Jewish group calls on Ontario government to address antisemitism in schools following federal report

A Canadian Jewish group is calling on its supporters to urge the Ontario government to address antisemitism within schools after a federal report found nearly half of incidents reported to administrators were not investigated.

“Jewish children are being harassed, excluded and dehumanized — sometimes by their classmates, sometimes by their teachers,” the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said in a statement on Wednesday.

“That’s why CIJA has called on the Government of Ontario to implement real, tangible reforms. If nothing changes and school boards fail in their mandate to deliver safe schools, the Minister must stay true to his commitment and step in.”

The report, which was commissioned by the Office of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism and published this month in Canadian Jewish Studies, found 781 antisemitic incidents in elementary schools and high schools were reported between Oct. 7, 2023 and January 2025. The report found that 49 per cent of the incidents “were not investigated.”

The most troubling episodes highlighted in the report, authored by University of Toronto professor Robert Brym, included a teacher telling a six-year-old Jewish girl with one Jewish parent that she was “half human.” Others reported hearing comments such as “Jews are vermin,” “Jews are cheap,” and “F–k you, Jews.”

Josh Landau, CIJA’s director of government relations overseeing Ontario, called on the provincial government to ensure all school boards across the province adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

The non-legally binding definition has been adopted by several provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, as well as the federal government and dozens of foreign countries. It deems comments comparing Jews or Israel to Nazi Germany as antisemitic, along with classic tropes alluding to Jewish control of banks and the media. Critics argue the defnition can curtail legitimate criticism of Israel and can be weaponized to censor Palestinian advocates.

In a written comment, Landau told National Post on Wednesday that IHRA remained “the consensus definition,” yet “Ontario’s school system lacks a clear, shared definition of antisemitism.” The CIJA executive said the provincial government needs to be more proactive as opposed to “this fragmented, inconsistent approach (which) puts students at risk of hate and violence.”

“Without the proper tools or understanding, this has proven to be problematic for individual school boards to navigate,” he said.

The Canadian Jewish group is also asking the province to create a “standardized hate reporting system” and to streamline the release of its Holocaust education curriculum. The latter was delayed after the Ford government appointed supervisors to oversee some of the largest school boards in the province in early July, including the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).

CIJA’s public appeal comes just days after it sent a letter to Education Minister Paul Calandra and Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism Graham McGregor on July 18 advocating the need for a “joint strategy to address antisemitism within Ontario public schools.”

The letter, which was also authored by Landau and publicized on Wednesday morning, refers extensively to last week’s Ontario public school antisemitism report. The report found 10 per cent of Jewish students had “directly experienced” an antisemitic incident between the October 7 Hamas attacks and January 2025 and that over 40 per cent of encounters “involved Nazi salutes, glorification of (Adolph) Hitler, or similar expressions of hate.”

Following the release of a federal report confirming widespread antisemitism within Ontario's schools, we wrote to the Government of Ontario, urging them to develop and implement a strategy to stop antisemitism in our classrooms. Jewish students are being harassed, excluded, and… pic.twitter.com/1mfGwtPUEK

— CIJA (@CIJAinfo) July 23, 2025

On Wednesday, Calandra told the Post in a written statement that he was “deeply concerned, angry and frustrated with the findings of a recent report on antisemitism in Ontario schools” and he pledged to intervene if school leaders fail to uphold standards.

“Schools must be a safe place for every student to learn in a respectful and supportive environment. I expect school boards across the province to focus on student achievement and creating supportive classrooms, free of discrimination in any form, absent of divisive politics that leave students feeling unsafe, parents frustrated and angry, and teachers who simply want to teach but unable to do so,” the Conservative MPP said.

“If boards are unable to succeed in their main mandate ‚ student achievement — by delivering safe schools, then I will step in.”

The minister of citizenship and multiculturalism reiterated Calandra’s statement and directed the Post to the Education Minister’s statement published on X.

Deborah Lyons, Canada’s special envoy on antisemitism, told National Post in a written statement last week that the report’s findings demonstrated the “need to seriously consider antisemitism education, not just Holocaust education.”

“Something has gone terribly wrong with our promises of ‘Never Again’ when over 40 per cent of the incidents in this study involved Nazi salutes, Holocaust denial, and overt verbal hate such as ‘Hitler should have finished the job,’” said the former Canadian ambassador to Israel.

• ‘Jim Crow Jewish supremacists’: Union leader faces complaint over anti-Israel posts
• Ontario students targeted by hundreds of antisemitic incidents, federal report finds

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