We live in a culture in which survey results tend to command more attention than they’re worth, often at the expense of truth and common sense. A penchant for tidily packaged, quantifiable “evidence” gets in the way of recognizing the obvious or questioning what the pundits would have us believe. 

Take the situation at Canadian universities, for example. In early February, Israeli Apartheid Week commanded our attention, morphing this year into a strategically more ominous format than ever before. Its aftermath, right up until the end of the current school year, has been unsettling, with incident after ugly incident of intimidation directed at anyone who stands up against the wanton vilification of Israel and its supporters.

For those who are actually on campus and who have had to deal with the day-to-day onslaughts, a new and troubling reality has emerged. No longer can we rely on the tenets of free speech to defend the interests of the entirety of students and faculty, particularly the Jewish minority. Instead, we have witnessed abuses of free speech that university administrations seem unable to confront.

Of even greater concern is that what now passes as freedom of expression even seems to take precedence over mechanisms that most universities use to ensure the well-being of their students.

At McMaster University, the faculty association is now requesting a review of what it regards as inconsistencies between restrictions expressed in the Student Code of Conduct and the university’s “overarching” statement on academic freedom. The “restrictions” referred to are, by the way, the very devices that, according to the code, protect students against actions that “may be considered intimidating, harassing or offensive.”

The Canadian campus environment, rampant as it is with Israel haters, has seldom been as hostile to Jewish students and faculty – and there can be little doubt that the abomination of Israeli Apartheid Week has provided the ideological fuel for what’s happened. Far from receding, this cancer has spread and become more virulent.

What remains incongruous, however, is that our mainstream Jewish leadership apparently opted for a low-key approach right from the outset, hoping that the problems we’ve been facing would somehow abate if only we avoid drawing attention to them.

This attitude has not changed. Just a few weeks ago, an audience in Hamilton was told that, based on available research, Israeli Apartheid Week activities had been shown to be in decline this past year. And the same message has been touted repeatedly by others in our advocacy agencies.

Surveys say it, so therefore it must be true, right? Well, not necessarily. The facts on the ground speak thunderously for themselves, as recent events have clearly demonstrated. How much louder does the wake-up call need to be?