12 Jewish teachers bring human rights claims against four Ontario school boards and two unions

Human rights applications have been filed in Ontario by 12 Jewish teachers who allege they were discriminated against amid ongoing antisemitism.

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The applications include claims against the Toronto District School Board, York Region District School Board, Simcoe County District School Board, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, with the applicants alleging the institutions responsible for their workplaces failed to act. The teachers allege that in many instances they were penalized for reporting discrimination.

The applicants are seeking general damages of $150,000 each for discrimination, along with compensation for psychological counselling.

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Each applicant has filed individually; however, the applicants are asking the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal to hear the applications together.

They are also requesting that the Tribunal order the respondents to develop transparent, enforceable processes aimed at combatting discrimination, with input from the Jewish community. That includes adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism endorsed by the Government of Ontario, and to cease spreading antisemitic misinformation.

“For too long, Jewish teachers in Ontario have gone to work facing antisemitism,” says Kathryn Marshall, the lawyer representing the applicants. “A swastika drawn on a classroom desk is not a grey area. Neither is a teacher being publicly shut down at a union meeting for raising antisemitism. These are the kinds of experiences Jewish teachers across Ontario have been living with, and when they did exactly what they’re supposed to do and reported it — they were ignored, doubted, and in some cases disciplined.”

Marshall says that school boards and unions talk a lot about equity and inclusion, but adds that “those commitments mean nothing if they don’t apply to Jewish educators. These institutions had every opportunity to fix this internally, and they chose not to.  Teachers are still in classrooms today facing this, so we can’t afford to wait years for answers. We’re asking the Tribunal to hear these cases quickly and to hold these boards and unions accountable.”

The claims raise a variety of allegations of antisemitism. Marshall’s firm provided a list, which included the following.

One teacher says a student drew a swastika on a chart in the classroom and another played the Nazi anthem in class but neither faced any consequences from the school’s administration.

One teacher experienced repeated instances of Israeli flags being defaced in books and on hallway maps.

Another teacher faced an online petition falsely accusing him of racism and seeking his dismissal. The teacher alleges students chanted “Free Palestine” as they passed him, and pressured others in his class to sign the petition. None of the students were held responsible. Instead, alleges the claim, the school board’s response was to remove the teacher from the classroom.

During a union meeting, asserts another claim, the teacher attempted to raise concerns about antisemitism affecting Jewish educators and she was met with hostility and allegedly publicly reprimanded by Nigel Barriffe, the vice president of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT).

During the 2024 Trans March Social, says one teacher, ETT executive officers wore keffiyehs and pro-Palestinian symbols and distributed “divest from Israel” pamphlets. When the teacher raised concerns that this was politicization of a union event, he was accused of “anti-Palestinian racism.”

During Islamic Heritage Month a principal permitted a keffiyeh to remain in the display case despite a teacher submitting a formal complaint advising that the keffiyeh was experienced by Jewish individuals as a symbol associated with terrorism, intimidation and hostility toward Jews. Yet, during Jewish Heritage Month the school removed the Israeli flag from the display and replaced it with the Star of David, despite the Israeli flag being the flag of a recognized state and a symbol connected to the Jewish homeland and identity.

According to Statistics Canada, 70 per cent of police-reported hate crimes targeting a religion in 2024 were aimed at Jewish people. Meanwhile, Jewish university students have openly expressed concerns about facing “Heil Hitler” salutes and antisemitic graffiti on Canadian campuses.

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