B.C. IS AT A CROSSROADS AFTER ROBINSON AFFAIR

Clear policies are needed to thwart antisemitism, Richard Robertson says.

The province of British Columbia had a cabinet member capable of addressing the growing problem of antisemitism on its university campuses until recently, when Selina Robinson was pressured into stepping down from her role as minister of advanced education.

She resigned from Premier David Eby's cabinet after she referred to pre-1948 Palestine as a “crappy piece of land” during a Jan. 30 online event highlighting Jewish politicians in Canada. Robinson clarified, of course, that she was referring to the historical fact that the land had no economic base before the development of Zionist agricultural settlements in the region.

Many in B.C. found her choice of words objectionable, and she immediately apologized. That was not enough for anti-israel radicals, who accused her of “Islamophobia” and “anti-palestinian racism.” Demonstrators vandalized her campaign office with hateful graffiti after she had already stepped down from her cabinet position.

Within days of Robinson's Jan. 30 remarks, Eby caved to public pressure and accepted Robinson's resignation. It was quite the price for Robinson to pay for a poor choice of words.

In fact, Eby made a similar blunder on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, when his office tweeted a statement of solidarity with the Muslim community rather than the Jewish community.

Yet the premier emerged unscathed from that controversy, unlike Robinson, who has been disgraced and isolated without support from Eby's government. Robinson has recently left Eby's B.C. New Democratic Party, citing the clear double standards in her treatment.

To be clear, one can disagree with Robinson's language, for which she has apologized.

But no one should accept the troublesome precedent set by B.C. in dismissing a Jewish public official for such comments. Her comments were no more problematic than those of dozens of politicians across Canada who have failed to denounce Hamas' brutal Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, during which the terrorists butchered about 1,200 Israelis, raped women and girls, and abducted hundreds of others to Gaza, where about 130 remain captive.

Extremist and antisemitic views have become increasingly pervasive on B.C.'S campuses. For instance, this past month, hundreds of students petitioned the University of British Columbia Alma Mater Society to allow an unconstitutional and one-sided “policy against genocide in Palestine” to appear on the semester's undergraduate referendum.

Thankfully, the AMS council did not allow the Palestine question to go forward because it clearly violated the rules. But it is troubling that hundreds of students evidently supported a policy that would have defunded the Jewish organization Hillel and that solely blames Israel for the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. It also did not mention Hamas and failed to denounce the group's Oct. 7 attacks.

The AMS council did the correct thing by voting against this disinformation-ridden text, but the controversy has raised tensions on campus that will not easily dissipate. Jewish students are liable to be further demonized and alienated at UBC, exposing them to harassment and intimidation. Antisemitism has been escalating at the university since the beginning of the Israel-hamas war, and the situation recently led a prominent Jewish professor of medicine, Dr. Ted Rosenberg, to resign.

Without Robinson in office, or even in the ruling NDP, UBC'S Jewish students have lost an important ally with a track record of challenging rising levels of incitement at B.C. universities. She demonstrated this in late January by condemning Langara College for not initially dismissing instructor Natalie Knight, who called Oct. 7 an “amazing, brilliant offensive.”

At the time, the Federation of Post-secondary Educators demanded Eby remove Robinson over her involvement in the Langara affair because, according to an investigation by the college, Knight's comments “did not constitute hate speech.”

The existence of a culture of antisemitism in B.C. is undeniable when institutions such as Langara or UBC are unable to discipline students and staff for glorifying acts of terror. To begin to address this sordid situation, Eby must facilitate the adoption and implementation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which has already been adopted by seven other provinces, the federal government, the United States and European Union.

Adopting and implementing this framework will not make antisemitism go away on its own and it will not reverse the harm caused to Robinson, whose loss certainly leaves Jewish students at a significant disadvantage. But it would help to dispel the general ignorance surrounding hate targeted at Jews and give institutions across the province a tool to aid them in combating antisemitism. This would give administrators a clear standard to apply in cases such as Knight's and would assist in their ability to confront hateful student-initiated motions such as the one that nearly appeared at UBC.

Eby's government is at a crossroads after the Robinson affair.

Adopting and implementing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism would be one way to rectify the situation, but if the provincial government does nothing, then this debacle may unfortunately be a harbinger of worse things to come.

Antisemitism in B.C. is undeniable when institutions such as Langara or UBC are unable to discipline students and staff for glorifying acts of terror.