LILLEY: U of T governors turn blind eye to antisemitism

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Should we be shocked that the mayor of Mississauga can’t condemn the mastermind of a terrorist attack?

The board of governors at the University of Toronto has refused multiple times to pass motions condemning antisemitism on campus.

The most recent meeting of the board of governors happened on Nov. 7 – the same day Francesca Albanese, a virulently antisemitic representative of the United Nations, was speaking on campus.

Albanese thanked the students for the two-month-long illegal encampment that saw Hamas glorified and promoted the boycott, divest and sanction movement, which she also supports. In fact, Albanese encouraged those listening to her at U of T to launch lawsuits to try and force banks and pension funds to liquidate any investments in Israel.

The U of T had nothing to say about her appearance on campus, and the board meeting refused to condemn antisemitism on campus that same night.

Imagine the outrage if a student group had invited Dr. Jordan Peterson to speak on campus that day. The condemnations would have been fast and furious. It’s worth noting that Peterson was a professor of psychology from 1998 until 2022 at U of T and had previously taught at Harvard.

He only became controversial and persona non grata on campus after speaking out against laws forcing the use of pronouns. That’s far more egregious to the folks at U of T than waging a constant and consistent diplomatic war against Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.

Yet, as Albanese was speaking against Israel to an adoring crowd on the campus of the University of Toronto, the meeting of the board of governors was spiralling out of control.

They couldn’t find it within themselves to pass a motion denouncing antisemitism on campus.

At the Nov. 7 meeting, most board members argued about procedure and policy as some tried to find a way to have antisemitism on campus denounced. This should not have been something that took up much time at the meeting. They should simply have said this is something we don’t support and moved on.

Instead, Anna Kennedy, the chair of the board of governors, and Sandra Hanington, the vice-chair of the council, actively worked to block any attempt to move motions condemning antisemitism on campus and at the encampments that took place last spring. It was the second meeting of the board of governors where Kennedy blocked motions that attempted to denounce the Jew hatred that has spread across the campus thanks to a small but vocal group of activists.

Despite board members making their case, Kennedy, backed by Hanington, ruled any attempt to raise issues as out of order despite board members raising concerns and reading directly from the rules to say the chair was out of order.

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Kennedy and Hanington, both provincial appointees to the board of governors, should be ashamed of themselves. The Ford government, given that they appointed both of these members, should also be hanging their heads in shame.

The province has spoken clearly against antisemitism, on campus and elsewhere, and here are two of their most senior appointees blocking attempts to denounce what the government has said is unacceptable.

If there had been protests against Muslims on campus, against Muslim states, against Islam in general over the past 13 months, then there would have been condemnations. We can just imagine what the mayor, the premier, the prime minister would have said if the hatred of the last 13 months were aimed at Muslims instead of Jews.

The denunciations would have come quickly from all levels of government, including from the university administration.

With hatred aimed at Jews and Jewish students, though, Kennedy and Hanington did everything they could to stop a vote condemning antisemitism from being held. Listening to the meeting of Nov. 7, it really looks like they didn’t want to discuss antisemitism on campus.

The board of governors expressed the view that they were spending too much time on the issue without ever actually addressing it.

None of this should be shocking given the history of antisemitism at the University of Toronto over its nearly 200 years of existence. In 2022, just two years ago, there was a damning report on antisemitism at U of T’s medical school.

That should have been a wakeup call, instead the rot proceeds apace.

It’s time the Ford government took a hard look at U of T, including their own feeble appointees like Kennedy and Hanington, and made some changes. These people clearly don’t deserve to hold such positions given their weak-kneed views.

It’s time to find some people with a backbone.

blilley@postmedia.com