December 1, 2016

A motion commemorating Holocaust Education Week at a Canadian University was forcefully halted and shot down on Wednesday via protest jointly organized by the school’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) in conjunction with the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Drafted by Ryerson University’s chapter of Hillel (the world’s largest Jewish student organization), the motion proposed sponsorship of Holocaust Education Week across campus via the school’s students’ union. In so doing, it would have provided college students of eclectic backgrounds an opportunity to further their knowledge of the Holocaust while raising awareness of anti-Semitism – the most prevalent bigotry associated with hate crimes in Toronto and broader Canada.

Nonetheless, Holocaust education was deemed unacceptable to the school’s Palestinian nationalism advocates. The Daily Wire reached out to them for comment, but have not heard back.

The Daily Wire also reached out to Aedan O’Connor, an executive of Ryerson’s Hillel chapter and a pro-Israel Ryerson student. O’Connor witnessed the events and was kind enough to provide us with details.

As O’Connor was presenting the motion, the opposing students “snickered” and were “laughing and jeering.” Using their mobile phones to actively coordinate a walk-out, pressuring others to join in. During their stunt, they were presumably muttering amongst themselves, “Ok, they ACTUALLY want to educate people about the Holocaust. What are they? Fascists? This injustice cannot stand!”

The delightful promulgators of diversity then proceeded to barricade the bathrooms and doors, garishly attempting to disrupt the event.

Finally, they all walked out in unison, a de facto cancellation of the motion, losing Hillel the quorum.

The Daily Wire also spoke with Ryerson student Tamar Jaclyn Lyons. “I was told by the president of the MSA and the vice-president of SJP that I, a visible Jew, need to ‘sit down’ because there are ‘too many of us,’” said Lyons.

That is, by all accounts, legitimately insane.

The MSA and SJP are the same student organizations who annually pressure students’ unions in both Canada and the USA to host anti-Israel events. The two organizations deny being premised on anti-Semitic bigotry while bifurcating Jewish identity and the Jewish state of Israel.

So, what is the excuse now?

Purely aimed at raising awareness about anti-Semitism, the motion was bereft of any mention of Israel. The response from the radical left-wing Palestinian agitators was to wantonly bully the Jewish student group into silence.

Despite their preening of safe-spaces, the left has cultivated a destructive and unhealthy environment across college campuses in which virulent anti-Semitism is free to foster and be exercised in the name of social justice.