Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for appearing and for the roles that you are playing in combatting anti-Semitism. We need your leadership now more than ever because anti-Semitism has never been more pervasive in Canada.
Indeed, as we recently saw, B'nai Brith published its annual audit, reporting 5,791 anti-Semitic incidents committed in 2023, more than double the year prior, and those trends have only accelerated since October 7. The fact is that Jewish hatred is running rampant in Canada—in government, in business, in labour, in universities, in schools, in places of worship, in our neighbourhoods, everywhere.
Last time, the committee heard from a number of very brave Jewish students, and their stories were distressing. In universities around the country, young Jews are being marginalized, threatened and assaulted on campus, almost always without any recourse or enforcement of their own schools' codes of conduct. Just last week, my colleague Anthony Housefather and I went to UBC, and we saw for ourselves the illegal encampment there. We saw banners calling explicitly for the eradication of Israel and violence against Jews. We toured Emily Carr and saw a Jewish student's artwork vandalized with Jewish hatred. We spoke with Jewish professors and union members who've experienced anti-Semitism and who've seen no action, leading some—like Dr. Ted Rosenberg, who this committee will hear from shortly—to resign from their faculties.
The truth is that universities in Canada are not safe for Jewish students. We are, indeed, in a crisis. Many universities have diversity, equity and inclusion policies that make no reference whatsoever to anti-Semitism, which is shocking.
My question is for the government's special envoy, Ms. Lyons.
In my view, it's impossible to promote safe and inclusive campuses for everyone if DEI policies are completely silent on one of the most deeply entrenched forms of hatred and discrimination towards an identifiable group. Ms. Lyons, you spoke about your experiences with universities. Should universities update their DEI policies to make specific reference to anti-Semitism? Should they be engaging Jewish faculty, Jewish employees and Jewish students in doing so?