Antisemitism in Ontario's K-12 Schools

"Jewish children are being harassed, excluded and dehumanized -- sometimes by their classmates, sometimes by their teachers."

"That's why CIJA has called on the Government of Ontario to implement real, tangible reforms." 

"If nothing changes and school boards fail in their mandate to deliver safe schools, the Minister must stay true to his commitment and step in."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, (CIJA) 

 

"Schools must be a safe place for every student to learn in a respectful and supportive environment."

"I expect school boards across the province to focus on student achievement and creating supportive classrooms, free of discrimination in any form."

"If boards are unable to succeed in their main mandate -- student achievement -- by delivering safe schools, then I will step in." 

Ontario Minister of Education, Paul Calandra

We need to seriously consider antisemitism education, not just Holocaust education,” says Deborah Lyons, Canada's special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism. Photo by Justin Tang/The Canadian Press/

 

The government of Ontario has been called upon to address the issue of antisemitism in schools, following a federal report that documented close to fifty percent of incidents reported to school administrators failed to be investigated. Commissioned by the Office of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, the report saw publication in Canadian Jewish Studies this month. No fewer than781 antisemitic incidents were found by the study to have taken place in elementary and high schools, reported between October 7, 2023 and January 2024. Of that total, "49 percent were not investigated".

 

Of the incidents highlighted in the report some episodes stand out for their shock value. Highlighted in the report whose author was University of Toronto professor Robert Brym, included a teacher informing a six-year-old Jewish girl that she was only "half human", since she had one Jewish parent that evidently disqualified her from being a certified member of the human race. There were narratives reported of children overhearing comments expressed by other students to the effect that "Jews are vermin", "Jews are cheap", and "F---k you, Jews". 

 

The director of government relations of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Josh Landau, called on the provincial government to ensure that all school boards province-wide adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, a non-legally binding definition adopted by several provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, along with the federal government and dozens of other countries.  Comments comparing Jews or Israel to Nazi Germany are deemed antisemitic, as well as other classics that allude to the purported Jewish control of banks and the media.

 

IHRA is recognized as "the consensus definition" in the face of "Ontario's school system lacking a clear, shared definition of antisemitism", stated Mr. Landau. Given the turn of events in Canada since the October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel by thousands of Palestinian terrorists marauding through southern Israel's farming communities on the border with Gaza, when sadistic savagery was proudly recorded by Hamas operatives as they raped, tortured, maimed and murdered 1,200 Israelis, abducting children, women and the elderly along with dead bodies as hostages taken to Gaza, action of a remedial nature is sorely lacking.

 

 

 

While Canadian Jewish communities, Jewish university students, Jewish children in the public school system have been relentlessly harassed, threatened, their human rights to live in peace and security blatantly denied by anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian mobs of 'protesters' against Israel's right in international law to defend itself and rout out the terrorists that have violated a peace agreement, authorities at every level of government with rare exceptions have failed to react to support the Jewish community. 

 

Now, an appeal has gone directly to the provincial ministry of education to remind them of their legal and social obligations to all members of society, to protect the rights of students from intimidation, harassment, threats and violence. School boards and school faculty appear to have been infiltrated by the  general aura of Critical Race Theory, DEI and wokeism that infected the federal government under the Liberals now in power, to the detriment of the civilized social contract. Jewish students in Ontario are "routinely accused of being baby killers and otherwise held to be personally responsible for the Israel-Gaza war", stated the report's author.

 

"Ontario's school system lacks a clear, shared definition of antisemitism". The status quo has not worked, and it is time that "this fragmented, inconsistent approach (which) puts students at risk of hate and violence" be addressed, was the message of the CIJA. Asking that the province created a "standardized hate reporting system", and to streamline release of its Holocaust education curriculum. That letter and the public appeal that accompanied it, addressed to Education Minister Paul Calandra and Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism Graham McGregor advocates the need for a "joint strategy to address antisemitism within Ontario public schools". 

 

Ten percent of Jewish students, the report revealed, had "directly experienced" an antisemitic incident "between the October 7 Hamas attacks and January 2025". Minister Calandra responded in a statement that he was "deeply concerned, angry and frustrated with the findings of the report on antisemitism in Ontario schools", pledging to intervene should school leaders fail to uphold standards of fairness and inclusion in treating all schoolchildren with equal concern and that the educational experience meet civil, social and learning expectations.