Deborah Lyons shares why she quit as Canada’s antisemitism envoy: ‘It was hard to get people to speak up’

In her first media interview since stepping down early as Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons spoke to The CJN frankly about why she left.

There were no medical or mental health issues that prompted her decision, she says. It was, in part, exhaustion after spending nearly two years “waking up every day to a fight”. It was hard to get people to speak up for the community. Some wouldn’t even agree to speak with her personally. Over time, she grew “despondent and despairing” over how few Canadians have stood up against the anti-Jewish hatred that has flared up in this country since she took the job, soon after Oct. 7, 2023.

Despite serving a term as Canada’s ambassador to Israel from 2016 to 2020, her appointment raised eyebrows in some quarters—including in the Jewish community—because she herself is not Jewish. Nonetheless, she maintained to The CJN how important it was for her to accept the job to show what allyship can look like and to fight for a better Canada.

Now, however, she is leaving the post highly critical of various Canadian sectors. Canadian business leaders, religious leaders and politicians have failed to support the Jewish community. Governments, she believes, found it easier to hold summits to fight carjackings and tariffs—yet could not cooperate when it came to combatting hate.

On today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship news podcast North Star, Deborah Lyons sits down with host Ellin Bessner for an in-depth interview to explain her resignation and why Canadians need to stop being bystanders in what she calls a fight for the future of our country’s children.

Related links

• Read reaction from the Jewish community as Ambassador Deborah Lyons announces she is stepping down on July 17, in The CJN.
• Hear Deborah Lyons’ first interview after being appointed Special Envoy to replace Irwin Cotler, in The CJN, and her later one after releasing the new IHRA handbook in the fall of 2024.
• Her last initiative before resigning was a study of antisemitism in Ontario public schools, in The CJN.

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Bret Higgins

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