Vote to protect communities of faith passes 327-0 after Jewish students testify that universities are unsafe for them

Roberto Wakerell-Cruz
  |   May 09, 2024

The House of Commons on Wednesday unanimously voted 327-0 to endorse a justice committee report calling for immediate measures to protect faith communities and to condemn Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity.

This decision came after postsecondary students issued warnings that Canadian universities were harbouring antisemitic sentiments.

The report recommended that cabinet create an "Anti-Hate Crime Task Force" to protect communities of faith. Cabinet should also blacklist the IRGC as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code and "expel the estimated 700 Iranian agents operating in Canada."

Antisemitism especially has become a concern in Canada following the heinous attacks by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Liberal MP Anthony Housefather echoed this, stating “Since October 7th we have seen a wave of antisemitism sweep across the Western world including here in Canada. There is no place that right now is more difficult to be a Jewish Canadian than at university campuses.”

Six students from schools in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta visited Parliament Hill to draw attention to a surge in antisemitism on their campuses, sparked by the conflict. They engaged in discussions with various MPs, including Housefather.

“My friends who used to wear kippot on campus instead now wear baseball caps,” said Nati Pressman, a student at Queen's University. “This is not because we are any less proud to be Jewish. It is because our universities have fostered and created an environment where being openly Jewish could be a threat.”

One student from the University of Windsor, Sydney Greenspon, said that schools were allowing antisemitism to "flourish."

“I have personally heard ‘death to the Jews’ chanted in Arabic,” she said, reports Blacklock's Reporter.

“Windsor’s Palestinian Solidarity Group held their first of many rallies on October 10th, a celebratory event to mobilize for the ‘day of resistance’ with posters depicting the very same Hamas paragliders involved in the massacre of over 1,200 innocent Israelis,” said Greenspon. “Rallies such as these that glorify violence and so-called ‘die-ins’ held on campus became a normal occurrence.”

“Many law professors intentionally depart from the curriculum to demonize the only Jewish state and agitate with false, radical and outlandish antisemitic rhetoric,” said Pressman. “At an on-campus event one professor was met with applause from students after boasting about telling a Jewish student he hoped she would not return to his class.”

Universities across Canada, as well as the United States and Mexico, continue to deal with student protesters who have set up illegal encampments on school grounds. The premiers of both Ontario and Quebec have both called for the protests to stop, though no action has been taken by police to remove the encampments.

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