Openly Jewish, Openly Targeted: The Crisis on Canadian Campuses

Podcast hosts Chuck Warren and Sam Stone discuss with journalist Ari Blaff about his recent article titled "You Can’t Be Openly Jewish at TMU", which details the harassment and isolation Jewish students face at Toronto Metropolitan University. Blaff, a TMU alumnus, explains how the campus environment has grown increasingly hostile, especially since October 7, with Jewish students reporting threats, marginalization, and symbolic targeting—such as the use of Hamas-associated red triangles. The discussion criticizes the university's administration for its inaction and explores the broader implications of rising antisemitism in Canada. Blaff notes that many Canadian Jews are now seriously considering leaving the country, pointing to the U.S. as a place where such hate is more actively confronted.

Transcript:

Sam Stone: Ari Blaff is a features writer with the National Post in Canada. Before that, he was a reporter at National Review and at Tablet Magazine Fellow. Ari Blaff, welcome to the program.

Ari Blaff: Thank you so much for having me, guys.

Chuck Warren: All right, so you wrote a piece a couple days ago titled, You Can't Be Openly Jewish at TMU, which is Toronto Metropolitan University. Jewish students at Toronto Metropolitan University say they are isolated and harassed. Before you get into it, it's these type of stories, which I don't think our Canadian friends and neighbors, and we consider our Canadians friends and neighbors, why we got Donald Trump. Donald Trump just saw this type of crap on American campuses. There is no way this is continuing, period. And I wish sometimes our Canadian friends would just understand that's why we got them. People are just tired of this. And I want you to talk about this article, but as Sam and I were talking before he came on, I view this as purely bureaucracy incompetence. And just turning a blind eye. So tell us a little bit about the article and these three students you interviewed. It just sounds like a hellish situation. And I would invite all three to come to America. We won't tolerate that down here.

Ari Blaff: Yeah, it's very strange because I went to TMU about like seven, eight years ago when it was called Ryerson University. And the name was changed because the former namesake, I guess, had run afoul of some progressively or politically correct things going on. But it's really a shame because growing up in Canada for the last 30 years, my dad's actually American. And We never had conversations or fears about, like, where would you send your kids to, especially Jewish kids? What schools would you go to? What schools are safer for Jews? What are not safer? Those were things which we thought maybe European Jews had to worry about or Middle Eastern Jews had to worry about, but not people in North America. And since October 7th, I can't tell you how many stories I've had to write like this, which sort of, like Mark Twain said, they don't repeat themselves, but they sort of rhyme. And they they go along the lines of really crazy activism that sort of blurs the line between anti-israel sentiment and outright antisemitism advocates advocate advocating for violence stuff like that and like you said usually a bureaucracy and administration that doesn't do anything they usually will give you boilerplate statements and stuff like that but won't actually come and intervene and help out Jewish students to the point where they sort of are in a little ghetto amongst themselves, socializing within their own fraternities and sororities and in the Hillel groups, but not really engaging and participating in broader civic life because they are sort of petrified to be openly Jewish.

Sam Stone: Ari, U.S. universities have in many ways created a sort of draconian social enforcement system over the years that really any expression of racial intent, you know, racial point of view or racial intent gets students in deep hot water. I'm assuming Canada's universities have built a similar system in that, unfortunately, like the U.S. here, it doesn't seem to be applying to Jewish students.

Ari Blaff: Yeah, that is the sort of the million dollar question lingering over all these types of situations. And I asked these students and I asked them what they thought about it. And they felt that if they in Canada, it's more repressing issue if you're indigenous. That's a very big topic, similar, I'd say, to African-American, black Americans. And I asked them, like, what would happen if you guys were indigenous and were experiencing this type of harassment and threats of violence? And they said, like, 100 percent. There would have been such a quick response to it. And I think. Unfortunately, the clear message which these students have experienced and which they spoke about on the record is basically that Jewish Canadians are really not a priority in terms of the hierarchy of oppressed people or marginalized people in Canada. They don't really care how they feel or how they're treated. and no one really wants to advocate for them. And so they're sort of stuck in this weird limbo where like the students union will fund activists who are critical of them, but they don't really get any funding, any access to campus spaces. Professors sort of are afraid to speak on a limb. Like I just got an email after this article came out about a professor who doesn't want to go on the record, but he said that the experience that they're having among academics is even worse and that people have resigned from their jobs as a result of what's going on specifically on this campus. It's just like, I think one of them said, I'm not sure if I included it in the story, but if you had taken out the word Jewish and put the word black.

