Image Credit: Tim Pierce
Throughout spring 2024, following the lead of their American counterparts, pro-Palestinian groups on university campuses across Canada established encampments, refusing to leave until their respective universities “divested” from Israel. The encampments attracted the lowest of the low in our society, and with their border-line antisemitic rhetoric they’ve forced us as a society to ask: where do we draw the line?
With the fall university semester in full swing, it is worth examining this tumultuous period. Hindsight is 20/20 and enough time has passed to discern some valuable lessons for the upcoming school year.
During the injunction hearings against the encampment at the University of Toronto, the Justice presiding over the case, Markus Koehnen, agreed that Jewish students and passersbys on campus had been subject to antisemitic intimidation and even violence. However, he added, there was no evidence that encampment members themselves were responsible. A lack of evidence though does not equate to innocence, and the encampments beg the question, are Canadian university campuses facing an antisemitism crisis?
Canada at large is facing a growing antisemitism problem. B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish advocacy group, reported that between 2022 and 2023, antisemitic incidents doubled. Furthermore, the number of violent antisemitic attacks increased by 208 percent.
Cities across Canada are reporting similar disturbing trends. Toronto Police stated between 2022 and 2023, hate crimes in the city rose by 42 percent. Of those, 37 percent were reported as being acts of antisemitism.
In Vancouver, police reported a total of 47 antisemitic acts in 2023. That was an increase of 62 percent from the previous year when 29 incidents were reported.
The October 7th terrorist attack on Israel seemed to embolden antisemites, with anti-Jewish crimes spiking in the last two months of the year in both Toronto and Vancouver. 2024 seems to be no different, as of March, 56 percent of reported hate crimes in Toronto were antisemitic in nature.
In the news, we’ve seen deliberate acts of arson at Jewish-owned businesses, in Winnipeg, a shooting at a Jewish-owned home deemed to be antisemitic, two separate incidents of Jewish schools in Montreal being shot at, and a Jewish elementary school being pelted with bullets in Toronto. Plus the numerous incidents that go unreported.
At the encampments themselves, as agreed by Justice Koehnen, we’ve seen blatant acts of antisemitism. At UofT, on the first day of the encampment, chalk appeared scrawled on the sidewalk which called for Jews in Israel to “go back to Europe.” A video surfaced online of another incident where a man is seen yelling “Heil Hitler” and doing a Nazi salute before adding, “I wish he had murdered all you guys bro.”
At the University of McGill in Montreal, a video appeared in which protestors are seen chanting “go back to Europe,” about the Jews in Israel.
At the University of British Columbia's encampment, signs were sprawled across the sight glorifying Hamas.
Supporting an independent Palestinian state is not in and of itself antisemitic. However, the incidents noted above show that these encampments exceeded this simple demand. The encampments compounded a problem already facing university campuses across Ontario: rising antisemitism.
In December 2021, the University of Toronto released the results of a working group commissioned to study antisemitism on campus. This working group was part of a broader investigation into racism on the university’s three campuses.
The commission relied primarily on self-reporting of antisemitic incidents by students, faculty and interested groups. Although raw numbers are not available, respondents reported being subject to timeless anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and stereotypes. Interestingly, the commission mentions “coded language,” specifically referring to the use of the term “Zionist” to refer to all Jews.
Similarly, in June 2022, McGill University commissioned an “Initiative Against Islamophobia and Antisemitism.” The “initiative” relied on self-reporting. Again, raw numbers are not available, although Jewish students reported “microaggressions,” and acts of antisemitism.
The University of British Columbia does not have a similar commission, although a statement released in January of 2024 by its Equity and Inclusion Office provides details to students on how to report antisemitic incidents. The university also recently asked Jewish students interested to complete a survey to gather data “on how Jewish students are coping in light of the heightened antisemitism being displayed on college and university campuses.”
During a House of Commons committee hearing on the issue of rising antisemitism on Canadian university campuses, outside groups and interested parties reported a spike in antisemitic incidents on all three campuses following the October 7th attack on Israel, both inclusive and exclusive of the encampments.
At McGill, the Montreal Academic Network Against Antisemitism stated that some students were celebrating the October 7th attack, with the Society for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McGill calling it “heroic” on social media platforms. The network also claimed that a poster by SPHR in November 2024, the anniversary of the infamous Kristallnacht featured a pro-Palestinian protester kicking a glass wall.
At the University of British Columbia, the Jewish Academic Alliance reported that after the October 7th attack, Jewish students felt “ostracized and unsafe on campus.” 200 faculty issued an open letter condemning the antisemitism and called on the university to recognize the difference between acts of hate and legitimate political discourse. UBC’s student newspaper, The Ubyssey, refused to publish this letter, despite having earlier published a pro-Palestinian letter.
Meanwhile, a faculty member at the University of Toronto provided a deposition in which he condemned the institution’s response to what they perceive as the rising antisemitism on the school’s downtown Toronto campus. Moreover, a written statement from the Jewish Medical Association of Ontario claimed that faculty across the province, including at the University of Toronto, were being systemically harassed online either because they were Jewish, or self-identified Zionists.
The Jewish Faculty Network, an organization representing Jewish faculty across Canada who are opposed to the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism also submitted a statement to the House of Commons committee. In it, they claimed that many of the witnesses who previously testified were confusing anti-Zionism with antisemitism. They claimed that Jews who do not support the state of Israel are the real victims of antisemitism, oftentimes, they claim, perpetrated by fellow Jews. Seemingly, they would rather dismiss the real concerns of Jewish students and faculty than attempt to address acts of antisemitism.
What are Universities Doing?
In his deposition to the House of Commons Committee, Matthew Light, a professor at the University of Toronto, claimed that the institution has done little to implement the recommendations of its antisemitism working group. He further added that the university refuses to recognize antisemitism as a distinct problem and that the institution often claims that acts of antisemitism are acts of anti zionism.
Other than removing the encampments themselves and releasing statements condemning antisemitism on their respective campuses, the three universities have taken little substantive action to assuage concerns students have about antisemitism.
Upon their return to campus, pro-Palestinian students at McGill gathered at the former site of the encampment and tore up the re-sodded lawn. OccupyUofT, the organizers behind the University of Toronto’s encampment held a similar protest on Friday.
What can Universities Do?
As the University of Toronto has already done, Canadian universities can implement inquiries and commissions to investigate antisemitism and hear the concerns of Jewish students. However, unlike McGill’s “initiative against Islamophobia and Antisemitism,” it must separate antisemitism from other forms of racism and discrimination. All forms of hate are wrong, but recent events show that there is a particular imperative to combat antisemitism.
Universities must also actually implement the recommendations of these commissions, and must also consult all stakeholders, including students and Jewish community members.
University campuses must be places of free speech and debate, but they also must be places where students regardless of religious or ethnic identity feel safe. The answer is not to ban pro-Palestinian or anti-war protests, but universities must ensure that they do not cross the line into antisemitism. Regardless if the culprits are students or bystanders, hate has no place on university campuses.