When is a Survey not a Survey?
It’s only been a week since the survey by the so-called Jewish Medical Association of Ontario (JMAO) was released. But when is a survey not a survey? When it is not written down, and every time you turn around, more factoids are spewed and regurgitated by the media – but there is no survey data to back them up.
A week ago the JMAO said their new “survey” found that at least 31% of the 1000 Jewish doctors surveyed across Canada insist they are thinking of leaving their medical practices and their homes in Canada to go somewhere else – because of galloping antisemitism. According to one news article, only seven out of 944 respondents (less than 1%) had experienced severe antisemitism in hospitals, medical schools, and in the community. Two hundred and ninety-four said they experienced some antisemitism. The Jerusalem Post (associated with Canada’s Postmedia) reported that one Canadian doctor said, “I feel I no longer belong in Canada and may need to flee.”
All of this runs contrary to the latest research report on Canadians’ attitudes toward Jews, “Jews and Israel 2024: A Survey of Canadian Attitudes and Jewish Perceptions” published in the journal Canadian Jewish Studies Vol. 37 by well-respected University of Toronto sociologist Dr Robert Brym. In the survey released in March 2024, Brym notes, “Contrary to the picture painted by many media outlets, these results do not suggest that a wave of antisemitism has engulfed the general population.”
64% of non-Jews in Canada have a positive attitude toward Jews
For example, more than 64% of non-Jews in Canada were “seen to express the most positive attitude toward Jews.” Nineteen percent scored average in attitude toward Jews, while 17% had negative attitudes toward Jews. This tallies with the US’s ADL’s (Anti-Defamation League) survey of antisemitic attitudes from 100 countries around the world. The ADL’s report says that Canada has the second lowest rate of antisemitism in the ‘developed’ world. Eight percent of Canadians hold antisemitic attitudes. Only Sweden and the Netherlands at 5% are believed less antisemitic.
So, if the honorable Jewish doctors want to flee to a country less antisemitic than Canada, they have only two countries to choose from – Sweden and the Netherlands. And those are only marginally less hateful to Jews than Canada.
According to Brym’s study, 28% of Canadian Jews with an opinion on the subject said that Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack as “excessive” and 51% of those Jews with an opinion on the subject felt that Israel has no right to build settlements in the West Bank. Brym concludes:
“Most Jewish community leaders (who are unelected) and their spokespersons evidently do not share such opinions. They have claimed that Jewish critics of Israeli government policy are an insignificant and marginal minority. The findings of this study challenge the leadership’s claim.”
With that in mind, we turn back to last week’s release of the “facts” in the JMAO survey. Though the JMAO survey is the subject of more than a dozen news articles, not one provided a link to the survey. The JMAO never posted the survey on their site. Even on the website of its media cheerleader, the National Post, there is no link to the full survey.
One precipitant of the expected mass exodus of Jewish physicians in the JMAO survey was that OPSEU, Ontario’s major public services union, refused to come to the aid of “beleaguered Canadian Jews.” Who are they? Jews such as Serena Lee-Segal, an occupational therapist in Toronto who declares that she has
“seen firsthand how the union has been visibly targeting Jews with hatred. Union members have been attending protests that condone terrorism, and I’ve witnessed colleagues showing up to these protests with union flags, chanting dangerous slogans.”
Ms. Lee-Segal is talking about her union’s support for Palestinians in Gaza, the demand for a ceasefire, and some members’ outrage at what Amnesty International calls Israel’s “genocide.” We have no idea what the slogans were, what the “Jew hatred” was and whether or not this is true. We just know what Ms. Lee-Segal believes.
After all, in a whole week, and after a press conference at the legislature last Wednesday, there is still no report on the JMAO survey.
How can it be that the JMAO – who are predominantly composed of Jewish medical doctors in southern Ontario seem to be so callous about the genocide taking place in Gaza? The JMAO does not discuss the 46,000 dead Palestinians in Gaza – 2,000 killed by Israel in the last two weeks alone, Gaza’s more than 97,000 seriously maimed, or the ten Palestinian children a day who have lost one or both legs to amputation (often without anaesthesia). No, the JMAO believes the true sufferers are the Jews.
Surely the real victims are not Jewish medical professionals but rather the dozens of doctors and other health professionals who have been disciplined and had their careers wrecked by the pro-Israel lobby that insists criticism of Israel is tantamount to antisemitism. And, not to put too fine a point on it, what about the 1100 plus healthcare workers that Israel has killed in Gaza?
Response from the JMAO to “where’s the survey?”
Oh – I just got an email from the JMAO whom I asked to direct me to their full survey. Their response:
“Thank you for your request. We hope that the survey details will be made more widely available through peer reviewed publication, but we will have to see what comes of the process.”
It seems odd to me that many details, factoids, and interviews got released last week but no one has the opportunity to read the whole survey.
If this survey is indeed going to peer review, why did the JMAO release all the facts and figures before those facts and figures had a chance to be evaluated by knowledgeable scholars? What is more embarrassing is that credulous journalists wrote a flurry of articles about a survey without having read a word of that survey. For many in Canada’s media, it is enough to point to antisemitism, to distract from the real suffering going on in Gaza. What a sorry day for journalism! •
Please donate, and together, we will build an alternative to capitalism.
Click on the ‘Donate’ button below, or use the QR code on the right to go to our PayPal page. Thank You.
