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Antisemitism New Normal in Many Ontario Schools
(Toronto Sun-Canada) Lorrie Goldstein - The study released in July, Antisemitism in Ontario's K-12 Schools, commissioned by Canada's federal special envoy on combatting antisemitism, suggests it's open season on Jewish students in Ontario schools. University of Toronto sociology professor Robert Brym surveyed 599 Jewish parents who reported 781 antisemitic incidents aimed at Jewish children between October 2023 and January 2025. Among the incidents cited: A six-year-old girl in Ottawa was told by her teacher that she was only half human because one of her parents is Jewish. A 13-year-old girl in Waterloo was repeatedly surrounded by five boys shouting "Sieg Heil," several times a day on multiples days. An Ottawa teacher, noticing a six-year-old girl wearing a necklace with a pendant in the shape of a map of Israel, informed her it was a map of Palestine. When a fellow student responded, "it's Israel," and explained it was a gift from their Hebrew school, the teacher responded: "Your Hebrew school teachers are lying." None of this is surprising, given that nationally, incidents of Jew-hatred through harassment, vandalism and violence increased by 125% to 6,219 incidents in 2024 compared to 2,769 in 2022, according to B'nai B'rith. Statistics Canada reports that while Jews make up 1% of Canada's population, 70% of all religiously-motivated hate crimes today are aimed at Jews.