Royal Bank-sponsored Vancouver Queer Film Festival has banished Israeli cultural institutions
The Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF), currently underway through Sept. 22, supports BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) and will not work with Israeli cultural institutions or show films “commissioned by an official Israeli body,” according to a statement released by Out On Screen, the organization that runs the popular annual event. Royal Bank of Canada […]
McGill University vows unspecified ‘action’ after student union adopts anti-Israel policy
The principal of McGill University told Jewish groups it will “take action” against the undergraduate students’ union over its adoption of a pro-BDS policy if the union does not act in accordance with an earlier agreement with the administration or its own rules. B’nai Brith Canada and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) made public […]
McGill student union adopts policy to boycott groups ‘complicit in settler-colonial apartheid against Palestinians,’ after a controversial referendum
Pro-Israel groups are outraged that McGill University undergraduates have voted for the boycott of corporations or institutions “complicit in settler-colonial apartheid against Palestinians,” claiming the referendum process was illegitimate and intimidated Jewish students. Just over 71 percent of online ballots cast from March 15-21 were in favour of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) […]
Chaim Katz’s six-year battle culminates in the University of Toronto withholding $10,918 earmarked for the BDS caucus in a graduate student union
The University of Toronto will begin withholding a portion of student fees from the Graduate Students Union that were earmarked for promoting sanctions against Israel. The move to withhold $10,918 from the UofT Graduate Student Union (UTGSU), the amount the university calculates was used to support its boycott, divestment and sanctions caucus, was announced […]
Montreal councillor Alex Norris gave BDS a couple of social media likes—and now several people have questions about it
A high-ranking Montreal city councillor is not backing down from his apparent endorsement of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, nor has Mayor Valérie Plante dissociated her administration from his views. B’nai Brith Canada called out Alex Norris for his “liking” of a Facebook promotion for a Feb. 17 BDS France online event […]
University of Toronto’s downtown campus student union endorsed a boycott of Israel with a close vote
The student union at the University of Toronto’s downtown St. George campus endorsed a call to boycott Israel at a special meeting Feb. 16. The measure passed with a slim majority of 56 votes. The resolution calls on the University of Toronto Student Union (UTSU) to “wholly divest funds (and) further on forbid investment to […]
Meet Ronen Hoffman, Israel’s new ambassador to Canada: a foreign policy expert and hockey dad
Israel’s new ambassador to Canada is a hockey dad. Plus, he wants to fight terrorism and antisemitism, strengthen research and development projects between the two countries, and forge ties with Canada’s Indigenous people. He also needs to remember to wear his winter coat when he leaves for work. Ronen Hoffman, 58, arrived in Ottawa in […]
Anyone surprised by University of Toronto’s BDS motion hasn’t been paying attention, says former student Tyler Samuels
“I feel uncomfortable letting anyone know I am a Jew at this school. I sometimes fear that by wearing my Star of David around my neck, someone will assault me, verbally or physically, because I support Israel. A social movement should unite people, not place people in fear.” I wrote this eight years ago as […]
University of Toronto officials—including school president Meric Gertler—condemn student union resolutions on BDS, Jewish students’ rights
There was no indication on Monday, Nov. 29,that the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus Students’ Union (SCSU) would rescind or revise two controversial resolutions passed at its annual general meeting last week, following their condemnation by top university officials. In a Nov. 26 statement, UofT president Meric Gertler called the resolutions, one on support for […]
CUPE, the largest union in Canada, has rejected a BDS resolution
It’s a welcome change on Canada’s labour scene: The country’s largest union has voted against a resolution calling for support of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Delegates to the national convention of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) on Nov. 26 voted against the motion by a margin of 68 percent […]
