CAEF wrote Minister of Education, pointing out high rate of antisemitic incidents at TDSB, calling for education & implementation of IHRA & specifying hiring criterion for Jewish Equity Coach

June 1, 2025

Hon. Paul Calandra

Minister of Education, Province of Ontario

438 University Ave.

Toronto, ON M7A 2A5

Dear Minister:

Shortly after sending you our letter about the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) voting to instruct Chair Neethan Shan to write to you, asking for the Ministry to develop materials for a 3-part mandatory course on "anti-Palestinian racism", we are moved to write another letter to you about the TDSB’s resolution regarding antisemitism, which was passed at the same recent meeting.

At the risk of being overly cynical, we suspect this resolution was part of the political give and take that led to approval of the “anti-Palestinian racism” resolution. As a politician, we’re sure you can appreciate how these things work.

What’s worth pointing out from this resolution are the statistics in the preamble: in 2023 2024, there were 312 antisemitic incidents in the TDSB’s schools, comprising 14.5% of the total 2,155 documented incidents of racism, bias or hate. That’s a lot.

The resolution calls for the TDSB to “explore” hiring a full-time staff member to combat antisemitism. That could be a good thing, but … and there’s a big “but” here.

If that happens, the staff member appointed must have a pro-active role in educating staff and students about modern forms of antisemitism, as described in the Government of Canada Handbook on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, and in the process of addressing these incidents, beyond counselling the affected students, such as participating in the remediation/discipline process.

More critically, the appointee must also be attuned to the concerns of the mainstream Jewish community. Having someone who’s job is to minimize these concerns, or who acts to showcase the opinions of squeaky but otherwise fringe anti-Israel elements from our community (i.e., the so-called “Independent Jewish Voices”, “Jews Against Genocide”, etc.,) would be worse than useless. Given the events of the past three years, the community’s level of trust in the TDSB not to pull a stunt like that is hovering around zero.

We’ve been around the block a few times, and though we have an open mind, we’re skeptical.

Best regards,

R. Michael Teper

President

Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation