Deborah Lyons, former Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, left, and Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia.The Canadian Press

Last week, a Jewish-owned restaurant in Montreal was vandalized. “You [expletive] Jew” was painted on its front door, with a Jewish star added for good measure. It was just one of too many antisemitic – and Islamophobic – acts shaking Canadian lives in recent years, most of which don’t make it to the news.

Also last week, the federal government announced it is dissolving the offices of Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia and the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism.

The envoys will be replaced by an advisory council on rights, equality and inclusion comprised of academics and community leaders. Its responsibilities include a feel-good, if fuzzy, mission “to foster social cohesion, rally Canadians around shared identity, combat racism and hate in all their forms” and advise the federal government.

Sounds great, right? Who could oppose combating racism and fostering social cohesion? Any fight against hate is welcome.

But right now, antisemitism is a serious problem requiring a strategy of its own – along with a person with matzah balls of steel to oversee it.........

© The Globe and Mail