An Open Letter to President Lachemi: TMU’s Failure to Protect Jewish Students
- Mark Sandler
- Nov 9
- 5 min read
For almost two years, our organization, the Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism (ALCCA) and a number of our members have written about the antisemitism issues plaguing TMU. Our Honorary Chair, Canada’s first Indigenous appellate judge, alongside the Chief and Band Council of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation expressed disapproval of the misuse of their traditional lands at TMU to foment Jew hatred and demonize all Zionists without distinction. We and others have urged the university leadership to forcefully address extremism that has spiralled out of control, placing Jewish students, staff, faculty, and their allies at risk, creating a poisoned environment as toxic as any that exists in our country.
Our organization includes many community lawyers who work with and support Jewish and non-Jewish TMU students, staff and faculty who are the victims of antisemitism and/or are demonized, shunned, and otherwise marginalized collectively and individually, without true accountability. Our organization includes academics, including the Network of Engaged Canadian Academics (NECA), whose members have been sounding the alarm and raising their voices about the unsafe work and learning environment TMU has become for Jews and their allies.
Among our members, we count a former instructor at and donor to the Lincoln Alexander Law School who will no longer contribute to the law school given the institutional antisemitism allowed to fester there. Within and among our member organizations, we have engaged in advocacy and have supported litigation directed at making TMU safer. At the same time, as reflected in Michael MacDonald’s otherwise flawed report, we have promoted respectful dialogue at the campus for those with whom we disagree, but who do not demonize or seek our elimination or the destruction of the State of Israel.
Our efforts appear for naught.
We are writing to express disapproval (but not surprise) over the violent, hateful and criminal incident that transpired under the watch of TMU during an off-campus event hosted by TMU Students Supporting Israel (SSI).
The SSI had to move their event to a private venue off-campus because the university would not permit the event on-campus. And yet, a TMU registered group Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP) incited, through social media, the violent actions taken that targeted the SSI private event. SJP, both at TMU and across North America, has made no secret of its extremist, terror-supporting agenda.
As you are well aware, masked agitators broke into the event, shattering glass and injuring at least one student and a guest. The SSI students and guests had to barricade themselves in the venue. The police had to intervene. They were met with resistance by the agitators and an officer was allegedly assaulted. This violent attack appeared to be planned and deliberate.
Toronto Police announced five arrests and multiple charges. Those arrested, not surprisingly, appear to include current TMU students. The police investigation is ongoing as many of the perpetrators left the scene without being apprehended.
To be clear, we have no expectation that your administration will adequately address this latest, predictable consequence of its failure to take action – indeed, the administration’s role can only be described as an enabler. We have already witnessed its past responses which include:
an unwillingness to address harassment of Jewish Hillel students because "it was off campus;"
a lack of meaningful response to Hamas cosplaying students, Nazi signs and slogans at the student centre;
inaction in the face of Jewish students being doxxed, fired, excluded and shunned;
lack of accountability when extremists (including non-students) dress as terrorists, take over common spaces and preach, with impunity, “All Zionists off campus” which would effectively exclude the vast majority of Jews;
failure to meaningfully address a faculty association that has unprofessionally applied a double standard to issues of academic freedom and freedom of speech; and
an ongoing unwillingness to confront the toxic environment for your Jewish students (for which TMU is currently being sued).
Your institutional response to this latest crime by and against TMU students has been predictable:
expression of the usual “deep concern” and a claim that the actions “do not reflect the values of our community”
the typical “our thoughts are with any students who may have been injured”
the claim that TMU “remains committed to fostering an environment where members of our community can engage in dialogue and debate respectfully and safely, in keeping with our values of inclusion, free expression and mutual respect.”
All demonstrably false or disingenuous.
Your administration has shown no meaningful commitment to fostering an environment where all members of the community can safely engage in respectful dialogue. Jews cannot even express support for the existence of the State of Israel without adverse consequences. Some members of the TMU faculty have been complicit in marginalizing Jewish students, faculty and staff.
The statement that your “thoughts are with any injured students” and an offer, by an administration reasonably regarded to be an enabler, to provide support for the targeted students represent hollow rhetoric.
As predicted, TMU's media response has already emphasized that this attack was off-campus. This does not immunize the institution from accountability for the environment that permits these crimes to take place and for the actions of a registered TMU student organization. That same response states that the school cannot confirm that any of the accused are current TMU students due to “confidentiality.” Unbelievable.
On social media, McMaster Apartheid Divest (MacAD) – a McMaster-affiliated anti-Israel student group – posted an Instagram story referring to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at TMU that read: “@sjptmu next time just burn the building down.”
Behold what you describe as an inclusive environment has reaped.
Among us, we have significant experience with and knowledge of university policies and procedures. We are confident when we say you have allowed repeated, constant and chronic violations of TMU’s Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Policy, Violence Prevention Policy, and the Student Code of Non-Academic Conduct as it relates to your Jewish students, staff and faculty.
We are well aware that these policies prohibit any acts of intimidation, discrimination, or violence targeting individuals or groups based on creed, ethnicity, or national origin. These policies exist but are not enforced.
These recent crimes have brought shameful international attention, yet again, to Canada. This is hardly surprising. The event involved a well-orchestrated attack by masked intruders on Jews and Israelis, including your students, openly incited by a TMU student hate group. And it happened here in Toronto, on your watch.
Will you finally ban SJP as a number of campuses have across North America given this group’s clear violations of law, policies, and codes of conduct?
Will you suspend students involved in this criminal activity and finally take action against those who incite violence?
Will you ensure that non-students on campus who foment hatred are treated as trespassers?
Will you finally address the demonization and marginalization of members of your school community who choose to support Israel’s right to exist? Will you speak out about the double standards adopted by your faculty association?
We have no confidence that you will take decisive action. Prove us wrong.
Mark Sandler
Chair, Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism
cc Minister Nolan Quinn
This letter draws upon an earlier letter sent by an ALCCA member. It expands upon and updates the earlier correspondence.
Action: Please share this open letter using the social media / link-copy icons at the bottom of the page to help raise awareness of TMU’s failure to protect Jewish students and the urgent need for action against campus extremism.
About The Author
Mark Sandler, LL.B., LL.D. (honoris causa), ALCCA’s Chair, is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading criminal lawyers and pro bono advocates. He has been involved in combatting antisemitism for over 40 years. He has lectured extensively on legal remedies to combat hate and has promoted respectful Muslim-Jewish, Sikh-Jewish and Black-Jewish dialogues. He has appeared before Parliamentary committees and in the Supreme Court of Canada on multiple occasions on issues relating to antisemitism and hate activities. He is a former member of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, a three-time elected Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario, and recipient of the criminal profession’s highest honour, the G. Arthur Martin Medal, for his contributions to the administration of criminal justice.