The presidents of some of Canada’s largest universities had few answers for parliamentarians as to why antisemitic incidents haven’t been properly addressed on campuses.
Presidents from four major Canadian universities testified at a parliamentary justice committee hearing against antisemitism on Monday.
They spoke about the rise of anti-Jewish hate on their campuses as anti-Israel encampments remain entrenched on their campuses, along with legal experts, concerned students and police.
Presidents Graham Carr of Concordia University, Deep Saini from McGill University, Benoit-Antoine Bacon of the University of British Columbia and Meric Gertler, the president of the University of Toronto, all testified that antisemitism is on the rise at their schools but provided few solutions.
Monday marked the first day the trespass notice against the U of T campus encampment came into effect. The same day, Gertler filed for an injunction with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to remove the protesters.
Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman grilled Gertler about his seeming lack of enforcement of school policy against antisemitic acts and symbols, such as the use of an upside-down red triangle.
The symbol has been used to support Hamas’ war against Israel because of its use to mark Israeli combatants in Hamas military videos.
“We have asked the student organizers of the encampment to remove signage and language that are offensive, and they have complied on occasion, but not in every instance,” Gertler said.
He said the school had reported hateful acts and speech to Toronto Police Services. He echoed the Toronto Police Chief’s statement that 38 incidents have been reported to the police since the end of last week, half a dozen of which he believes qualify as hate speech.
Gertler said they have suspended or expelled some students for antisemitic acts linked to the war in the Middle East. Though, none have been held accountable since the encampment emerged.
He said the school is in the process of pursuing academic repercussions in some instances but said it takes time to ensure that the conclusions and sanctions that are recommended have “proper purchase.”
Lantsman was concerned that the universities’ stated commitment to fight against antisemitism amounted to nothing more than tokenism.
“I find that today’s testimony saying ‘we’re working on it and everything is going to be fine,’ is frankly divorced from reality. And it’s the reality of students actually sitting behind you in this room who have come to this committee and testified about being afraid of going onto your campuses.”
When Liberal MP Anthony Housefather questioned the panel of presidents, they all agreed antisemitism was a problem on their campuses and that Jews were included in their Diversity Equity and Inclusion commitments.
They all opposed the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, which advocates for the complete isolation of Israel and has been at the root of the encampment protests.
When asked if the administrators believed chants such as “Go back to Poland,” “We don’t want no Zionists Here,” “Intifada Revolution,” and “From the River to the Sea” are hateful and antisemitic they all agreed to varying disagrees.
Housefather asked the presidents if they accepted the non-legally binding International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which the governments of Canada recognize. All but Gertler said they apply the definition to their school communities in some capacity.
“Our working group looked at this issue and concluded that the IHRA definition was problematic for application in a university,” Gertler said. “The individual Kenneth Stern, who authored the definition, was very clear in noting that it is inappropriate for use in a university environment.”
“It was never intended to be a campus hate speech code,” Stern wrote in an article published by the Guardian.
The former Minister of Public Safety, Marco Mendicino, raised concerns about foreign interference in post-secondary schools through funding by anti-Semitic foreign governments. Both Saini and Gertler committed to being more transparent about foreign funding in their universities.
