CAEF's Work is Noteworthy, Read Why

CAEF
18 hours ago
6 min read

Paul Finlayson, author of Substack, Freedom to Offend, and journalist, Dave Gordon, have written a compelling article about CAEF's President, Michael Teper

The Accountant of Accountability: Michael Teper’s Campaign to Expose Antisemitism

Toronto-based activist Michael Teper has rapidly become one of the most recognisable lay leaders in Canada’s Israel advocacy landscape, bringing a rare mix of professional rigour, legal acumen and tenacious energy to the fight against antisemitism. A non-practising lawyer and Illinois-certified CPA, he serves as a U.S. tax advisor and associate partner at a major professional services firm, after earning both law and business degrees from the University of Toronto and being called to the bars of Ontario and New York.

Teper came to Jewish community and Israel advocacy in the wake of the Toronto District School Board’s notorious May 2021 “mailout affair,” when extremist materials were circulated to educators, a revelation that propelled him into volunteer activism. Today, as president of the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAEF), he oversees education and advocacy programs, chairs monthly strategy meetings, and leads high-impact initiatives spanning webinars and public campaigns to formal complaints and legal interventions.

Often described as bringing “chutzpah” to grassroots advocacy, Teper has become a go-to figure for digging into school board scandals, leveraging freedom-of-information law and pursuing precedent-setting complaints before the Ontario College of Teachers and other bodies. His work on cases such as the TDSB equity controversies and teacher discipline proceedings has helped make antisemitism in education a national story, and sets the stage for the following Q&A, which explores how he harnesses his professional toolkit to defend Israel and the Jewish community in Canada.

What is CAEF’s mandate?

Over the past twenty years, CAEF has created educational programs designed to foster mutual understanding among people of diverse ethnic, racial, and faith backgrounds, emphasising shared humanity and standing against all forms of prejudice, including antisemitism and racism.

Education, interfaith engagement, and advocacy form the cornerstone of CAEF’s mission to combat antisemitism in all its forms.

CAEF also exposes the dangers of anti-Zionism—a modern expression of antisemitism—while promoting the Jewish people’s rightful connection to the land of Israel and countering misinformation about the State of Israel. Through educational materials, webinars, live events featuring expert speakers, and research initiatives, CAEF examines the effects of antisemitism in academic and professional settings. The foundation also files formal complaints against antisemitic acts and fosters partnerships with allied communities, including the Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem, the Coalition of Hindus of North America, and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, among others.

In addition, CAEF responds to current events that impact the Jewish community and Israel, issuing regular bulletins, launching advocacy campaigns, organising petitions, and rallies.

What are a few things you’re currently working on that you’d like readers to know about – some activism, advocacy, legal battles?

One of our key education initiatives is the Shalom Project, a 45-minute presentation that helps Jewish people and their allies respond to, and confront, the misinformation about Israel with key facts about the history of Israel, Zionism and contemporary antisemitism.

Our advocacy initiatives include over 25 complaints filed with the Ontario College of Teachers over the past four years, dealing with incidents of antisemitism in the classroom and on social media.

Our track record consists of one license revocation, one admonition, four cautions, four instances of “advice” and one reminder, out of 16 resolved cases, with another 12 cases currently in progress.

We also regularly file Freedom of Information requests to obtain records of how public school boards respond to and track incidents of antisemitism. Currently we are facing off with the Toronto District School Board in trying to obtain records of antisemitism incidents.

The Board initially required $28,000 for the information.

We are currently appealing that decision with the Information and Privacy Commissioner, and have launched the first-ever constitutional argument that the freedom-of-expression guarantee in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms obligates a school board to produce this information free of charge in order to facilitate meaningful public debate on these issues.

What are your favourite “wins” in terms of your advocacy?

One of our largest wins was the revocation of the teaching license of Fernanda Caranfa, who was found guilty of professional misconduct for online statements expressing hate against Jews and Holocaust denial. This case was important because it was the first time the College applied new subsection 28 of the professional misconduct regulation O. Reg. 437/97, which:

“ . . . defines professional misconduct to include ‘Making remarks or engaging in behaviours that expose any person or class of persons to hatred on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination under Part I of the Human Rights Code.”

What was the impetus for deciding to become an activist, and when did it happen?

My impetus for becoming an activist occurred a few years before October 7, 2023. It was the circulation in May 2021 by Javier Davila, a Toronto District School Board “Student Equity Program Advisor” of a portfolio of materials on the Israel/Palestinian conflict that included links to the propaganda library of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine, which is designated as a terrorist organization by Public Safety Canada, and which is responsible for terror attacks on Canadians. Davila’s materials also included a link to a pamphlet that glorified suicide bombing as “legitimate resistance.”

The idea that this material was being circulated to over 1,000 teachers across the Board and would therefore influence classroom discussions made me fall off my chair.

Since then, I’ve been on the activist circuit.

What are a couple of things that people can do to help you and CAEF build a better battle?

Provide us with specific instances of antisemitism. We have a team that can build that information into specific cases, and then we can get results. We respect confidentiality, and we don’t work alone or hog the limelight. Where we feel that another organisation has the resources or specialised expertise to handle a matter better than we can, we happily make referrals.

Attend our webinars and educational events.

Follow our X feed at @caefto and our website caef.ca. This is where we share information about our activities and initiatives.

If you can, show up in court for sentencing hearings and judgments. Believe it or not, this actually makes a difference. Judges are human beings, and they do react when they see that the community cares about a case. We publish this information regularly in our bulletin.

Support politicians at all levels of government who are allies of the Jewish community. As a charity, we are not allowed to endorse particular candidates. Be we know who our

allies and adversaries are. Write, post on social media, attend meetings and direct your donations accordingly.

You offered courtroom impact statements – can you tell us about them and how you got called upon to do that?

In the criminal courts, we have an active program of filing Community Impact Statements under Section 722.1 of the Criminal Code. A Community Impact Statement is filed at the sentencing hearing to inform the judge of the effect the crime has had not only on the victim personally, but on the broader community.

We have filed these statements in over 10 cases in the past year and have encouraged the larger advocacy organisations to do the same.

Our most recent statement was quoted lately by the judge in R. v. Elkhodary, a case dealing with an assault on Toronto resident Vicki Moscoe, who was pushed and hit as she was attaching pictures of Israeli child hostages to light standards in November 2023.

Our Community Impact Statements were also quoted by the judge in R. v. Gobin 2025 ONCJ 266 (CanLII) | R. v. Gobin | CanLII and R. v. Akbari 2025 ONCJ 398 (CanLII) | R. v. Akbari | CanLII.

Read another compelling article, the story of "the only—professor in North America fired for stating that I stood with Israel and that Hamas are Nazis."

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