Mayor Chow got emails about Oct. 7 vigil, documents show
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Mayor Olivia Chow says she never got the emails — but the Toronto Sun got ’em.
Dozens of pages worth of emails, released to the Sun after a freedom-of-information request, appear to show at least two messages about the Oct. 7 vigil were delivered to Chow’s inbox well before the event took place.
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The vigil, hosted by the United Jewish Appeal Federation in North York, was held one year after the attack on Israel by Hamas to honour the 1,200 people who were slain. Several politicians attended, including city councillors and Premier Doug Ford, but not Chow.
Arianne Robinson, who until recently was Chow’s press secretary, told the Sun’s Joe Warmington shortly after the vigil that the mayor’s office “didn’t receive an invitation.”
The documents released to the Sun tell a different story.
On Sept. 6, the Jewish humanitarian group Ve’ahavta sent its newsletter to a list of email addresses that included Chow. That email ended with a link to register for the UJA vigil.
On Oct. 1, Marni Blustein, director of strategic community initiatives and engagement with the UJA, was more personal — and direct.
“Enough is enough!” Blustein began the email. “On Oct. 7, my community has organized a peaceful vigil in honour of the victims. Countless counter-protests are already been (sic) organized — what are you going to do to keep us safe? Whose side are you on?”
Chow does not appear to have replied to either message.
However, other emails lend credence to Chow’s story that an invitation, sent Sept. 23, was lost to the digital ether.
Michelle Stock is a vice-president with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which worked with the UJA on the invitations for the vigil. In October, she shared with the Sun an email sent to the mayor’s office on Sept. 23 that invited Chow to the event. She said that message followed emails to Chow on Sept. 3 and 10.
A series of emails show that Sara King, Chow’s executive assistant, was in touch with the city clerk’s office’s IT department on Oct. 8 and 9 regarding that invitation.
“I’m still having issues with this email that supposedly was sent to me. The sender insists I would have received it,” King wrote. “Could you do whatever is in your IT power to check if any incoming mail was rejected (or) bounced back from my inbox on Sept. 23 at 14:24?”
That evening, King was told: “The results indicate that the email did not reach the city servers. The messaging team will look into this further, and will report back to me tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted.”
It’s unclear if anything else came of the matter, and the Sun can’t rule out that Chow’s office did receive the CIJA emails. That’s because of the 135 pages of emails disclosed to the Sun, all but 44 are fully redacted — nothing but blank grey pages. “An unjustified invasion of privacy” was cited as the reason. (Bradley Hammond, Chow’s new director of communications, referred a question about these pages back to the office of the city clerk, which made the redactions.)
Blustein’s email wasn’t the only one from the UJA that Chow received over the time span — all of September and the first 10 days of October — covered by the Sun’s freedom-of-information request. About an hour before Blustein’s message, Florence Glickman, a donor relations representative for the UJA, urged Chow to do more about “hate” — presumably referring to anti-Israel protests.
“I am asking for your help in ensuring that the city of Toronto be a safe place. Hate has no place in Toronto. We implore you to have the appropriate steps to ensure police monitor these events for incitement and hate speech,” Glickman wrote. (Chow also did not appear to respond to this email.)
In a statement, Chow told the Sun she “should have been at the Oct. 7 vigil hosted by UJA.”
“My lack of attendance hurt members of the Jewish community,” Chow added, “and I have offered my deepest apologies. I am very sorry and take full responsibility for missing such an important event.
“As mayor, I should have been there to show the Jewish community how much I care about their safety and well-being in this city, especially during this time of rising antisemitism and hate. Antisemitism and acts of hate have no place in Toronto.”
Councillor James Pasternak has said he personally asked Chow before the vigil if she would attend. In a statement to the Sun, he acknowledged that feelings were hurt, but “the mayor has apologized and it’s time to move on.”
“That being said,” he added, “when a part of our mosaic in Toronto, in this case the Jewish community, is in grief and under siege it is vital that the mayor remain a source of healing, unity and collective safety no matter what the blowback is in social media or on the streets. These hateful mobs do not represent the vast majority of Torontonians.”
Representatives with the UJA and CIJA declined to get into specifics about the emails, echoing Pasternak’s comment about the mayor having already apologized.
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