Statements

We write as the Jewish Faculty Network, an organization made up of over 200 faculty members and librarians at universities and colleges across Canada, deeply troubled by a recent Toronto District School Board (TDSB) decision to receive the report “Affirming Jewish Identity and Addressing Anti-Semitism Strategy” on February 13, 2025.

The abduction and attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, coupled with ongoing threats to university funding and crackdowns on activists, academics, and the imprisonment and attempted deportation of those without U.S. citizenship, has stirred collective horror and rage among members of the Jewish Faculty Network, whose membership includes more than 200 faculty members at universities across Canada.

CAUT opposes the adoption of or reliance on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism and the Canadian Handbook on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism as a basis for defining what constitutes antisemitism or for otherwise suppressing speech deemed as controversial, troubling, or offensive in Canadian universities.

Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), United Jewish People’s Order (UJPO), and the Jewish Faculty Network (JFN) steering committee, object to the publication today of a handbook offering guidelines for the application of the widely-discredited International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) redefinition of antisemitism. The handbook was mandated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2021 and issued today by Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons.

The national Steering Committee of the Jewish Faculty Network (JFN SC) commends both the University of Windsor and the student encampment participants for engaging in good-faith negotiations leading to a meaningful agreement. The agreement represents the highest ideals of the core mission of Universities and is emblematic of a commitment to democratic principles, human rights, international law, and rigorous academic exchange.