Jewish students tell Commons committee they're terrified by campus antisemitism
Jewish university students told a parliamentary com‐ mittee Thursday their uni‐ versities have failed to pro‐ tect them from antisemitic incidents on campus since the start of Israel's war on Hamas.
"The consistent failure of our universities to take ac‐ tion against the hate taking place on our campuses has emboldened anti-Israel ac‐ tivists to become more radi‐ cal," said Nicole Nashen, a McGill University law student.
Nashen said her grand‐ parents were proud of her when she started her studies at McGill, but they "are now horrified by the rampant an‐ tisemitism that I and my Jew‐ ish peers are experiencing on campus."
She pointed to a sign at the pro-Palestinian encamp‐ ment at McGill University that reads "no Zionists al‐ lowed," calling it antisemitic.
"Zionism should not be controversial," she told MPs. "It is simply the belief of Jew‐ ish self-determination in our homeland, and it does not preclude the existence of a Palestinian state, too."
Another law student, Rachel Cook of the University of Alberta, said she walked past an art installation at the school's Rutherford Library on Tuesday which had a swastika scrawled on it, along with a message praising the Popular Front for the Libera‐ tion of Palestine, listed as a terror group by the Canadian government.
She said the installation also had a message on it reading "death to ZOGs" - a reference to an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming some western governments are secretly run by Jews.
"I have been left after this year with the impression that the U of A is more interested in covering up systematic an‐ tisemitism on campus than addressing it head-on and working towards change," Cook said.
University took action following complaint
CBC News reached out to the University of Alberta on Wednesday. A spokesperson
said the art installation - an interactive display about the war in Gaza - would be wiped clean of hate symbols.
On Thursday morning, the university issued a statement saying that, that in consulta‐ tion with the artist, "it took immediate action. The artist removed the hate speech, and the university has put measures in place to guard against any potential future vandalism."
A CBC News crew visited the university on Thursday afternoon to interview one of the artists behind the work, Michael Cor, who is also with the school's Faculty of Art.
The swastika and ZOG ref‐ erence were gone but the message about the PFLP was still there. The message "Zionism is terrorism" was written on the piece as well.
"The university was trying to work out a way that we could keep the piece here without having to remove [the installation]," Cor said.
"We explained that this is part of the process and we will remove any hateful lan‐ guage. We had some good conversations with some of the staff, and it was educa‐ tional, just in terms of what some of those coded words, like ZOG, meant."
CBC News reached out to the university again about the statements that were still on the display as of Thursday afternoon.
The university has yet to respond, but in the mean‐ time, Cor sent a picture showing the display has been completely covered.
Liberals, Conservatives point fingers
During Thursday's com‐ mittee hearing, Liberal MPs Anthony Housefather and Marco Mendicino said univer‐ sities and other levels of gov‐ ernment share responsibility for making students feel safe.
"The Parliament of Cana‐ da makes the Criminal Code. Enforcement is provincial," Housefather said. "Post-sec‐ ondary institutions are the jurisdiction of the provinces and college administrators are largely responsible for what happened."
Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman asked the students if they thought the federal govern‐ ment had done enough to protect Jewish students or ensure the law is enforced on campus. They agreed it had not.
They had a different reac‐ tion when Lantsman showed them a recent picture of Lib‐ eral cabinet ministers Mélanie Joly and Ya'ara Saks meeting with President of the Palestinian Authority Mah‐ moud Abbas during a visit to the West Bank in March.
"Do you think pictures like this help? Yes or no?" Lants‐ man asked the witnesses.
"Last time I checked I don't have to say yes or no," said Nati Pressmann, a thirdyear Queens University stu‐ dent and the founder of Canadian Union of Jewish Students. "I don't think that's necessarily relevant to what we're discussing right now. Obviously, the community's harmed by that picture."
"I'd like to be asked a question about my experi‐ ence on campus," said Nashen.
"The government has the power to hold [universities] to account. The government has the power to be able to enforce the laws that already exist. Government has the power to make Jewish stu‐ dents feel safe on on cam‐ pus," Lantsman told CBC News after the hearing wrapped.