A report written by retired Ontario appeal court judge Mary Lou Benotto makes clear that TMU is failing in its legal and moral responsibility to protect Jewish students.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
A school that isn’t safe for all of its students is a failing school. There is overwhelming evidence of such failure in two new reports on antisemitism on Canadian campuses. Jewish students are not safe, not even in the classroom.
One report surveyed 900 Jewish students at the country’s universities, colleges and other institutions. It was commissioned by the federal government and authored by Jack Jedwab, head of the Association for Canadian Studies & Metropolis Institute, a think tank on integration and inclusion. The other was commissioned by Toronto Metropolitan University, and written by retired Ontario appeal court judge Mary Lou Benotto.
Both make clear that an extreme form of antizionism – opposition to Israel’s existence – has manifested itself since the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and the bloody war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that followed. Campuses, some more than others, have become places of coercion, vilification and at times, violence.
The national report calls the lack of urgency in the schools’ response an “institutional betrayal.” Ms. Benotto’s report, similarly, makes clear that TMU is failing in its legal and moral responsibility to protect Jewish students and faculty members against discrimination, harassment and intimidation.
Jewish students on Canadian campuses report pervasive antisemitism in survey
Already, some observers are trying to minimize, deny, deflect. Imagine any other group – Black Canadians, or Indigenous people or women – being told that the experiences they’ve lived are not authentic. That their perception around their own safety is not to be trusted. That would be rightly seen as part of the problem, rather than an honest critique.
Like any group, Jewish students deserve to be heard. So let us confront the sad and harrowing truth. Seventy-one per cent in the national survey reported antisemitic vandalism, 68 per cent said campus was not safe and inclusive for Jews, 54 per cent reported intimidation or threats, and 22 per cent reported physical violence directed at Jews. And 84 per cent said antisemitism is a serious problem on campus.
Especially revealing, 72 per cent said they limit what they say about being Jewish while in class. So toxic is the climate, they feel the need to be invisible. Seventy-two per cent said campus antisemitism has affected their mental health; 60 per cent have lost friends.
Listen to their voices. “In an international law class,” a Jewish student recounted, “my professor asked the Jewish students to raise their hands, and I felt very uncomfortable as no one raised, so I chose not to.” Imagine a professor asking queer, Russian or Chinese students to identify themselves. They wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near students.
Another said: “I was told by a professor, in class in the middle of the lecture, that Jews belong in Poland and need to go back.” One student said their professor “forced students to find positive connections between the Black Lives Matter movement and Hamas.” Others said that the people who grade their academic work have pressured them to sign petitions and attend pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The report calls that a “betrayal of academic norms of fairness, integrity, and responsibility.”
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As both reports show, Jews who don’t renounce Israel’s existence are treated as outcasts: “The redefinition of Zionism to incorporate genocide and the insistence that anyone who fails to actively support anti-Zionism is likewise culpable,” Ms. Benotto writes, “have contributed to an environment that has enabled antisemitism to flourish.” A Jewish lecturer says it’s “incredibly unsafe” to wear a Star of David, and even organizing a non-political Sabbath dinner requires a risk assessment, Ms. Benotto reported.
This is not about isolated episodes. It is about a poisoned environment. Our learning institutions should consistently stand up for the values they claim to represent. As Ms. Benotto documents, TMU already has policies against violence, threats of violence, and discriminatory, intimidating or harassing words and conduct. Every school should, as she urges for TMU, “establish clear behavioural expectations, protect the rights of all members of the community, and enforce its policies consistently, transparently, and predictably.”
It hardly seems too much to ask. Yet TMU has not responded to the eight recommendations of the Benotto report, instead announcing an “implementation committee” that has until next March to come up with a “blueprint.”
The report – again, commissioned by TMU – already lays out a course of action. No blueprint is needed, just a spine.