This weekend, two people approached a Jewish girls elementary school in Toronto and
fired multiple gun shots. The shooting heightens the fears of a Canadian Jewish community that has now experienced multiple shootings at schools and community centres, attacks on students, and vandalism at Jewish businesses and homes.
Supporters of campus protests will no doubt reject the suggestion that there is a connection between the encampments and antisemitic violence, but to my mind, the linkage is clear. Indeed, by normalizing antisemitic speech and downplaying the safety and discrimination concerns of their Jewish colleagues and students, they have provided the fuel for the serious threats that have followed.
When Jewish students and faculty raise safety concerns, we are told there is no right to 'feel' safe
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The head of Universities Canada said Monday he supports shutting down anti-Israel encampments on campuses across the country, and the presidents of the four largest universities in Canada admitted that antisemitism is a “significant problem.”
Universities Canada president and CEO Gabriel Miller also said that enforcing university speech codes against antisemitic hate has been a challenge.
Miller and the university presidents were testifying at the Commons justice committee on combating antisemitism on Monday. During the committee meeting, the presidents of McGill University, Concordia University, University of British Columbia and University of Toronto called antisemitism on their campuses a “significant problem.”
McGill University president and vice-chancellor Deep Saini said it is “simply unacceptable” that Jewish students have felt intimidated on their campus, a position echoed by the three other university presidents at the committee.
But they also confirmed that no members of their faculties had been disciplined as of yet for antisemitic incidents, though many confirmed that an unspecified number of internal investigations were ongoing. They said they had to respect due process.
University of Toronto president Meric Gertler said an unspecified number of students had been suspended or expelled from the school for violating the school’s code of conduct, but that none of the incidents were related to the encampment on the school’s grounds that began over three weeks ago.
“Actions are underway, but it does take some time to follow the process,” Gertler said on the same day his administration
filed for a court injunction against the encampment.
At the Toronto encampment, protesters said they were prepared to fight back with their own legal team and refused to leave the site, ignoring an 8 a.m. Monday deadline set in a trespass notice that had been issued Friday.
Surprise, surprise, surprise…
The university leaders were testifying at the Commons Justice committee on combatting antisemitism
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“University has absolutely become a place for hate and intolerance,” Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman said.
Jewish groups, anti-hate activists and police forces across the country have reported an increase in antisemitic incidents since the brutal attacks by terrorist group Hamas against Israel on October 7.
Many Jewish students and Jewish groups on Canadian university campuses have also reported being attacked, verbally and physically.
Despite those incidents, Miller said that enforcement of university rules against hate speech continues to be a challenge. He was not able to say whether any students or university faculty had been disciplined for antisemitic events, etc…
The heads of McGill, Concordia, UBC and UofT all roundly denounced antisemitism in all its forms as well as any calls for the genocide of Jews and said that they did not support the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (commonly known as BDS) movement that the encampments are demanding of them.
