Five Liberal members of Parliament are asking 25 Canadian university presidents to say whether calling for a genocide against Jewish people, or the elimination of Israel, violates their school policies.
The letter, shared online by Montreal MP Anthony Housefather, comes amid a rise in antisemitism during the Israel-Hamas war, including on campuses.
Former justice minister David Lametti, fellow Montreal MP Anna Gainey, Winnipeg representative Ben Carr and ex-public-safety minister Marco Mendicino also signed the letter.
Mr. Housefather and Mr. Carr are Jewish, and the letter says all five MPs been hearing from students in their constituencies who are being harassed by peers or “subjected to hostile environments in some classrooms.”
The heads of U.S. schools have been facing similar questions during recent congressional hearings about antisemitism on campuses.
Former University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill resigned amid controversy after telling lawmakers such a call would be “context-dependent,” clarifying the next day that such language would be considered harassment or intimidation.
“We do not believe that any context is necessary to confirm that the call to eradicate an identifiable group constitutes harassment, intimidation and incites hatred, and merits the strongest disciplinary measures available to a university,” the letter from MPs reads.
The MPs’ letter is asking Canadian educators to respond to their question by Jan. 20 and outline steps being taken to protect Jewish students facing “hostile environments.”
It says they plan to submit those responses to a parliamentary committee.
“Whereas a university campus should be a safe sanctuary, we hear instead from Jewish students who are afraid to go to campus or certain classes,” it reads.
“This is entirely unacceptable.”
Canadian universities have struggled with how to manage tensions since the war began.
In Montreal, McGill University asked a group called Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill to drop the reference to the university from its name after it characterized Hamas’s Oct. 7 surprise attacks on Israel as “heroic” on social media.
Four pro-Palestinian student groups, including the one in question, later pushed back saying they were not celebrating violence but rather “looking at the prospect of liberation.”
The MPs do not name a specific school or incident in their letter, but said many students have had to walk through protests “calling for the elimination of the world’s only majority Jewish state.”
“Since October 7, we have seen gunshots fired at Jewish schools, fire bombings at Jewish institutions, threats of boycott against Jewish-owned businesses and reports across the country of Jewish students feeling unsafe on their campuses,” the letter says.
“This has been accompanied by a lack of action by university leadership to protect Jewish students.”
