This update on the state of affairs for Jewish and pro-Israelstudents on university campuses across the country is based on conversationswith individual students, and a review of student newspapers in the past fewweeks. As an overview of the situation regarding issues of concern to theJewish community in Canadian universities it is not exhaustive; rather, it is arepresentative snapshot of the circumstances in which Jewish and pro-Israelstudents are living and studying at this particular moment in time. Any updatesor additions to this report are welcome. 

Friendsof Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies Update on theSituation on Canadian University Campuses

A brief snapshot highlighting the current situation for Jewishand pro-Israel students on Canadian university campuses clearly shows the mostegregious examples of antisemitism are in Ontario and Quebec. In fact, the mostshocking case of antisemitic hate on a Canadian campus today is at McGillUniversity, which was labeled the fourth worst post-secondary institution forJewish students in North America by the Algemeiner newspaper in December 2016.

McGill seems intent on living up to this depiction, with an outrageous sequenceof events stemming from the decision by the student-run McGill Daily's editorsto censor Jewish and pro-Israel students by refusing to publish pro-Israelviewpoints in the paper. A complaint was lodged with the Student Society of McGillUniversity (SSMU) in response to this decision, but the the SSMU came down onthe side of antisemitic hate, and went so far as to support a student leaderwho advocated violence against Jews when he advised his Twitter followers to"punch a Zionist" earlier this month. Although he has since deletedthe remark and apologized for "publishing a tweet expressing a personalpolitical viewpoint," the student has refused to resign hisleadership position and the SSMU has defended him, while targeting a Jewish studentwho called him out for inciting hatred.

Following this promotion of antisemitic violence, and in reaction to theadministration's tepid response, FSWC wrote to the Principal of McGill and sent750 signed petitions calling on the university to take charge of this dangeroussituation, to dissolve the antisemitic SSMU, to offer support for Jewishstudents who are victimized on campus, and to launch an immediate investigationinto the culture of ingrained anti-Jewish hatred at McGill. To date the only concreteaction appears to be taken by the Arts Undergraduate Society of McGill, whichwill vote tomorrow on whether or not to impeach the student.

The consequences to these events are that Jewish students feel increasinglytargeted at McGill. A first year student says the Floor Fellows in hisresidence supported the violent 'punch a Zionist' post, and he believes thepeople employed to look after student welfare are blatantly biased againstIsrael and will not facilitate conversation. Events such as an 'IsraelApartheid 101' program at Frosh Week, an Independent Jewish Voices lecture andthe disruption of pro-Israel events like Chabad's "Artists 4 Israel"installation in November, capped off by this recent incident, have contributedto Jewish and pro-Israel students feeling insecure at school. He says onestudent reports she is leaving McGill because she feels unsafe due to lack ofuniversity support.

Although a police complaint regarding the 'punch a Zionist' tweet has beenfiled, it is unclear how this situation will be resolved and what, if anyaction the university administration will pursue.

In contrast, while institutions in western Canada certainly have their share ofanti-Israel activists, their influence does not seem to be quite as significantor damaging. A scan of university newspapers paints a picture of low levelefforts in western universities to push the anti-Israel narrative. The mostextreme incident occurred in January 2017 when a small private school, theIsland School of Business Arts (ISBA) in British Columbia, decided to banstudents from Israel over its disagreement with Israeli politics. Following acall from FSWC and a flood of outrage and bad press, the school quicklyadmitted it made a mistake and rescinded the discriminatory policy.

At the University of British Columbia a Palestinian student group is trying toget a BDS referendum question put to council at the 2017 student unionelections; a previous BDS motion in 2015 failed to pass. At the University ofAlberta a visiting Political Science professor and Palestinian author presentedher anti-Israel, pro-BDS book in January. Interestingly, an article in theUniversity of Calgary's The Gauntlet newspaper argues the benefits of theuniversity adding Israel to the list of 25 countries to which students canapply for an international study scholarship; Israel is not currently on thislist.

Likewise, at the University of Manitoba, a change to the studentunion's governing documents includes the removal of a boycott list - thecontents of which are unknown as the list was lost years ago.

At the other end of the country, the only tangentially relevant items concernNewfoundland's Memorial University's film series exploring the Middle East, andan article about the new Chair of Jewish Studies at Dalhousie University inHalifax. It seems safe to say that while there may be individual incidents orsimmering activism in both eastern and western Canada, any such activities arenot polarizing enough to be captured by local, national or campus media.

The situation in several Ontario universities and at Montreal's two Englishlanguage campuses is far different. Based on reports from studentrepresentatives and newspaper scans, universities including Guelph, Trent,Queens and Waterloo experience very little antisemitic or anti-Israel activity.Conditions at Kings College - Western University are somewhat more difficult,as debate over a potential BDS referendum and controversy about an Appeal Boarddecision over a possible referendum are ongoing.

In Ontario the real problem lies at the three Toronto campuses. The mostcontroversial issue continues to be at Ryerson, where it was recently revealedthat a student walkout during a motion to recognize Holocaust education at aNovember student union meeting was orchestrated by the student union president.The walkout prevented a vote on the Holocaust motion by denying the necessaryquorum. At the time the student union president called the incident'disturbing'. Now that screenshots of text message conversations betweenstudent leaders have been shared, the antisemitism at the heart of the walk-outis clear. As one Jewish student noted in the Ryerson newspaper, "In anyother minority group, this would be considered a hate crime."

At York University the public confrontations and drama seems to have lessenedbut, according to reports from several students, much of the antisemitism hasbecome more systemic. Additionally, this month a "Drop Fees NotBombs" event was held in support of arms divestment; many felt this eventwas a smokescreen for Israel boycotts.  In the fall a lab technologist wasfired for spreading antisemitism on social media, the anti-Israel justicecritic for the Green Party spoke to students about his support for BDS and theJustice Center for Constitutional Freedoms gave York an 'A' for free speech forkeeping the anti-Israel mural up.

While the University of Toronto campus seems relatively quiet, antisemitismalso manifests in systemic ways. One student shared an uncomfortable incidentthat occurred at a U of T multi-faith dinner on January 18 when one of thekeynote speakers - known for strong anti-Israel views, used the podium tolaunch a disturbing attack on Israel. The Jewish students were stunned, andfelt very uncomfortable and alienated; their concerns were as follows:  1.A known anti-Israelactivist was invited to be a keynote speaker 2.The speaker was not asked to sit downwhen it became apparent the keynote address was not in keeping with the program 3. No apology wasoffered to the students, and: 4.Nofollow-up or debrief was taken to address the incident. An email apology from aJewish intern with the Multi-faith Center was sent to several people about twoweeks after the event.

While the situation at McGill has been covered, anti-Israel feelings andsupport for divestment also continues at Montreal's Concordia University; theStudent Union divested $5.3 million from companies that are associated withIsrael in October. As with most universities, the many letters in the studentnewspaper in support of the Muslim community following the mosque shootingsaddress hate against many groups, but most tend not to include Jews in the listof targeted minorities. Interestingly, while the issue of a professor who allegedlymade racist remarks in the classroom in October was widely covered by Concordia's student newspaper, the paper did not appear to report on a Jewishstudent threatened by an Arab student for wearing a kippa.