In a bold stand against the ongoing massacres and what the U.N. labels as "scholasticide" in Gaza, Canadian university students and academics are transforming their convocation ceremonies into platforms of protest, defying formal and informal restrictions against advocating for the Palestinian cause, spotlighting the devastation wrought by Israeli attacks, which have obliterated at least 80% of Gaza's schools.

On Monday, University of Toronto (UofT) students and faculty staged a poignant "protest graduation" by arranging empty chairs with graduation caps to honor Gaza's students who will miss their own graduations due to the destruction of their educational institutions.

"With more than 80% of schools in Gaza damaged or destroyed, it may be reasonable to ask if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as ‘scholasticide,’" U.N. experts stated in April. This term refers to the systemic annihilation of an education system, including the detention or killing of educators and students and the destruction of educational infrastructure.

Before Oct. 7, Gaza housed 813 primary and secondary schools and 12 universities and colleges, educating around 625,000 students with 22,000 teachers. According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 212 direct Israeli strikes have decimated or damaged around 80% of these institutions, with all 12 universities completely destroyed by May. These attacks have killed at least 5,500 students, 261 teachers, and 95 university professors, injuring over 8,000 students and 756 teachers, and leaving 625,000 pupils without access to education.

"Every Israeli bomb and every Palestinian death may be linked to us here in North America, in Canada, in Toronto," Esmat Elhalaby, an assistant professor at UofT's Scarborough campus, said at the protest graduation, as reported by CBC. "At this university, we're complicit in the mass murder of our colleagues and classmates," he said, expressing his frustration about the selective silence of the community.

Fear of reprisal for speaking out

The climate of fear surrounding the advocacy for Palestinian rights is palpable.

Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, recently highlighted the serious concern about violence faced by pro-Palestinian voices.

"Many members of Canada's Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian communities do not feel fully safe to share their views on what's happening in Gaza," Elghawaby told the Canadian Press, emphasizing the importance of the right to speak without fear of retribution amid a rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes since Oct. 7.

Incidents of violence against pro-Palestinian protesters have been widely documented. On June 1, the National Council of Canadian Muslims posted a video showing a pro-Israeli woman brandishing a knife at UofT protesters and another video of a man hitting two women at a pro-Palestine demonstration in Ottawa.

Opposition to the massacres in Gaza added another layer to the ongoing anti-Muslim sentiment in Canada, but Muslims in the country have faced systemic Islamophobia since 9/11, according to a report prepared by the NCCM following the killing of a Muslim family in London, Ontario in 2021.

Professor Katherine Bullock, a lecturer at the UofT, notes that there is "implicit discrimination" in the workplace, but it is hard to tell if someone is not hired because of the quality of their work or their Muslim identity. She told Daily Sabah that she heard about a Muslim man who was hired for a tenure-track position at a post-secondary institution in Canada and later found out that the hiring committee was concerned about his religiosity and whether it would hinder his abilities as an educator. However, she continued by saying that she never directly faced any discrimination and has a supportive department, but she’s never been able to land a tenure-track job.

Many people who attended pro-Palestinian protests in the past and now also claim that they are forced to undergo "random" security checks while traveling.

"I’ve been attending pro-Palestine protests as an ordinary citizen since 2012 and strongly believe that I was blacklisted after attending the protest in downtown Toronto back then," a person who preferred to remain anonymous, told Daily Sabah, adding that even though they are an ordinary citizen, not affiliated with any group or political movement, they end up being pulled for additional screening and pat-down search while traveling in airports in the U.S and Europe.

Protestors defy system to defend Palestinian human rights

The ongoing encampment at UofT’s main campus, established on May 2, demands the university disclose its investments in firms profiting from Israel’s war on Gaza, call for an urgent cease-fire, and condemn Israeli attacks on civilians. These protests continue despite attempts to suppress voices opposing Israel's actions, which have spread worldwide since Columbia University's crackdown on students.

In an opinion piece penned for The Chronicle, law professor Mohammad Fadel describes the muted institutional defense of speech for Palestinians as "the Palestine Exception," indicating that while individuals may theoretically advocate for Palestinian freedom, they face punishment in practice. Like other North American universities, UofT attempted to clear the encampment before graduation ceremonies, but a judge delayed the hearing until June 19 or 20.

Across the provinces, the speech of a valedictorian at the University of Manitoba drew the ire of the dean and pro-Israel students and staff for urging a cease-fire in Gaza.

