Justice committee  Thank you. I interview Holocaust survivors. One of the survivors I interviewed many years ago was David Shentow. He said that when people say they're going to kill you and they hate you, believe them. I would ask anyone who has any authority and leadership to lead on this issue.

Justice committee  I'm a Jewish woman. I'm a feminist professor. I have an intersectional identity, too. It's something that's very important to my work. It's a tool like any other. It isn't a demonic tool. It can be a very powerful one. Think about LGBTQ+ students on campus. What's happening, if they're Jewish, is that they have their Jewish identity, but they also have their queer identity.

Justice committee  We will be happy to submit it. I think we may have already, actually. This was actually developed by Professor Lilach Marom, who is a member of NECA, as part of her presentation on EDI that she did earlier this year to educate NECA members. The point of that is to think about how EDI can be strengthened to better include Jews and anti-Semitism.

Justice committee  I would add to all of that also to take seriously the policies and procedures that already exist. There are laws that exist in our country and in our provinces that can address these issues but which have not been applied.

Justice committee  A very quick answer is to pay attention to the ways in which the problems we're seeing on campuses around anti-Semitism are coordinated, and they're coordinated through social media. The messages and the chants that we are finding so egregious and frightening as Jews in our community are coming across social media and circulating.

Justice committee  We have a few suggestions, of course. The first thing I would say is that we lack really good data in terms of what's happening on our campuses. Partially, that has to do with the reporting systems that exist on our campuses across Canada, where reports aren't being taken. They aren't being heard.

Justice committee  I would amplify what Professor Kogan is saying. In the university, we need to be arguing using evidence-based decision-making and using arguments that are based on reason. We don't all have to agree with each other, but we have to be able to be civil with each other. You don't have to subscribe to a belief to understand an argument.

Justice committee  To the point about convocations, we're about to head into convocation ceremonies across Canada and there's grave concern. At my own university in the fall, there was a very quick burst of pro-Palestinian celebration, which was felt very differently, of course, by the Jewish community there, when it was only a few weeks after October 7.

Justice committee  Thank you. Madam Chairwoman and members of the committee, we thank you for the opportunity to share our insights into and expertise about the state of anti-Semitism on Canadian campuses. My name is Deidre Butler. I am an associate professor of Jewish studies at Carleton University.

Justice committee  We see the results of this crisis, especially since October 7. For example, a Jewish student was called a “dirty Jew” by his lab partners. The student appealed for help. His professor instructed him to stop complaining. On one campus, graffiti depicted a Star of David on a scaffold with a swastika.

Justice committee  We see the damage done to students. They say they avoid certain courses not because they cannot have hard conversations but because their perspectives are rejected and belittled. As well, they are forced to use course materials that make lurid, false claims about Jews and Israelis and that include data drawn from Hamas publications.