Chuck Warren: Yes, it was in the story. It was in the story. Yeah.

Ari Blaff: And it's like sometimes we're so tone deaf or desensitized to, I think, how people speak about Jews or Israel and stuff like that where he's right. Like if I if I would ever have thought about a classmate saying something like like what's going on in the U.S. right now with Barstool Sports, where the guy said F the Jews, if someone said F the Blacks, like that would be you would have been gone off campus so quickly and your life would have been destroyed so quickly. Like people can put Hamas triangles over Jewish students' heads on campus today and like they're sort of still have campus standing. They get campus funding, stuff like that. It's very bizarre.

Chuck Warren: Explain to our audience the Hamas triangle. What does that mean and signify for our audience? Because a lot of people don't know what that means.

Ari Blaff: Sure. Sure. Yeah. So you'll see it a lot of times in graffiti, on streets, on walls after these protests, but it's an inverted red triangle. So an upside down red triangle that started emerging in Hamas propaganda videos after October 7th or shortly around that time to designate Israeli or enemy combatants in their videos. And it's sort of become an appropriated or reappropriated signal or symbol amongst pro-Palestinian activists. So they'll have it in their bios. They'll put it over activists that they're critical of, Jewish students, Jewish guest speakers, stuff like that. And it sort of blurs the line about like, are you guys just sort of rhetorically opposed to them or are you calling for violence directly against them? And are they an enemy combatants that deserves to be hounded?

Chuck Warren: Well, you wrote in the article, the students were saying they feel isolated. So my question is, I mean, that has to be so depressing and mentally draining daily. Why do they stay there? Why wouldn't they come down? Come down to the U.S., go to Arizona State or University of Florida where DeSantis isn't going to tolerate this crap or University of Georgia. Why stay there? Because there's nothing I read in this article, and I don't think you try to make this just so lopsided. But what I'm hearing up there, why would you stay and continue to be the recipient of such hatred, which the government – It's funny you mentioned the land thing. I saw a clip this week. They're announcing some crime or something in Canada. And the officer stands up and first does a land acknowledgment. It had nothing to do with anything he was given a press conference about. But they're going to allow this to happen. So why do they – did you ask the question, why do you stay at TMU?

Ari Blaff: The unfortunate answer, I think, is a lot of people feel like they don't have a lot of places to turn to. A lot of the Canadian universities, especially the elite level ones, like in the United States, are sort of turning into very unsafe places for Jews. McGill, University of Toronto, York University, UBC, Out West, those aren't really great schools. And so I think you're probably onto something. I think a lot of Canadian Jews I've spoken to are strongly considering moving to the U.S. And I know a lot of people who have already moved to the U.S., I myself am openly considering it. My dad's American, I'm looking at US citizenship. And I think that will be an increasing reality. Politically already Canadians, Canadian Jews were somewhat more conservative leaning politically than American Jews, but I think that's swinging even harder, given what you're saying, the political inaction and the failure of leadership in the country. So it hasn't really manifested yet at a massive movement, but I think we're going to see that increasing numbers. Canadian Jews are going to be coming and exploring their options elsewhere.

Sam Stone: That actually ties to the phenomenon that we were going to talk about with you next in your piece, How the Media Created Andrew Tate. Do the people who are pushing this – I really don't think they do understand how much opposition they are creating, how much they are hardening Jews. American Jews for the first time in years are starting to actually identify as Jewish again.

Chuck Warren: Yes. But in fairness to here, they don't have in Canada. I don't think they have in Europe. Americans are not going to tolerate a majority of us, this anti-Semitism. That's why right now we talked about this. There's the debate of due process. But Americans are just like, get their butts off campuses. Get these Hamas supporters out of here. Send them out. I don't care. And I think we're the only country who does that. I don't know anyone else is doing it.

Ari Blaff: Yeah, I remember speaking to someone and I had been covering so many of the street protests in Toronto after October 7th where people were openly chanting like the Houthis, the Houthi rebel chants and were carrying Hamas and Hezbollah stuff. And it just like dawned on me, like these are designated terror groups in Canada, in the United States. But like, why are people not enforcing it? Like that doesn't seem to be like a free expression.

Chuck Warren: Because Canada talks a talk, but they don't walk the walk. So, you know, they all, Europe and Canada talk about the Houthis.

Let's talk about them for a minute. Only Trump in this administration say, well, I'm just going to blow him to hell. I don't care.

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