Jewish students say they have come across 'Heil Hitler' salutes, antisemitic graffiti on Canadian university campuses - National Post

From left: Livia Mamane, a student at University of Quebec in Montreal, and Kate Blumberg, a student at McMaster University, take part in a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa September 24, 2026. Photo by David Kawai/PostmediaArticle contentJewish university students in Canada have spoken about experiencing antisemitic graffiti, “Heil Hitler” salutes, and dismissals of their concerns about safety on campus at a news conference at Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, on Thursday.

Kate Blumberg, an undergraduate at McMaster University, said she found herself as a representative of the Student Representative Assembly (SRA) “consistently fielding concerns” from her fellow Jewish students about “being singled out in their tutorials, about being excluded from groups, and about not knowing where to turn when campus spaces no longer felt welcoming.”

Livia Mamane, a student at Université du Québec à Montréal, said she has seen stall doors in washrooms with “Death to Zionists” and “Israel should burn” graffitied on them. “How would you feel if you had to submissively sit in classes while being surrounded by students who wanted to burn your own homeland?” she asked.

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The students were joined by Jay Solomon, CEO at Jewish student organization Hillel Ontario, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, Conservative MP Adam Chambers and Noah Shack, CEO at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), at the conference, where they shared their firsthand experiences of antisemitism on campus and called for action to ensure the safety of Jewish students at Canadian universities.

Blumberg also described how she and a fellow Jewish student wrote a motion addressing the antisemitism students had been experiencing on campus. “When brought to the (SRA) agenda, there were more votes of abstention and decline than of willingness for the motion to be discussed,” she said. “While the eventual passing of the motion was a monumental step for the Jewish community on campus, the sheer pushback and minimization of experience in chambers was baffling.”

She added: “When our highest student governing body treats the safety and inclusion of Jewish students as an open political question rather than an enforceable right, it signals to the entire university that our safety and inclusion are negotiable.”