December 1, 2023
Hon. Michael Kerzner and Ms Laura Smith, MPP
Queen’s Park
Toronto, ON
Dear Minister Kerzner and MPP Smith;
Please accept our formal thanks for meeting with members of the board of directors of the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation on November 24th. Those present included Anita Bromberg, Charles Cooke, Michael Teper and Andria Spindel (Executive Director).
We wish to summarize our recommendations for your consideration, and follow up.
Here are the key recommendations we presented to seriously address the Antisemitism we are witnessing:
Expansion of Order-in-Council 1450/202 (adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism) to include the illustrative examples;
Application of the Order-in-Council to cover school boards and professional regulatory bodies such as the Ontario Teachers College;
Codification of the Order-in-council into law;
Introduction of a bill in the legislature modelled after the existing Protecting a Woman’s Right to Access Abortion Services Act, 2017, S.O. 2012, c. given royal assent in October 2017, and to specifically include sections similar to those of Sections 3-8 of the Act. The Act provides for persons to remain at a distance of not less than 50 metres from an abortion clinic to protect women from interference and harassment when accessing abortion services. The proposed act would be like the above-mentioned Act and include fines and jail terms for breach of the act. It would also provide the power to the police to arrest those in breach without a warrant. The proposed act could readily be a model to protect Jewish institutions and businesses and not be limited to synagogues. The proposed act need not favour Jewish institutions only and could apply to all religious and cultural institutions. We note, however, that Jewish institutions and businesses have been particularly targeted in Ontario.
Order a review of educational administrators who themselves demonstrate anti-Israel behaviour or fail to act when incidents are reported. All boards should be required to produce a quarterly report on antisemitic and/or racist incidents and how they dealt with them.
Consider removing the Trustees’ power to vote on allegation of Trustee misconduct, and proclaim the force of Bill 98, which removes from Trustees the power to vote on allegations of Trustee misconduct.
Review how other jurisdictions are handling the incursion of political ideology in the classroom, to disallow it and discipline teachers, such as has been done in the UK.
Michael Teper offers to provide any information or models in relation to the above recommendations. Laura Smith agreed to consider some recommendations to be potentially private member’s bills.
Again, thanks for your attention to our recommendations.
Sincerely,
Anita Bromberg
President
Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation
Andria Spindel
Executive Director Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation