ID scan technology will soon check visitors to Asper Jewish Community Campus in Winnipeg

Some people who visit the Asper Jewish Community Campus in Winnipeg's Old Tuxedo neighbourhood will soon have to provide government-issued IDs to get inside, but one visitor says the move wouldn't make him feel any safer.

In a notice sent to community members on Monday, the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg said security measures at the Asper Jewish Community Campus will be increased starting April 1, as visitor records will be collected through identification scanning technology.

The technology, developed by the Calgary-based company Patronscan, scans a person's government-issued identification. It's already being used to enter Manitoba Liquor Marts.

Jeff Lieberman, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg (JFW), says there were discussions about the need for heightened campus security when he started in the role last August, but those conversations ramped up following Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

"Since Oct. 7, there's been a rise of antisemitism around the world and in Canada, and … Winnipeg isn't an exception to that," he told guest host Chloe Friesen during a Tuesday interview on CBC Radio's Up to Speed.

While the number of antisemitic incidents reported in Manitoba since Oct. 7 is not available, data obtained by CBC News showed a hike in hate crimes reported in the cities with Canada's largest Jewish and Muslim populations, including Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, between Oct. 7 to 25.

Over the longer term, Statistics Canada says there were 306 police-reported antisemitic hate crimes in Canada in 2019. That spiked to 492 in 2021 and jumped again to 502 in 2022.

In its Monday message, the JFW said the new security changes will introduce an internal database to keep track of people barred from the campus, but there will be no changes for campus members who already have key fobs or access cards.

'Don't feel it's necessary': Winnipeg organizer

Lieberman says visitor records collected through Patronscan will be held in a remote data centre in Edmonton before they get erased after 21 days, assuring that the data will be safely stored.

Patronscan made several changes to its ID scan technology, including reducing the time it holds data to 21 days from 90, after a 2021 investigation found that it violated Alberta's privacy laws by collecting more information than allowed from customer IDs at some liquor stores.

Harold Shuster, a longtime organizer with the Winnipeg chapter of Independent Jewish Voices — a grassroots group that advocates for peace — says he uses the campus regularly, but the changes wouldn't make him feel any safer.

"I got the email from the centre, when they indicated that they were going to be changing the security measures, and my first reaction was 'Really?'" Shuster told CBC on Wednesday.

Shuster says framing the new security measures as something that's needed at the campus "plays into some unnecessary fears ... I don't feel it's necessary."

Shuster says he didn't feel unsafe visiting the campus before or after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

"I know that there are people that have, and I feel bad for those people," said Shuster.

"I don't think anybody should fear going to a cultural event or going to their gym to work out, and feel that doing so could result in them being, you know, attacked or yelled at or discriminated against," he said.

"Antisemitism is real. I understand it ... Independent Jewish Voices understands that."

Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, says the federal government expanded its security infrastructure program last year, which pays for various security upgrades for communities at risk of hate-motivated acts.

"Jewish and Muslim organizations had been requesting additional and more flexible funds so that community spaces could make security upgrades for a long time," he said in a Wednesday statement to CBC.

"It's smart for communities that face hate-motivated harassment and violence to use those funds to make their gathering places safer."

Positive community feedback

JFW's Lieberman says security guards have been stationed near the front entrance of the campus since it opened up nearly three decades ago.

The community feedback he's received on the security enhancements to the campus has been positive so far, he said.

"There are a lot of people that come into this building every day, you know, a lot of Jewish people, but a lot of non-Jewish people as well, and I think people are happy for the increased security," he said Tuesday.

"We feel that the more secure that we can feel … the better it is for everyone that enters this building, whether they're Jewish or non-Jewish."