University of Toronto Encampment: 'Home Base for Social Activism'

"There can be no doubt that some of the speech on the exterior of the encampment rises to the level of hate speech."

"[Those messages included] Jews in the sea Palestine will be free", "Jews should go back to Europe", and calls of "I hate every fu--ing one of you people".

Judge Markus Koehnen, Ontario Superior Court

"Jewish students and faculty have not felt safe being on their campus."

"Some have been attacked, some have been refused entry and many have experienced antisemitism."

Jewish students' joint press release

"[Had similar levels of racism targeted Black or LGBTQ+ students, would the administration still have refused to enforce its code of conduct which prohibits] vexatious conduct [based on] race, ancestry [or] ethnic origin [along with causing] another person or persons to fear for their safety?"

"We highly doubt it."

National Post Editorial

A drone image of King's College Circle at the University of Toronto after pro-Palestinian protesters cleared their encampment. (Patrick Morrell/CBC News)

 

A newly released report focusing on individuals behind the long-standing anti-Israel encampment at the University of Toronto demonstrates that universities in Canada have a problem with ideology, apart from their antisemitism conundrum among the student body and members of their faculties; not to mention outsiders having no business occupying private university grounds, but who have been indispensable to the 'protests' in organizing them, commanding and peopling them.

Leading to an inevitable conclusion; should universities who have pledged to fight racism in their midst really be serious in achieving their stated intent, are they prepared to focus on their own faculty members, professors who refuse to be educators without bringing along their personal political views?

Canary Mission, established for the very specific purpose of creating and maintaining a data base of those involved in viral antisemitism on campuses throughout Canada and the United States produced a new report noting that encampments at universities have become "home base" for "climate justice groups, labour activists, trade unionists, gay rights activists [and] socialists/Marxists".

That the State of Israel  has a vibrant labour movement, strict environmental regulations and under law guarantees more rights to LBTQ individuals than any country in the Middle East is indisputably true; the world is viewed through a Marxist lens viewing conflicts as metaphors between oppressors and the oppressed by the currency of woke ideology. And Israel has become the woke left's icon of a despised oppressor colonialist state, despite that nothing could be further from reality.

The agitators identified by Canary Mission are the product of a higher education environment that has steadily, year over year, been produced by professors and an academic system that disdained facts and critical thinking in favour of ideology and social 'activism'. The encampment, found the report, received "substantial support from faculty and staff, contributing to its long existence and the utter lack of consequences of any significance for participants".

In its study of the situation leading to the contents of its report, Canary Mission found that only 19 participants of the total 248 were identified as students; 153 were university professors; some 122 associated with University of Toronto. Academics cited in the report were all members of the university's Hearing Palestine initiative who teach "social justice education" and "critical studies in equity and solidarity" fields whose intent is to train militant revolutionaries.

Canadian universities have for years been areas tolerating and even promoting antisemitic and anti-Israel activities; many academics who supported or took part in the encampment have themselves a long history of anti-Israel activism and antisemitic public statements. Canadian institutes of higher education make their commitment to "anti-racism" a public good they contribute to while hiring and promoting faculty members who create a deliberately unsafe environment for Jewish staff and students, while spreading hatred on campus.

The following professors are connected to Hearing Palestine and supported the encampment:

Abdel Razzaq Takriti

Abigail Bakan

Alejandro Paz

Chandni Desai

Dania Majid

Mohammad Fadel

Nada Moumtaz

Rebecca Comay

Richard Fung

 

On a campus where some Jewish students have been attacked, some refused entry and many have experienced overt acts of antisemitism, leading some to attempt to "hide my Jewishness". Despite which, after Ontario Superior Court Justice Koehnen granted an injunction against the encampment, the University retreated from its threat to suspend students and subject faculty who refused to comply with its May 27 trespass notice to "disciplinary measures up to and including termination of employment". This was done by the university after its staff agitated that the university drop all projected disciplinary action.

In so doing it became complicit with those events victimizing its Jewish staff and students by legitimizing the illegal occupation of its property. The university negotiated with the protesters, provided them with washroom facilities, and now backed away from disciplining those of its staff and students who engaged in the illegal occupation, a criminal offence which ultimately University of Toronto refused to sanction.

"Ensuring the safety of all protesters has always been top of mind for the [group]."

"A similar amnesty agreement was included in every single deal put forward by Occupy and agreed to in principle by the university even before the injunction was filed."

"Encampment participants believe it is the bare minimum for the university not to go after its students for a peaceful protest."

"This agreement merely states that on paper, and we expect them actually to abide by it." 

Sara Rasikh, graduate student, encampment organizer