Advocacy @ HBT: The week of August 19, 2026
Advocacy @ HBT: Defending TMU Students and an Important Day of Learning
Justice Mary Lou Benotto has published a damning independent review of several antisemitic hate incidents at Toronto Metropolitan University. She discovered that while TMU already has the policies and the means to defend its Jewish students against illegal acts of hate and discrimination, the university has failed to enforce its own rules. Equally concerning, TMU has decided not to take the “decisive institutional action” recommended by Justice Benotto, with TMU President Mohamed Lachemi instead opting to appoint a Task Force that will produce an “implementation blueprint” by March 2027. You can read more about the ongoing issues at TMU here in this article by CIJA. An editorial by the Globe and Mail Editorial Board was published on this subject yesterday. Subscribers can read it here.
If you are motivated to raise your voice in support of Jewish students at TMU, you can write directly to President Mohammed Lachemi by utilizing CIJA’s Action Hub. Link is here.
Additionally, an important day of learning at The Conference Centre of the University of Toronto is happening on Tuesday, September 15th. “A Canary’s Song: Antisemitism in our ‘Free and Democratic Society’” will bring together former Ambassadors Deborah Lipstadt and Deborah Lyons for an important keynote speech. The Honourable Irwin Cotler will also address the gathering, and our own Rabbi Splansky is moderating an important conversation about antisemitism in our institutions.
“In this one-day conference of distinguished scholars and experts in history, politics, law, human rights, law enforcement, and, of course, specifically in the nature and history of antisemitism and antizionism, we will strive for understanding rather than for activism, and for moral clarity rather than moralizing.”
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