Toronto (February 27, 2020) – Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) is extremely disappointed by the Canadian Federation of Students’ recent rejection of the Combating Antisemitism Act, a bill that has been put forward in Ontario and would require the provincial government to be guided by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

In a statement released yesterday, CFS – which represents more than half a million students across Canada – claimed that the bill infringes on freedom of expression and academic freedom.

“It is unbelievable that an organization claiming to represent Canadian post-secondary students and support human rights is in fact doing the opposite and choosing to put its resources toward supporting movements on campuses that have proven to be antisemitic and have created a hostile environment for Jewish students,” said FSWC President and CEO Avi Benlolo. “Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of hate speech, which has become very prevalent on university campuses and must be urgently dealt with.The IHRA definition, which clearly states that ‘criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic,’ is a useful tool to help counter different forms of antisemitism, including antisemitism disguised as criticism of Israel.”

Contemporary examples of antisemitism listed by the IHRA include ‘calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion’; accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust’ and ‘drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.’

FSWC is at Queen’s Park this afternoon standing in support of the bill, which is up for a second reading today. The IHRA definition has already been adopted by more than 30 countries, including Canada.