope so.
Now, that covers a lot of territory, but if the hate-motivated attacks against that demographic were two and a half times representation, would Olivia Chow care? Again, I would hope so.
Personally, I would hope she'd care if 82% of hate attacks in the city were perpetrated against the 7.5% of us who are the Irish population in this city.
But as Rosie Dimanno points out in the Toronto Star, while hate crimes in Toronto fell by 50% in 2025 compared to the year before, according to police statistics, anti-Jewish occurrences accounted for 82% of incidents motivated by religion despite Jews comprising a mere 3% of the city's population.
Does Olivia Chow care? Despite some lip service to the idea that antisemitism is unacceptable, it's difficult to say that she does.
John Tory commented on this on Moore in the Morning this morning, and, you know, he kind of addresses the recent lip service from Olivia Chow.
She stood next to the police chief.
This is something she should've done a year and a half ago on antisemitism, or two years ago.
Uh, stood beside the police chief and said, "Whatever he needs to do to fix this in the city, I'll be behind him," and she didn't.
And so to me, to go now to stand beside the police chief and talk about what they're doing on the high holidays is just not gonna cut it.
Uh, and the business about her campaigning and that all starting, and that that's the reason why she couldn't go, we talked about this yesterday or the day before, that's just baloney.
In fact, she tries hard to not show up to any occasion that features Jews or, as with last night's debate, focuses on the hate in this city.
Chow always has excuses, but Rosie Dimanno writes, "I don't believe you, Mayor Olivia Chow.
Not even Torontonians who may share views that you won't say out loud believe you.
Neither of your two rival candidates, Chris Alexander and Brad Bradford, who participated in a debate Tuesday evening on skyrocketing antisemitism in this city believes you.
Chow skipped the raising of Israel's flag at City Hall on Israel Independence Day, which she deemed a bit divisive.
She was offered a chance to change the date since she says she's not starting her campaign until today.
She was offered a chance to ask for a different moderator if she objected to Jesse Brown, who's been critical of her, but no.
To quote Dimanno again, this is from Dimanno, "Israel may be a politically toxic subject.
There is a solid distinction between opposition to the grotesquely punitive policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Palestinians, nearly 74,000 killed in Gaza in Israel's retaliatory military campaign," according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and there's a difference between all of that and blatant Jew hate.
That has nothing to do with Jamaicans who live in this city, making up, by the way, about 2.25% of the population.
Mayoral candidate Chris Alexander said, "We've allowed people to harass the Jewish population, to go into neighborhoods where there's no reason to protest except to intimidate.
It's harassment, and it needs to stop." Councillor James Pasternak, after he itemized the firebombings, the gunfire, the every Sunday morning protest at Bathurst and Sheppard said, "Some elected officials even see votes in the mob." I truly believe this should be part of your consideration as you vote for mayor October 26th, so much so that I'm going to repeat something I said in my ome- opening commentary on one of the shows last week.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair shared a private conversation where Joly justified her stance on Middle East policy by asking, "Thomas, have you seen the demographics of my riding?" Progress Toronto makes no pretense to be an interested third-party civic group.
She has served on the board of the Iranian Canadian Congress, a group that supports the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is listed by the Canadian government as a terrorist group.
There's at least 3,000 years of history demonstrating that there's no shortage of politicians who are willing to sacrifice the Jews to get what they want.
I really truly believe that if 82% of the hate-motivated attacks in Toronto were against any other minority demographic in this city, Olivia Chow would care, and doesn't appear to now, and so would you.
If you're one of those people, are, are the Jews expendable? Is, is, is that the idea? You just really don't care? What if 82% of crimes of the nature we're talking about, hate crimes, were perpetrated against gay people in the city of Toronto? Would this city be boiling with commentary and people bringing solutions and, uh, just r- rending of garments and pulling of hair? I think so.
And all I'm saying here is I'm asking you to ask yourself if you don't care, why not? You know, it's like that question, if Anne Frank showed up at your house, would you have hidden her? It's a tough question.
We're in a different situation here but, you know, how far are we from being not so different? Um, somebody writes a text message.
"Olivia Chow has sold her integrity for votes." Well, that's the comparison to Melanie Joly.
And not everybody in Mu- who is Muslim in Toronto hates Jews, so, um, y- it's not gonna be the total 9.6%.
And I'm just imploring you here to put a little thinking into what you care about and who you care about.
If all of those other minority groups matter, and they do, and the majority matters, why not that tiny population? Well, I guess as I said, there was thousands of years of history of people sacrificing the Jews in order to get what they want.
And if that's Toronto, then it's very hard to be proud of Toronto, isn't it? Donald Trump bans Canadian alcohol and dairy imports and boosts tariffs.
