Antisemitism isn’t just alive and well on American campuses, but also those in Canada, a new report finds.
A publication by the respected Canary Mission, a group dedicated to exposing antisemitism in academia, finds Canadian university staff and faculty are “openly supporting Hamas.”
The report highlights 10 faculty members, contending that these academics are justifying the atrocities of Oct. 7 using social justice, “decolonization,” and “resistance” as the rationale for their hateful stance.
”Despite the horror of their anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments the vast majority of these faculty and staff have not faced any significant consequences,” says Canary Mission.
Some 1,200 Israelis were raped or murdered in cold blood, some burned, on Oct. 7 in a surprise attack by Hamas terrorists. More than five months later, at least 100 Israeli hostages are still being held in Gaza, somewhere in the tunnel network or in private homes.
Canary Mission is well-known for documenting people and groups who display and promote hatred in North America of Israel and the Jews. It has even documented the hateful words and actions of students at Ontario universities such as Carleton and the University of Toronto at MIssissauga.
In its latest report, Canary Mission says some common themes have emerged in the statements and actions of these professors — who are primarily from Ontario — starting with their justification of Hamas and its terrorism.
The professors listed expressed support for Palestinian “resistance,” label Israel as a settler-colonial state, and consistently characterize Israel’s response to the atrocities of Hamas and the hostage-takings as “genocide.”
They also promote decolonization, an academic word that suggests the eradication of the Jewish state.
Many have shown themselves to be rape deniers and nearly all started posting their Israel hate within 24 hours of the atrocities of Oct. 7, if not the same day.
True North contacted three of the professors highlighted several times asking for comment. All three are on staff at Toronto universities.
Katherine Blouin, an associate professor of ancient history at University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus with a PhD in Roman history, did not respond.
Neither did Waqas Butt, a professor of anthropology also at U of T Scarborough.
But Heidi Matthews, an assistant professor at Osgoode law school at York University, did, labeling Canary Mission a “blacklisting site” that uses “McCarthyite tactics.”
She said its purposed it to “chill speech” on university campuses by targeting students and academics critical of Israel’s policies and practices.
”The site’s individualized political ‘dossiers’ are designed to instill fear, encourage harassment and disparage individuals’ reputations,” Matthews said. ”The Canary Mission is morally and politically abhorrent and its claims should be categorically rejected.”
But Canary Mission says the views of the three professors contacted and the remaining seven, have had the effect of “normalizing support for terrorism” within academic circles and legitimizing armed violence under the guise of “resistance,” in particular terrorism against innocents.
Most particularly these anti-Israel professors have helped ostracize Jewish students and faculty who feel targeted and unsafe. That certainly has played out on campuses across the country just like it has at American universities.
