A group of five Liberal MPs have asked 25 Canadian university presidents to commit to creating safe environments for Jewish students on their campuses. “We have heard from students who say they are being harassed by fellow students, are being subjected to hostile environments in some classrooms, and are being forced to walk through protestors on campus who are calling for the elimination of the world’s only majority Jewish state,” said the Liberal MPs in a Wednesday letter to various Canadian university presidents. “We have heard from students who are at universities where the student association and other groups funded and recognized by the university are hostile environments for Jewish students and where student newspapers are refusing to run articles from contributors that support Israel.”.The Liberal MPs who signed off on the letter were Anthony Housefather (Mount Royal, QC), David Lametti (LaSalle-Emard-Verdun, QC), Ben Carr (Winnipeg South Centre, MB), Marco Mendicino (Eglinton-Lawrence, ON), and Anna Gainey (Notre-Dame-de-Grace—Westmount, QC). The universities they wrote to included the University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, and the University of Alberta. The University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology presidents embarrassed themselves and their institutions by being unable to confirm before the United States Congress whether a call for genocide against Jews violated their codes of conduct. Instead, these presidents advised the committee it depended on context.The MPs said they “do not believe that any context is necessary to confirm the call to eradicate an identifiable group constitutes harassment, intimidation and incites hatred and merits the strongest disciplinary measures available to a university.” U of P Wharton Business School Board of Advisors demanded on Friday former president Liz Magill resign after she refused to say the code of conduct included stopping antisemitism. READ MORE: Penn President Liz Magill called to resign after antisemetic remarks that lost school $100M“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” said Magill. Magill’s remarks cost U of P US$100 million in donations, as one of its largest donors Ross Stevens pulled out upon hearing what she said. In October, Israel was attacked by Hamas. What has followed these attacks has been a dramatic escalation of antisemitism around the world. Since October, gunshots have been fired at Jewish schools, Jewish institutions have been firebombed, threats of boycotts against Jewish businesses have been made and reports have spread across Canada of Jewish students feeling unsafe on their campuses. The MPs acknowledged this has been accompanied by a lack of action by university leadership to protect Jews. They asked for the presidents to respond to them in writing by January 20 to various questions they had, which they intended to table with a committee in the House of Commons. Some of these questions were is a call for genocide against Jews or the elimination of Israel a violation of their universities’ codes of conduct, what additional steps have they taken to protect Jewish students since the Hamas attacks, and will they commit to reviews of their codes of conduct to ensure proper policies are in place to fight antisemitism. While a university campus should be a safe sanctuary, the MPs said they “hear instead from Jewish students who are afraid to go to campus or certain classes.” “This is entirely unacceptable,” they said.
