The York Region District School Board (YRDSB) in suburban Toronto was applauded by B’nai Brith Canada for adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism as part of its effort to combat Jew-hatred.
The YRDSB trustees decided to take action after a recent Statistics Canada report on hate crimes, B’nai Brith noted.
The report found that Jews, who represent only 1.25 percent of Canada’s population, were the targets of 56 percent of police-reported religion-based hate crimes in 2021.
The YRSDB is one of Canada’s largest school boards, serving a population or over 1.2 million residents north of Toronto, including a substantial Jewish population. Therefore, they decided to strengthen their measures to combat antisemitism by adopting the IHRA definition.
The definition was approved by a school board committee and will go to a city council vote on September 13.
“This is an important step to aid the YRDSB’s stakeholders to better recognize and react to antisemitism,” B’nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn said. “Whenever a City Council or School Board debates IHRA, the members receive a large quantity of emails in opposition, often giving the impression that the public is opposed. Almost all of this is generated by anti-Israel groups and many of the emails come from outside Canada. That is why we are urging readers of this release to contact the YRSDB to urge them to adopt the IHRA motion next Tuesday.”
“Canada has adopted the IHRA definition. So have most democratic countries, as have 28 U.S. states, many municipalities, school boards and religious organizations such as the Global Imams Council,” said Marvin Rotrand, National Director for B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights. “Still, mass email campaigns can cause a great deal of disinformation and confusion, which is why we urge our readers to take a moment to contact the School Board Trustees. It’s important to counter the misinformation and show support for IHRA.”