The antisemitism roiling Canadian university campuses following the October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel by Hamas has been extensively documented. As university leaders largely turn a blind eye, Jewish students and faculty members face targeting by their peers who use anti-Zionism and accusations of “anti-Palestinian racism” to justify their incendiary rhetoric and actions.
Universities that tolerate the normalization of extremism will produce graduates who view terrorism as a legitimate form of resistance rather than a criminal act.
However, recent events at major universities across the country highlight an escalating and disturbing trend: Individuals and organizations who dominate teaching faculties, student unions, and DEI departments actively excuse and promote terrorism and radical Islamist ideologies. Under the pretext of academic discussion and political advocacy, universities grant a platform to extremists who openly support violence, glorify terrorism, and seek to undermine Canada’s national security.
Terrorism Glorified and Normalized on Campuses
Solidarite Palestine à l’UQAM, the University of Quebec in Montreal chapter of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), held a screening of a documentary titled “Gaza Ghetto Uprising” on February 18, 2025. The event poster featured an image of the October 7 attacks, showing Palestinians entering Israel to conduct their massacre. According to details mentioned in the poster, the organizers—who did not respond to a request for comment from Focus on Western Islamism (FWI)—discussed “the urban guerrilla tactics implemented since October 7 by the Palestinian resistance and Israeli counterinsurgency techniques” to study “the practical and strategic lessons offered by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza” and “how to confront it [Israeli counterinsurgency].” The post evokes the words of alleged Palestinian terrorist, Basel al-A’araj, who was killed by Israeli forces in a firefight in 2017. An updated event poster shows that the event was moved to a different venue within the university campus following pressure from Jewish groups.
SPHR chapters routinely demonize Israel and defend violence against Jews. The group and its members have glorified martyrdom, promoted propaganda of designated terrorist groups like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and celebrated Palestinian militants like Lena Jarbouni, who, according to a Ynet News report, was convicted by an Israeli court of conspiring to commit terrorist attacks. Jarbouni was released from prison in 2017.
A 2019 report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy uncovered the antisemitic roots of SPHR’s American affiliate, the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), and its direct links to radical Muslim Brotherhood ideology.
Problem at Simon Fraser
Meanwhile, the Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group (SFPIRG), the student resource center of British Columbia-based Simon Fraser University, invited Jordanian national Othman Hamdan, who was jailed in Canada on terrorism-related charges, to speak at a virtual event last month. Hamdan was accused of spreading Islamic State propaganda and celebrating “lone-wolf” attacks, including the gunman behind the 2014 Parliament Hill attack in Ottawa. Although he was later acquitted, the court ruling noted that some of his posts “were supportive of ISIS and the actions of so-called “lone wolf terrorists.” Hamdan remains in Canada despite the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Security Agency classifying him as a security risk.
Earlier this month, the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies organized a seminar titled “Silenced Voices: The Impact of Terrorism Designations on Palestinian Advocacy in Canada.” The seminar examined how Canadian media outlets covered the pro-Palestine protests, claiming they used “framing techniques that align with criminalizing narratives, often using labels such as ‘terrorism’ and ‘violence’ to delegitimize Palestinian voices.”
The key speaker at the seminar was Basema Al-Alami, a doctoral candidate at UofT’s law school. According to her official bio, Al-Alami specializes in “the intersection of counterterrorism, entrapment law, and anti-Muslim bias in Canada’s legal system.” Her PhD research is on “systemic issues in national security practices, particularly the litigation and over-policing of Muslims in post-9/11 Canada.” The event co-sponsor was Hearing Palestine, a UofT department that focuses on “the study of Palestine and facilitates advanced interdisciplinary research on Palestine, past, present, and future.” Simon Fraser officials did not respond to a request for comment from FWI.
A Growing and Worrying Trend
These incidents form a troubling pattern in which universities tolerate—and at times encourage—the normalization of extremist violence under the guise of “progressive” values and freedom of expression. That such events are allowed to proceed at publicly funded institutions is scandalous.
