McGill University has cancelled an on-campus event planned by Jewish students—and temporarily halted bookings for all extracurricular activities—following threats of violence along with a death threat, as outlined in a message from senior administrators on Monday, Nov. 25.
The event was a dialogue with Mosab Hassan Yousef, a former Hamas insider turned Israel advocate–and active critic of Palestinian leadership—that was scheduled for the following day, with local Jewish lawyer and activist Ysabella Hazan serving as moderator.
Yousef’s memoir Son of Hamas, which was a New York Times bestseller upon its publication in 2010, recounts his experiences growing up in Gaza and his eventual participation with Israeli intelligence.
The cancellation announcement follows escalating tensions at McGill, where anti-Israel protests took place last week, leading to violent clashes and vandalism in the city.
“An external group, which co-organized protests that sparked vandalism and violence downtown, issued a social media call to ‘shut down’ a talk scheduled on campus,” says the statement, which was signed by McGill’s interim deputy provost Angela Campbell and vice-president Fabrice Labeau.
The university, which has maintained communication with Montreal police, says “waves of online anger, including a targeted death threat,” prompted the decision to cancel the talk.
Palestinian Youth Movement Montreal and Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR McGill) jointly demanded the cancellation of the event on social media, alleging that Yousef advocates for “violence against Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims.”
“Yousef serves as a mouthpiece for the Zionist occupation and its interests,” says a post by the Palestinian Youth Movement, which garnered over 15,000 likes on Instagram.
In its message, McGill emphasized that hosting controversial speakers is a “core part” of university life, but it underscored the need for order on campus as students approach exam season.
Leon Novodvorets, a Jewish student at McGill and an Emerson Fellow with StandWithUs Canada, says he was disappointed by the university’s decision, adding that the administration “bows down to intimidations and threats of violence” instead of protecting Jewish students.
“Regardless of security concerns, it’s McGill’s job to ensure that students can go to campus,” Novodvorets told The Canadian Jewish News, saying that the administration has “fallen immensely short.”
“They have a responsibility to protect us and they’re not enforcing their own policies, (which) they say they have to address general instances of intimidation and harassment,” he said.
“There’s a double standard when it comes to the Jewish community, and McGill is not doing a good job at keeping Jewish students safe.”
Novodvorets says this double standard was apparent earlier this month, when the administration allowed Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories to speak on campus, although her appearance drew objections from several Jewish organizations who pointed to her anti-Israel and antisemitic views.
In a separate statement sent to The Canadian Jewish News, the media relations office at McGill said the university “declined the space booking pursuant to threats communicated about the event on social media yesterday, which presented a risk to physical safety and the likelihood of disruptions to core academic activities. Although McGill was in touch with the SPVM (Montreal police), even with police and security presence, there was no way to assure a necessary level of safety for this event.”
The editorial team of The White and Blue, a student-run, pro-Israel newspaper in Montreal, also sent a collective statement to The Canadian Jewish News about the university’s decision to cancel the talk:
“The McGill administration would rather take away our rights than protect us from those on their campus who wish us harm. It is unacceptable that the targets of terror should be the ones who are punished. If the McGill administration is unable or unwilling to keep their Jewish students safe, then perhaps it is time to seek out an administration who will.”
In August, shortly before school started this year, Deep Saini, president and vice-chancellor of McGill University, pledged his commitment to protecting Jewish students at the university during an online talk.
“We are determined that we’re going to use every single thing in our power to make sure that any infringement of all these boundaries is stopped as fast as humanly possible,” Saini said.
“We have multiple layers of defenses that we have enacted and we have demonstrated that they are workable and we will deploy them as needed,” the McGill president said.
Jewish advocacy groups criticized McGill’s decision and accused the university of capitulating to radical groups.
“While we recognize the alarming threats made by radical pro-Hamas supporters, it is the university’s obligation to ensure students have access to free discourse, a cornerstone of academic principles,” the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and Federation CJA posted on social media.
“We find it particularly alarming that other events featuring controversial and hateful speakers proceeded despite objections. McGill’s choice to break from its previously stated policy demonstrates a double-standard while caving to an aggressive mob of radicals,” read the statement from CIJA.
Richard Robertson of B’nai Brith Canada said McGill’s decision to cancel the talk on campus means “it is the student body that is being unduly punished for the caustic actions of fringe radicals who continue to compromise the well-being of the entire campus community,” reported the Montreal Gazette.
He added that the university must take proactive measures to “confront troublemakers who are undermining student life.”
Startup Nation, a pro-Israel student organization at McGill and Concordia, said the recent decision by the administration will only allow hate to fester.
“McGill has once again failed their Jewish and non-Jewish students who value open dialogue and academic freedom, as opposed to violent terrorism.”
