Jewish Teachers File Human Rights Complaints Over Antisemitism in Ontario Schools

A group of twelve Jewish educators have lodged individual human-rights complaints that will be heard jointly by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. The complaints name four school boards—the Toronto District School Board, York Region District School Board, Simcoe County District School Board, and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board—and two teachers’ unions, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation.

Toronto Sun

Represented by Toronto lawyer Kathryn Marshall, the teachers allege repeated discrimination after reporting antisemitic incidents. They claim they were disciplined, not believed, and faced retaliation. Each applicant seeks $150,000 in general damages plus compensation for psychological counselling. The complaint also asks the tribunal to order the named boards and unions to develop transparent, enforceable policies that incorporate the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, involve the Jewish community in policy design, and cease the spread of antisemitic misinformation.

Toronto Sun

She cited an example of a teacher being publicly reprimanded during a union meeting for speaking about rising antisemitism and described retaliation from both school boards and unions when complaints were filed.

Toronto Sun

• “Many of the teachers over the past years and months, when they’ve reported the antisemitism, when they’ve reported things that have happened to them, they’ve been disciplined, they’ve been not believed, they’ve had the tables turned on them,” — Kathryn Marshall, toronto lawyer

Toronto Sun

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal will schedule a hearing to consider the combined applications. If the tribunal grants the requested orders, the school boards and unions would be required to adopt the specified anti-antisemitism policies and provide the monetary damages sought by the teachers.

Toronto Sun