An onslaught of negative online reviews has left some local businesses in a Toronto neighbourhood confused and disheartened, but also uplifted and humbled by the support of their community.
The area of Toronto along Bathurst Street between Lawrence Avenue West and Highway 401 is home to many Jewish families and businesses. On May 24, multiple businesses in the neighbourhood were victims of a bombardment of negative, one-star reviews on Google, which one bakery says came out of nowhere.
“It’s not impossible for someone to be extremely upset about something, but in the history of the store, nothing huge has ever happened to justify so many one-star reviews,” says Bianca Mazzi, the general manager at Gouter Patisserie, one of the handful of businesses who fell victim to the reviews.
Mazzi co-runs the beloved bakery on the Bathurst strip with her partner Rodney Alleguede. The two noticed the reviews pouring in within a single day, and saw that the same online reviewers had done the same for countless others in their neighbourhood. The reviews were said to have been posted within a 5-minute span of time.
Some of the local businesses that were affected are operated by older folks, who have run their businesses for decades, and have built a community with each other. Mazzi says that a lot of these family businesses owned by older generations are not as likely to speak up through social media, so they took it upon themselves to raise awareness of the situation through their platform and stand by their neighbours.
While there is no definite answer as to what sparked the slew of negative reviews, many community members and loyal customers of these businesses suspect it to be linked to the recent rise of anti-Semitism in Toronto and across Canada.
The rise can be linked to the Israel-Palestine conflict, which has garnered hoards of attention following weeks of heightened tension between the two states. A ceasefire took effect on Friday, relieving Palestinians and Israelis of the violence after 11 days.
While this may have been where these attacks on local businesses stemmed from, there seems to be a blurred line between anti-Semetic and anti-Israel sentiment amidst these domestic attacks, according to Randal F. Schnoor, a professor at York University’s Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies.
“In this case, I think we’re seeing quite a bit more blending of the two where we are seeing indeed overt attacks on Jews, physical attacks, harassment all over North America and certainly here in our Canadian cities,” Schnoor told Global News.
Gouter does not identify as a Kosher business, nor are Mazzi and Alleguede of Jewish faith, but say that they are still part of the community, which includes generations of Jewish families and long time Jewish-owned businesses.
Mazzi says the one-star reviews were the least of their worries, noting that over time the reviews would become irrelevant and be “flushed out” of the system. By coming forward on social media, they wanted to simply offer their platform to their neighbours amidst the incident, in hopes their supporters can understand the impact it has made on them as a community.
“It was more so just trying to give a voice to all of our neighbours who haven’t spoken up about it… because they don’t have the social media voice to speak up about it,” says Mazzi.
Since the reviews were posted, Toronto residents and loyal customers of the small businesses in the area were quick to take action, reporting all of the poor reviews to Google and leaving five-star reviews instead.
Virtually all of the reviews posted on and after Monday have now been removed, including the positive ones meant to outweigh the blow of the poor reviews. Mazzi says she is grateful for how the community has helped support them amidst the panic.
“The only way in which I can describe it is it’s been humbling to have such a huge amount of people reach out with so much care and love” she says.
The community has been quick to offer their support as the businesses recoup after the attack. Mazzi hopes that others will continue to keep their local grocers, restaurants and businesses in their thoughts when shopping in the area.
“Regardless of how hard the last year has been on some people emotionally, everyone has been incredibly supportive.”
