The Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI), a pro-Israel charity, held its Crystal Ball fundraiser this spring at Casa Loma in Toronto with guest speaker Gilad Erdan, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations (UN).
A protest was held outside, where demonstrators called Erdan out for attacking critics of Israel at the UN while the Israeli military killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.
AGPI was founded in 2021 with a stated mission to “counter Antisemitism; combat Holocaust denial; advance The Abraham Accords, defend Israel, Canada and their allies; and advance freedom, democracy and universal human rights.”
Following the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023 and the launch of Israel’s war on Gaza, AGPI set up a project called J-Force. The tagline for the project is “For Defenders of Israel” and a set of talking points titled “What should you say?” was published for supporters.
The talking points include: “Hamas is responsible for everything that will happen in Gaza in the coming days, not Israel,” and “We condemn pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the world celebrating the murder of innocents and promoting Antisemitism.”
AGPI founder and CEO Avi Abraham Benlolo, a regular National Post columnist, said when the charity was launched that one of the features that makes AGPI different from other pro-Israel groups is the involvement of many non-Jewish people.
In an interview with The Canadian Jewish News, he cited federal cabinet member Bill Blair, former ministers Peter MacKay and Stockwell Day, former Ontario lieutenant governor David Onley, and former CEO of the Bank of Montreal Tony Comper as examples.
Also involved in AGPI are several prominent figures from police forces and policing organizations across Canada, a fact that has raised concerns among some critics.
As part of the program at AGPI’s recent gala, Paul Godfrey, who joined AGPI in 2021 while he was chairman of the Postmedia newspaper chain, “honoured [Halton] Police Chief Stephen Tanner for his role as a founding member of AGPI and for his decades of principled public service,” according to an AGPI press release.
Vancouver Police Department’s (VPD) recently appointed chief constable, Steve Rai, is listed as a member of AGPI’s national board of advisors. Adam Palmer, VPD’s previous police chief, is also listed (he retired from the VPD in 2025 and joined the RCMP as an assistant commissioner in April).
Tom Stamatakis, president of the Canadian Police Association (CPA), and Vince Hawkes, who was director of global policing at the International Association of Chiefs of Police, are also listed on the AGPI website, alongside retired police leaders Mark Saunders, Armand Labarge and Jeff McGuire.
AGPI also regularly presents to the CPA, according to AGPI’s “Police Academy” page.
Concerns About Police Links
Kevin Walby, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Winnipeg, told The Maple in an interview that he finds the police involvement in AGPI concerning.
He pointed out that most police association members are active-duty officers. These associations, through their newsletters and at conferences, are also where different police forces “share information about what they’re doing and they sort of benchmark to one another,” said Walby.
“It’s not typical to have so many police on a community board or a [...] board for a group like [the AGPI].”
Walby explained that police are in theory supposed to be impartial, and described the involvement of some current and former police leaders in AGPI as “a huge problem.”
Another point of concern raised by critics interviewed by The Maple is AGPI’s dismissal and denunciation of the concept of anti-Palestinian racism.
In a December 2024 news release, the organization stated it was “deeply concerned about the increasing use of ‘Anti-Palestinian Racism’ (APR) as a fabricated concept aimed at undermining Israel and the Jewish people.”
“Under the guise of political discourse, APR is being weaponized to delegitimize Israel, erase Jewish history, and perpetuate harmful antisemitic narratives.”
Dania Majid, who is the president of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association and helped develop the definition of anti-Palestinian racism, said the involvement of police in AGPI “raises serious concerns for the safety of Palestinians and their allies.”
“Over the past 20 months, we have seen increasing police aggression and baseless arrests and prosecutions against those protesting Israel’s genocide,” Majid told The Maple.
“If police are informed by this group that claims of anti-Palestinian racism are antisemitic or fabricated, then our communities will be at further risk of systemic racism and criminalization that demobilizes support for Palestinian human rights.”
Walby also pointed out that there is supposed to be a firewall between police and politicians.
Until October 2021, and while he was involved with AGPI at the time of its launch, Bill Blair was Minister of Public Safety, a role which oversees the RCMP and provides project funding for police forces across the country.
Bill Blair’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The Maple also emailed AGPI for comment for this story, but received no response.
Praise For Trump
AGPI has been supportive of United States President Donald Trump’s crackdowns on pro-Palestine protests.
In a press release, it quoted from Trump’s Jan. 30, 2025 executive order on combatting antisemitism that stated it will “quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism and leftist anti-American colleges and universities.”
On March 14, AGPI stated: “Columbia University is finally taking action by expelling student (sic) who took over a campus building. This follows after federal agents detained a campus activist, Mahmoud Khalil.”
Khalil was a lead negotiator for the pro-Palestine student encampment at Columbia University in New York, and is a permanent resident of the U.S. He was arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in March without a warrant and was held with no criminal charges.
In June, AGPI published a working paper calling on the federal and provincial governments in Canada to “immediately establish a Homeland Jewish Community Security Task Force.”
“This would be a nationally coordinated unit headquartered in Ottawa, with the mandate and capacity to rapidly deploy to secure any Jewish event or institution in Canada and collaborate closely with authorities on the ground.”
AGPI cited a rise in antisemitism which it said has been fuelled by “radical Islamist ideologies and pro-Hamas militant incitement operating openly in our cities and online spaces” as justification for the proposal.
The Maple contacted active police and the heads of several police associations for comment for this story, asking whether they support AGPI’s strong pro-Israel stance, and if they think this raises any valid concerns about anti-Palestinian bias in Canadian policing.
A media spokesperson for the Canadian Police Association, Michael Gendron, wrote:
“I'm frankly concerned by the framing of your questions regarding our President [Tom Stamatakis’] affiliation with the Abraham Global Peace Initiative. This organization is committed to promoting human rights, countering antisemitism, and fostering peaceful coexistence. These are goals that, we believe, deserve respect and support.”
Gendron added that after the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, “support for an organization like the Abraham Global Peace Initiative should be viewed as a principled stand against hatred and violence.”
“Our Association fully supports the right of Canadians to engage in peaceful protest. At the same time, we must also affirm the right of Jewish Canadians to feel safe, respected, and protected in their own communities. These rights are not in conflict. They are the pillars of a democratic and inclusive society.”
The Vancouver Police Department declined to provide comment. Neither the Halton police nor the International Association of Chiefs of Police responded to The Maple’s requests.
Police Trips
AGPI also facilitates trips for police. These appear to begin with a visit to Poland to see the concentration camps used during the Nazi Holocaust, followed by a visit to Israel, where participants tour sites and meet officials.
AGPI promotes the trips under the title “From Darkness to Light,” where the Nazi Holocaust sites in Europe are the darkness and Israel represents the light.
Around July 2023, then-Winnipeg police chief Danny Smyth, then-Halifax police chief Dan Kinsella and Aviva Rotenberg with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police attended one of these trips, according to Smyth’s articles about the experience.
According to Smyth’s account, the 2023 trip included meeting with Israeli authorities and politicians, as well as Lisa Stadelbaur, who was the Canadian Ambassador to Israel at the time. They also visited the Golan Heights, which under international law and in the view of the Canadian government is part of Syria. Permanent Israeli control of the area is not recognized.
The Maple asked whether AGPI or the police paid for the trip.
The Halifax police responded that “Chief Kinsella’s trip in 2023 was paid for by HRM [Halifax Regional Municipality].” Winnipeg police wrote: “we will recommend you complete a FIPPA [Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act] request application.”
Corey Balsam, the national coordinator of Independent Jewish Voices, told The Maple that trips from sites of the Nazi Holocaust to Israel are typically “propaganda disguised as education.”
Such journeys, Balsam said, are “meant to present Israel as the singular answer to historic Jewish suffering.” He added that Palestinians are “conspicuously absent from this narrative.”
“These programs don’t teach tolerance. They teach selective empathy. They teach that some lives matter more than others. The hypocrisy and racism embedded in these efforts are not just glaring, they’re chilling.”
Jillian Rogin, an associate law professor at the University of Windsor, said in an interview with The Maple that, like Walby, she is concerned about police being involved in an organization that supports “a very specific Israeli policy, which is normalization” through the Abraham Accords.
However, Rogin added, “what we have to not lose sight of is this is what policing is. There is no aspect of policing that is not politicized. Policing follows power.”
