Parties agree to testimony from besieged Jewish university students

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OTTAWA – Jewish university students say they are being regularly harassed and assaulted on their campuses and a House of Commons committee is expected to hold hearings on what they say has become a widespread problem.

Students from multiple schools were part of a press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday where they told stories about being harassed as they walked past protest encampments on campuses or had professors try to rationalize Hamas’s attacks against Israel on October 7. The terrorist group killed more than 1,200 Israelis in that attack and took more than 200 hostage. Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Gaza after the attack.

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Mezuzahs, biblical passages that Jews affix to their door frames inside a case, have been vandalized at university residences at Queen’s, and Holocaust remembrance events have been cancelled at other schools.

Claire Frankel, a McGill University student, said since the October 7 attacks his campus has become a hostile place for Jewish students.

“Students have been physically assaulted. They’ve been doxxed. They’ve lost friends. They’ve been harassed. They’ve been followed. They’ve been degraded, dehumanized, in a way that is unacceptable,” she said. (Doxxing is the term used for the tactic of tracking down people’s address and other personal details using the internet.)

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather who arranged the news conference pushed for the House of Commons justice committee to study to matter. He received all-party support for three days of hearings. Students are expected to testify on Thursday, but subsequent hearings are likely to also hear from university presidents and administrators.

Housefather said he believes most Canadians would find these events intolerable, but they are not hearing enough about them.

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“Most Canadians care and need to hear these stories, need to understand what is happening, so that they can push back against the university administration, push back against post-secondary affairs ministers, ministers at the provincial level,” he said.

Anastasia Zorchinsky, a Concordia University student, said the atmosphere on campus is toxic. She said she has no desire to become an activist, but universities that are unwilling to keep Jewish students safe have put her into that position.

“We’re not students anymore, because instead of begging for an assignment extension, we have to beg for our safety on campuses while we sit in class with the same people who praise the terrorism on October 7.”

There is a large encampment at McGill University in Montreal with students there telling reporters they will not leave until the university divests from Israeli companies. Encampments have also sprung up at other schools across the country with similar demands.

Frankel said there are many people at the encampments trying to have a legitimate dialogue about Israel’s actions, but she said others, including many people who are not students, are taking the protest in an antisemitic direction.

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She said universities owe it to their students to make them feel safe.

“Jewish students are facing an unprecedented level of intolerance that I’ve never thought possible in this country and universities have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure a safe learning environment for all of their students. The time for action is now,” she said.

Rachel Cook, a University of Alberta law student, said she has seen antisemitic art projects prominently displayed on campus and experienced intolerance towards Jewish students. She said people assume wrongly that her faith means she is an unequivocal supporter of the Israeli government.

She said there is plenty of room for a dialogue on campus, but it has to be a good-faith exchange.

“There is a lot of commonality between what students of Palestinian origin are experiencing on campus and what we are. But like I said, it has to be in good faith. You can’t start from a place of deep antisemitism and have those conversations.”

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Asked about the issue last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said campuses should be a place for open debate, but students also need to feel safe. He said it is up to universities and local police to ensure they are.

“We have to trust both universities to manage their campuses and local police of jurisdiction to do their work to make sure that everyone is safe,” he said.

Housefather said he hopes the hearings bring more attention to the issue. He said since October 7 safety has been a top of mind concern.

“For Jewish Canadians, for the last seven months most of us have been focused on this issue non-stop,” he said. “By holding these hearings, we’re telling our friends or family that are not Jewish, what is happening with us, and university administrators will wake up. I’m confident they’ll wake up confident there will be change,” he said.

National Post
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