CAEF Open Letter to Presidents of all Canadian Universities
On behalf of the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAEF), we are writing to you with the utmost of urgency and deep concern.
The events now occurring on our university campuses place us at a tipping point.
The student encampments on university property, the refusal to disperse, the breaches of university policies and student codes of conduct and, finally, the calls to violence and hate by too many of these protesters are reaching a fever pitch.
These protests are a profound violation of the spirit of university life and wider social harmony in our country and must be stopped.
While the freedom to express oneself is vital to our values as a democracy and to university life, it is not unlimited.
These limits have been crossed. Aside from trespassing university property, the words and chants of many of the protestors have violated the sanctity of universities' most cherished purpose: a place of learning and contemplation while providing security for all students, faculty and staff.
Many students, faculty, and staff, particularly, pro-Israeli and Jewish members of university communities, are feeling unsafe while the students' education is interrupted.
This atmosphere cannot continue.
We strongly urge you to take the following immediate action steps.Restore campuses to places of learning for all must be your highest of priorities. Therefore, we call on university leadership to:
Be proactive. Make it clear that the breaking of laws and codes of conduct will not be permitted.
Ensure real consequences for any students, faculty and staff involved in the violation of university policies and hate speech. Such consequences must Include suspension if they violate calls to disperse.
Put campus groups inciting disobedience and disorder under immediate review regarding their continued status withinin the university framework.
Adopt the IHRA definition of anti-semitism across all platforms so that the appropriate tools to counter contemporary antisemitism are available thereby setting the right tone for the university as a place of learning.
In the application of the above mentioned-definition, establish internal regulations comprising a series of litmus tests to ensure that any protests on university property calling for hate, murder and/or violence will not be permitted.
Support the convening of a Summit of Presidents of universities to coordinate responsive university policies to counter anti-Jewish and anti- Israeli discrimination on campus.
To conclude, let us all commit to the words of Benjamin Disraeli, “A University should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning.”
Please take our suggested action steps with the utmost seriousness.
Thank you for your consideration.
Yours truly,
Andria Spindel, Executive Director
Anita Bromberg, President
NOTE: US legislation to thwart antisemitism approved in Congress. Read here
Bill 166, Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act, 2024
Presented by Jill Dunlop, Minister of Colleges and Universities, this bill will make it mandatory for every post-secondary institution in Ontario to implement an anti-hate policy.
Read and forward support letter provided by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
U of T Responds to Anti-Israel Protesters
CAEF is greatly disappointed, as well as confused. U of T is allowing an encampment after having fenced the area off, then states that protesters must not be there after 10pm but concludes that for "good behaviour" the protesters will not be removed. So, antisemitism is acceptable during specific hours and circumstances.
Campus Highlights
Toronto Metropolitan University legal action. A Jewish student has brought a 1.3 million dollar law suit claiming TMU has fostered a hostile environment for Jews. Read here.
McGill University - Quebec Premier says police should step in to dismantle the anti-Israel encampment as pro-Israel counter protesters face pro-Palestine protesters. Read here.
University of Toronto - new pro-Palestinian encampment set up despite efforts to block area in advance. Read here.
Watch students at Canadian universities, prepared by Students Supporting Israel (SSI) express instances of antisemitism that are intimidating, terrifying, threatening.
The AMCHA Intiative has been documenting antisemitism on American campuses for years. The rise of such hatred since October 7th, 2024 was for most of Jews, unfathomable, and some are still in disbelief. Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, Executive Director, writing in the Algemeiner, April 12, 2024, spells out how anti-Zionist faculty captured one university and what this means for Jews in America. Canada is not exempt.
This is a very important article documenting faculty organizing against Zionism, an upsurge in antiZionist organizations and activities and frightening policy activism by the so-called educated elite.
The Canary Mission documented faculty support for Hamas at Canadian universities.
CJN Podcast on student experiences. Listen to the Podcast here.
Sign This Petition to the Government of Canada
Whereas:
The slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” refers to the elimination of the State of Israel and the extermination of the country’s Jewish inhabitants;
The slogan is inherently genocidal and antisemitic, and willfully promotes hatred and violence toward Jewish people;
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 377 to 44 in favor of House Resolution 883 that refers to the slogan as anti-Semitic and that its use be condemned; and
The Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland in Germany has banned the slogan.
We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada and members of the Canadian Women Against Antisemitism (CWAA), call upon the Government of Canada to
Provide clarity to law enforcement agencies and provincial/territorial attorneys general that the slogan contravenes section 319(2) of the Criminal Code of Canada which concerns the Wilful Promotion of Hatred and states that: Every one who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, wilfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of (a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or (b) an offence punishable on summary conviction;
Examine and provide clarity on the legality and public use of other slogans, such as: “Globalize the Intifada” and “Long Live October 7th.”; and
Convene a National Summit on Anti-Semitism in Canada before June 21, 2024.
This petition is sponsored by Kevin Vuong, MP for Spadina-Fort York
The MPP, the Speaker AND Sarah Jama
by Charles Cooke, CAEF Board member
Speaker Arnott of the Ontario legislature was right on. His decision to ban the Keffiyeh at Queens Park was the right one.
The argument that it is merely a cultural symbol and not political is nonsense. And who changed its questionable and so-called exclusively “cultural” character and symbol?
The Palestinians and pro-Hamas marchers themselves and the NDP.
You can’t repeatedly march in our streets and chant from “the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “intifada revolution” and make other calls to violence, wear a keffiyeh, and expect not to lose “the exclusively cultural symbol” of the keffiyeh.
If you march and preach hatred and violence while constantly wearing, and in fact, hiding your face in a keffiyeh ,you have appropriated such clothing as exactly a political symbol.
In fact, more! You have made it into a symbol of hate and violence. You don’t and shouldn’t get a pass. Decisions and actions have consequences.
So bravo to Speaker Arnott, Robin Martin MPP, and the other MPPs who voted to continue the ban!
Good for them! We extend a thank you!
And Sarah Jama , the NDP M.P. P. who continues to wear the Keffiyeh in the legislature notwithstanding the Speaker’s ruling should be removed from the legislature.
The keffiyeh has no place in the people’s House. It is the Speaker’s ruling.
It is, in these times, the right step to take.