Justice committee  Sure. This was built upon an initiative that was started by the University of Ottawa faculty of law's Muslim and Jewish law associations. I built on that, and we've created a national respectful dialogue initiative that 2,500 members of the legal community have signed on to. The idea is that we're now operationalizing that, so we will have respectful dialogues on our campuses.

Justice committee  I've provided you an article that I wrote on the distinction between protected speech and hate speech. I want to say simply that there are clear demarcations between the two. The example that I usually give is that, if someone wants to criticize Israel's policies, its practices, the conduct of its government and so on and so forth, that's contemplated by the IHRA definition as not being anti-Semitic.

Justice committee  It's a great question, and I thank you for it. For me, there's a multifactor answer to it. The first is that I think people genuinely don't understand anti-Semitism. I think with the lack of understanding of anti-Semitism comes a lack of understanding of where the boundaries have been crossed and a criminal offence has been committed.

Justice committee  I'm sorry I went on too long, but to answer your question, if that definition is not utilized and we exclude anti-Zionism as part of the anti-Semitic picture, then we're not addressing the current form of anti-Semitism that's prevailing on campuses and at schools.

Justice committee  The reason it is of critical importance is that anti-Semitism is a cancer and it metastasizes in different ways through IHRA. What are we dealing with now? We are dealing with anti-Semitism in the form of anti-Zionism. I won't give the whole history lesson, but there's a well-documented history of Zionism as racism, which started in Russia and was propagandized.

Justice committee  Yes. There are codes of conduct that don't address this issue adequately or at all. I want to make a point. If one doesn't adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, codes of conduct that prohibit anti-Semitism are worthless, because it's defined away. People will describe it as not anti-Semitic and, therefore, define it out of existence.

Justice committee  Thank you. I appreciate that very much. I've identified the following factors, and I'm happy to elaborate on them as might be necessary. We see the active involvement of extremists and extremist organizations in Canada, which are operating with impunity here. We see foreign money infused into Canada.

Justice committee  I don't want to ignore the fact we have radicalized professors and faculty and would not simply focus on students. There's jurisprudence that makes it clear that, even in the absence of proof of a hate crime, we are to be able to deal in a disciplinary manner with faculty who are creating a poisoned environment in their classrooms.

Justice committee  Not only do I agree with that, but what I am seeing is an inconsistent application of the law right across the country. I'm seeing underutilization of various sections of the Criminal Code that do exist and that I have identified. I've also seen the absence of designated prosecutors to deal with these crimes so that you're actually having internal disagreement within Crown services about what is prosecutable and what is not.

Justice committee  You're absolutely correct.

Justice committee  Absolutely.

Justice committee  I'm unaware of very much activity on this front at all, frankly, and I'm aware of many instances where no action has been taken.

Justice committee  Thank you.

Justice committee  Thank you. Good morning. On October 7, life completely changed for Canadian Jews not simply because Israel had been the victim yet again of terrorist brutalities directed against helpless citizens, but because almost immediately and before a single Israeli soldier set foot in Gaza, on Canadian streets and campuses, faculty members and students, union leaders and known jihadists celebrated and glorified Hamas's barbarities.