The cesspit of antisemitism that has been permitted to fester at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) is laid bare in a just released report by former Ontario Appeal Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto.
Jewish students spat on, pelted with sour milk, intimated, harassed, threatened, and living in fear because a university was unable to tackle the scourge of antisemitism that swept through its halls after Oct. 7, 2023.
In an astonishing statement, one tenured professor pleaded with the Jewish community to send their children anywhere but TMU.
“I will tell anyone, with great sorrow, anyone in the Jewish community, not to have their children apply to TMU. Can you imagine that? I love this university and I’ve worked here for (over a decade),” the professor told Benotto.
“It’s given me my entire professional life. Now I tell friends not to let their children go here because they’ll be harassed, and mistreated, and bullied and potentially assaulted. And I say, ‘Send them to McGill, or Western, or U of T, or to the U.S., or somewhere else.’ They are all better.”
What is so horrifying is that it wasn’t just other students behind this wave of hate that put Jews in the crosshairs, but also some faculty.
“Some administrators and University leaders expressed concern that certain faculty members may be encouraging, incentivizing, or intensifying student activism in ways they viewed as inappropriate or inconsistent with professional boundaries,” said the report.
A section entitled “Educator statements” highlighted the hate in the classrooms.
The Benotto review “was also given multiple examples of statements reportedly made in classrooms, faculty-led seminars, and educational spaces that many Jewish participants experienced as antisemitic, dehumanizing, or normalizing hostility toward Jewish people.”
Statements included: denying or minimizing the Holocaust (it appears Hitler wasn’t conducting a genocide, it was merely “discrimination”; saying “academic power is rooted in Jewish supremacism” and it needs to be “rooted out of academia” and holding a discussion about “how much violence we are willing to engage in.”
The introduction to the report notes, “The Review is based on the foundational principle that universities are meant to foster inquiry, debate, and democratic engagement.”
Yet, at TMU, failure to enforce its own policies has allowed hatred towards Jews to blossom, debate and discussion to be shut down and the inmates to overrun the asylum.
It’s clear from the report that the people behind the pro-Palestinian/anti-Jewish protests were out of control.
Senior university administrators were followed, filmed, verbally assaulted and had things thrown at them.
“Administrators, some faculty, Jewish student and faculty representatives, and event organizers frequently described conduct they experienced as crossing from protest into intimidation, harassment, or attempts to silence participation,” said the report.
“Interviewees in this group pointed to repeated event disruptions, aggressive confrontations, social media targeting, doxxing, hostile language, and personal accusations directed at identifiable individuals.”
In one incident, said the report, the vice provost was in a campus café when a student threw pamphlets at her containing accusations of war crimes against Israel. On another occasion, the same woman was surrounded by masked students shouting at her and filming her while displaying signs depicting her as a war criminal.
“Protesters repeatedly followed the University President to the parking garage and surrounded his vehicle and then posted a video of the event with disparaging remarks,” said the report.
Posters around campus showed senior university administrators, including the president, vice-provost and chief financial officer, alongside the phrase, “Wanted for Genocide.”
Is it any wonder that one emeritus professor told of her shame at being associated with the university?
The report also noted that many Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and pro-Palestinian participants experienced fear, exclusion, and marginalization. “Several described grief and trauma connected to events in Gaza, frustration with institutional neutrality, and concern that criticism of Israel was too readily conflated with antisemitism.”
But it is clear from the report that there was a divide between some students who felt unsafe and those who really were unsafe.
The Benotto review began as an investigation into two incidents. In September last year, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) disrupted a Democracy Forum event featuring AI Minister Evan Solomon by shouting “war criminal” and “baby killer” and causing it to be shut down.
In November, the same group smashed their way into an off-campus meeting of a speaking event hosted by Students Supporting Israel. The meeting was also cancelled.
The report noted that in the second incident the university had refused to allow the meeting to take place on campus. “TMU effectively permitted a ‘heckler’s veto,’ whereby the threat of disruption determines who is permitted to speak.”
But Benotto’s review quickly became “a broader institutional issue: a deeply polarized campus environment shaped by the aftermath of October 7, 2023, and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Can TMU, the virtue-signalling university that ditched the name Ryerson on the altar of diversity, equity and — how ironic — inclusion, get a grip on things?
“The Review concludes that the two incidents under review were symptoms of a deteriorating campus climate that, absent decisive institutional action, are likely to recur,” said the report.
Urged to act decisively, TMU responded with the speed and gusto of a dead sloth.
It has created “an Implementation Task Force” to review the recommendations of the Benotto report and come up with policies, procedures and proposed actions.
But as Benotto boldly pointed out: the university already has the tools it needs with its Code of Conduct. The challenge lies in a “consistent and principled” enforcement, she said.
Consistency would be nice; principles would be great. TMU seems inclined to neither.
National Post