In a passionate speech, Dr. Gem Newman told fellow doctors that they have power, as he criticized the Canadian Medical Association, Doctors Manitoba and the Professional Association of Residents and Interns of Manitoba (PARIM) for their "deafening silence" on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

"I call on you to stand in solidarity with Indigenous people everywhere. Here in Treaty 1 territory, where an Indigenous man can expect a life 10 years shorter than mine, and in Palestine, where Israel's deliberate targeting of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure has led to more than 35,000 deaths and widespread famine and disease," Dr. Newman said.

The hospitals in Gaza were deliberately destroyed in Israeli attacks, according to reports by the U.N., which noted that the Israeli military deliberately destructed complex and difficult-to-obtain medical equipment in hospitals and maternity wards in Gaza.

He continued by pointing out that many may remain silent in fear of jeopardizing their careers before they even have one.

"Surely, I don't have to remind any of you that advocacy is literally in our job description."

While the dean of the university, Dr. Peter Nickerson, did not prohibit the speech, he claimed that some people attending the ceremony were "disappointed" and "alarmed" by it and that it was "disrespectful to some audience members."

Like many who point out that "it didn’t start on Oct. 7," anti-Palestinian racism in Canada has also been documented before the war erupted. According to a 2022 research by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), which identified over 500 examples of such racism in online written content, warned against the conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel, which it said leads to unfair and defamatory attacks on Palestinians and their supporters.

Suppression of pro-Palestinian voices documented

A report titled "Unveiling the Chilly Climate: The Suppression of Speech on Palestine in Canada" by Independent Jewish Voices details the threats, violence, and disciplinary measures faced by pro-Palestinian activists. Bringing together testimonies from tens of faculty members, students, activists and representatives of organizations from Canada’s Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba provinces, the report shows threats and actual acts of violence experienced by the interviewees, warnings and disciplinary measures by the university administrations and more.

The authors point to the "precarious employment conditions" of lecturers at Canadian universities, as they say they are worried about pursuing activism in this area, which they fear may threaten contract renewals.

Pro-Israel organizations have been leading efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian activism and speech on and outside of campuses, according to the report, which cited University of Pennsylvania political scientist Ian Lustick, calling them a "vigilante" force, making it difficult to "criticize Israel without fear of lawsuits, accusations of anti-Semitism, demands for political balance in the staging of events, blacklisting of participants, or other forms of personal or institutional harassment."

The report also pointed to Israel’s use of "anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism" rhetoric as a political strategy, as well as unsubstantiated claims of terrorism leveled against pro-Palestine activists and academics.

The words terrorist and Palestinian are used interchangeably to dehumanize, according to a report by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA):

"Anti-Palestinian racism is a form of anti-Arab racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives. Anti-Palestinian racism takes various forms including denying the Nakba and justifying violence against Palestinians; failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an Indigenous people with a collective identity, belonging and rights in relation to occupied and historic Palestine; erasing the human rights and equal dignity and worth of Palestinians; excluding or pressuring others to exclude Palestinian perspectives, Palestinians and their allies; defaming Palestinians and their allies with slander such as being inherently antisemitic, a terrorist threat/sympathizer or opposed to democratic values."

According to UCLA professor Sherene H. Razack, the suppression of speech on Palestine is based on two principles: "Israel is above the law and Palestinians (who are always presumed Muslim even when they are not) are outside of it."

The report also documented the numerous times professors who spoke against Israel being denied tenure at universities. Professor Norman Finkelstein, whose parents are Holocaust survivors, was denied tenure at DePaul University.

"In 2005 and 2007 respectively, Prof. Joseph Massad of Columbia University and Prof. Nadia Abu El-Haj of Barnard College faced and eventually overcame vigorous campaigns to deny them tenure," the report said, citing many others who faced similar incidents for their stance.

The report also referred to the countless number of pro-Israeli groups to shut pro-Palestinian voices, starting in the 2000s, including the banning of posters, defunding of community centers, drawing financial support from universities for letting pro-Palestine murals and more.

Global criticism of Israel’s atrocities

Israel's actions in Gaza have drawn widespread condemnation for violating international law, with over 36,000 people, mostly women and children, killed. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern about these clear violations of international humanitarian law but the global body has yet to take concrete action against Israel's transgressions.

Around 85% of Gaza's population was pushed into internal displacement due to Israel's attacks, amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis due to the lack of food, clean water, medical and other vital supplies due to the blockade, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N.

Israel currently faces an ongoing genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered Tel Aviv to halt acts of genocide and guarantee uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians.