(Source: Institut de cardiologie de Montréal)
Dr. Emmanuel Moss, the chief of cardiac surgery at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, has decided to leave Quebec for Atlanta this September. A highly skilled surgeon who pioneered robotic cardiac procedures at his hospital, Dr. Moss is not retiring. He is in the prime of his career. His departure follows that of prominent Concordia University professor Gad Saad, who also announced last month that he is leaving Montreal for the University of Mississippi, citing death threats and a hostile environment for a high-profile Jewish academic who supports Israel’s right to exist.
This is a serious warning sign for Canada.
Two accomplished Jewish professionals — one saving lives in the operating room, the other shaping young minds in academia — have concluded that Montreal is no longer a safe or welcoming place for them and their families. Both cited surging antisemitism as a decisive factor. In recent years, Montreal has seen physical assaults on Jews, vandalism of Jewish businesses, firebombings of synagogues, bullets fired at a yeshiva, and most recently, masked protesters staging mock hangings of effigies wearing kippahs. These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a dangerous normalization of Jew-hatred that authorities have failed to confront with sufficient force.
True North has been tracking this dangerous trend. Rapid demographic shifts through high immigration are reshaping Canada’s major cities. In Montreal, immigrants made up 24.3% of the population according to the 2021 Census, with over 162,000 recent immigrants arriving between 2016 and 2021. Toronto has seen even more dramatic change, with immigrants comprising nearly 47% of its population. While immigration brings many benefits, it has also imported antisemitic attitudes that were far less common in Canada just a decade or two ago. When paired with weak political leadership and a failure to vigorously defend core Western values, the result is a growing climate of insecurity for Jewish communities and others who cherish liberal traditions.
Canada cannot afford to keep losing people like Dr. Moss and Professor Saad. These are not average citizens — they are exceptional contributors in medicine and education. When antisemitism becomes so brazen that it drives away top talent, the entire country suffers: longer wait times for heart surgery, fewer outstanding professors, and a slow erosion of the tolerant society Canada claims to be.
We must do better. This is not about one city or one province. It is about whether Canada still has the courage to protect its Jewish citizens and uphold the values of openness, merit, and security that once made this country a destination for the ambitious and the persecuted. If we fail here, we will lose far more than just two talented individuals. We risk losing the very character of the nation.
