In 2025, Jewish people were the target of 70 per cent of all police-reported hate crimes in Canada targeting a religious group. Jews make up about one per cent of the Canadian population.

Research indicates that higher education often increases tolerance. A 2026 national survey by sociologists Robert Brym and Rhonda Lenton found that Canadian university students have a low level of negativity toward Jews, but a high level of negativity toward Israel. This is a point of friction since many Canadian Jews feel emotionally attached to Israel and support Israel’s existence.

Most Canadian universities have an infrastructure for addressing discrimination: equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policies and action plans.

A new federally commissioned survey of Jewish students in Canadian universities finds they believe EDI offices had generally not engaged with their concerns.

Similarly, my recent study reveals that while many Jewish faculty and staff hoped EDI offices and policies would help them navigate contested terrain after Oct. 7, 2023, many say they encountered silence, indifference and dismissal.

Read more: Antisemitism in Canada, 3 years after Oct. 7: What the alarming numbers show, and what Ottawa hasn’t done

Ongoing debate in Jewish communities

The Hamas attack on Israel, which which killed 1,200 people, destroyed communities and saw 251 people taken hostage, was traumatic for many Jews.

An extremist Israeli government then launched attacks that have killed approximately 71,000 people in Gaza and catastrophically destroyed infrastructure.

Protests and encampments erupted on many campuses, deepening tensions in an already polarized environment.

Since Oct. 7, there has been an ongoing debate within Jewish communities and beyond about whether EDI offices’ perceived disengagement from Jewish concerns is an accident of implementation, a “bug” or “a feature” that’s closely tied to how EDI has been conceptualized in Canadian higher education.

The framing is significant, since a bug can be patched, but a feature requires rethinking the framework itself.

In Canada, EDI is anchored in the categories of the Employment Equity Act and tied to research funding through federal initiatives such as Canada Research Chairs.

These frameworks are largely organized around race, visibility........

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