Richard Landes, historian and author of Can “The Whole World” be Wrong: Lethal Journalism, Antisemitism, and Global Jihad, told FWI in an email that “The very people who claim ‘freedom of expression’ for their point of view do not permit it to others who disagree. Anyone who supports Israel or genuine democratic values, no matter how mildly, is for them a mortal enemy who must be silenced. Islamists follow the plan laid out by Frank Herbert in Children of Dune: ‘When I am weak, I demand from you freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am strong, I will take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.’ The folly of alleged ‘progressives’ to be dupe to this ploy, to support the enemies of progressive values in the name of progressive values, is one of the greatest tragedies of our day. Nothing will tear at the social fabric more than embracing those who precisely want to shred that fabric.”
The consequences are already being felt. Many Jewish students and faculty face hostile environments, with threats, harassment, and even physical violence becoming alarmingly common. The long-term risk, however, is even greater: Universities that tolerate the normalization of extremism will produce graduates who view terrorism as a legitimate form of resistance rather than a criminal act.
The implications of this radicalization are dire—not just for the Jewish community, but for Canada as a whole.
How Did Canadian Universities Get Here?
Radicalization on Canadian campuses is not happening in a vacuum. For at least a decade, university administrators have allowed woke ideology activists to dominate discourse under the guise of “social justice” and “academic freedom” while sacrificing facts and critical thinking. This has silenced dissenting voices and given extremists free rein to promote hate and violence. Proponents of the woke ideology, both students and educators, view most problems in the world through a Marxist lens, dividing them along the lines of oppressor-oppressed and colonizer-colonized. In their eyes, Israel, like its Western allies the United States and Canada, is considered a colonialist oppressor state—a narrative that Islamists also leverage to mask and justify their hatred towards Jews.
Alleged instances of foreign influence and funding are compounding the problem. Last year, a cybersecurity firm assessed that Iran was behind the anti-Israel campus protests at McGill University in Montreal, intending to dent Western support for Israel and fuel discord on Canadian soil.
A U.S. congressional committee sought details from a key sponsor of anti-Israel encampments in the United States and Canada about its funding sources and alleged links to terrorism. In a May 2024 letter to National Students for Justice in Palestine, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer wrote: “The Committee is particularly concerned that organizations promulgating pro-Hamas propaganda and engaging in illegal activities at institutions of higher education might be receiving funding or other support from foreign or domestic sources which support the aims of Hamas or other foreign terrorist organizations.”
While the funding streams behind anti-Israel and anti-Western campaigns in Canada aren’t as well-documented as in the United States, there is significant overlap between the two countries when it comes to the groups involved and their activities.
What Needs to Be Done
In an email to FWI, Austin Parcels, manager of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada, said, “Academic freedom is being exploited to spread vile pro-terror propaganda, and it must end. There is no justification for permitting the glorifying of Hamas, parroting PFLP rhetoric, and pushing extremist symbols. They are endorsements of terrorism. Student groups that engage in this type of dangerous behavior must be dismantled. Universities must take aggressive action to root out radicalization on campus. The government must investigate and hold accountable institutions that allow their students and faculty to enable this poison. No institution receiving taxpayer dollars should be complicit in the normalization of terrorism.”
Indeed, universities must be held accountable. Public funding must be contingent on institutions actively preventing radicalization and ensuring that convicted terrorists or individuals who glorify terrorism are not given platforms.
Universities must abide by Canadian laws against hate speech and incitement and should not tolerate events that celebrate terrorism under the guise of free speech. Canadian law prohibits the promotion of terrorism; universities must not be exempt from this standard.
Universities also must enforce stringent penalties such as suspension and expulsion, which are already in place to deter learning disruptions from encampments, blockades, and destruction of property.
Since foreign students are required to adhere to their study permit conditions, any serious violation must result in visa revocation and deportation, similar to what the Trump administration is aiming to do in the United States.
Students and faculty must push back. The radicalization of Canadian campuses is not inevitable. Professors, students, and alumni who believe in free inquiry and the rule of law must speak out against those who seek to turn universities into ideological echo chambers for extremism.
It is time for Canada to take this problem seriously. University administrators, provincial governments, and law enforcement agencies must act to prevent the spread of extremism on campuses. Failure to act would risk allowing Canadian universities to become breeding grounds for the ideologies that threaten our security and values. The choice is clear: Either they confront this problem head-on or let extremism to take deeper root in their institutions, with devastating consequences for the future of Canada.
