Spate of antisemitic graffiti leaves Jewish community, police scrambling On second anniversary of Oct. 7 attacks and start of Gaza war, officers say rushing to cover painful vandalism reduces odds of arrests By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 3:42 PM CDT Monday, Oct. 6, 2025 Last Modified: 8:54 AM CDT Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025 Updates

A swastika on a monument to French Canadian author Gabrielle Roy across the Red River from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

The words “F—k Jews” on the wall of a toilet stall at a north Winnipeg middle school.

A spray-painted swastika on a garage door along with the initials M.K.Y., an international neo-Nazi violent extremist group. The initials come from the Russian words for “Maniac Murder Cult.”

But as fast as they appeared, they were being covered up just as quickly — until recently.

That’s because while there has been an unprecedented spike in the volume of antisemitic graffiti in Winnipeg over the past two years, members of the local Jewish community had been vigilant in removing what they could as soon as they could.

But two years after Hamas and other Palestinian militants staged daybreak attacks on Israeli communities near the border with Gaza, slaying more than 1,200 mostly civilians residents and kidnapping 251 others — triggering a ferocious, ongoing military retaliation — Winnipeg Jews are being told to leave the provocative words and symbols.

At least for the time being.

The Winnipeg Police Service has instructed community members to stand down to let investigators work, increasing the odds of catching the people responsible, said Jeff Lieberman, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg.

“It is amazing how much is out there,” he said. “The Jewish people here have never felt this much antisemitism. It is shocking what is happening now. A lot of people are affected and get triggered by it.”

Lieberman said he knows the spike in antisemitism is connected to outrage over Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

“We can’t control what the Israeli government is doing,” he said. “We are citizens here and we live our lives here. Most people aren’t antisemitic, but there are some and they are the ones who get the attention.”

The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported more than 67,000 deaths and almost 170,000 wounded in the now-two-year war.

Israel has long claimed that Hamas — which has governed Gaza’s estimated 2.1 million residents since 2007 — launch attacks from hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, using residents as human shields and raising the number of casualties.

Israeli and Hamas representatives, along with delegates from other nations, are meeting in Egypt this week in an effort to negotiate an end to the war based on a ceasefire plan put forward by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Half a world away, WPS Insp. Jennifer McKinnon of the major crimes division said if antisemitic graffiti is erased before officers can see it, record images and begin investigating, it reduces the chances of anyone being caught and prosecuted.

“Some of this graffiti can be extremely hurtful and triggering for the community,” McKinnon said.

“The delaying and getting it down and having people drive by it — the impacts can be quite significant. I don’t blame them for getting out there and cleaning it up. But, once they clean it up, there’s really not much for us to work with at that point.”

“The delaying and getting it down and having people drive by it; the impacts can be quite significant. I don’t blame them for getting out there and cleaning it up. But, once they clean it up, there’s really not much for us to work with at that point.”

Earlier this year, a 19-year-0ld man was charged initially with 26 counts of mischief under $5,000 after myriad reports of antisemitic graffiti in Charleswood. The RCMP charged him with two counts of commission of an offence for a terrorist group and single counts of participating in the activity of a terrorist group and facilitating terrorist activity.

The matter is still before courts.

“If that graffiti had been taken down, and not reported to us, we would never have gotten to the end result of that investigation and holding someone accountable for that,” McKinnon said.

“It is interesting — something as simple as graffiti is considered mischief, but mischief can lead to some significant charges.”

McKinnon said police have advised members of the Jewish community to report it as quickly as possible, leave it in place until investigators get there and, in cases where that isn’t an option, take photos.

“It gives us something to present to the courts,” she said. “We can go out there and locate where it is and have a look around to see if there was a business camera which may have caught the suspect.”

Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s director of research and advocacy, said while he doesn’t have antisemitism statistics for Winnipeg specifically, there has been a shocking increase in the numbers nationally and in the organization’s Manitoba-Saskatchewan region.

“Since 2022 to 2024, incidents of antisemitism has raised nationally by 124 per cent,” Robertson said. “And there were 335 incidents in the Prairie region in 2023, that was a 400 per cent increase from 2022.”

Robertson said it is especially concerning that the graffiti not only uses Nazi symbols, but also wording calling for the end of the Jewish state.

“We are also seeing graffiti being perpetrated from individuals across the political spectrum,” he said. “It’s coming from both radicals on the left and the right. There has always been antisemitism on both sides of the political equation, but now it has become more prominent since Oct. 7. It seems to have emboldened individuals on both sides. And, unfortunately, antisemitic graffiti is becoming normalized.”

That increase, and other hate crimes against Jewish people, has led to the creation of the Manitoba Institute to Combat Antisemitism, by the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada and the Asper Foundation.

Heritage centre executive director Belle Jarniewski, who is also leading the new institute, said a Statistics Canada report in July revealed that almost 19 per cent of the nearly 4,900 hate crimes reported in Canada in 2024, and almost 70 per cent of religiously motivated hate crimes, were committed against Jewish people, who make up less than one per cent of the country’s population.

Jarniewski, whose parents both survived the Holocaust in concentration camps during the Second World War, said the institute will offer training on the origins of antisemitism, its evolution and how to battle it.

“We really feel education is very necessary,” she said. “I’ve seen the photos of the graffiti. A lot of it is out of ignorance and it comes from a place of ignorance. We need to reach out to businesses, professional groups, students, educators and non-profit organizations.

“But the teachers who bring their students to us already understand. The people who spread graffiti or go online aren’t the ones coming to our presentations.”

Longtime human-rights, refugee and immigration lawyer David Matas, who is also senior legal counsel for B’nai Brith, said the problem has risen to a stunning level.

“And it’s not just Winnipeg, it’s not just Canada, it is globally,” Matas said. “It was high before, but it is significantly high now. It is so pervasive and it has become normalized. I was born during the Holocaust in 1943… I feel like I’m back in my childhood.”

Both Danita Aziza and Lisa Lewis have been among the people who’ve worked to remove the graffiti.

“I’ve lived in a lot of places and I’m such a big fan of Winnipeg and always felt comfortable here,” said Aziza, a member of the Jewish community. “But every week you see graffiti and antisemitic posters and you think, ‘there should be no hate here,’ and yet here it is.

“I talk to Holocaust survivors and they say, ‘We never thought we would see this again.’”

Lewis, who is Indigenous, said she has made it her mission to help eradicate the hateful words and symbols.

“If I’m upset when I see it, I can’t imagine what the members of the Jewish community feel,” she said, adding that during July’s fringe theatre festival, she and others were taking down 50 to 60 antisemitic posters daily in the Exchange District. The posters were targeting a Jewish performer in one play.

“Now I notice it all over the city.”

Meanwhile, Lieberman said he is hopeful that this week’s negotiations in Egypt will bring and end to the violence and destruction in the Middle East and the threats and fear here.

“I’m hoping peoples’ lives can go back as they were, as much as they can, and the visible signs of antisemitism will dissipate,” he said.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.