The 80-plus law firms, which range in size from specialized boutiques to full-service global firms, urged the country’s law deans to provide guidance and protection to law students in a manner that affirms Canadian values, including balancing the free exchange of ideas with the right of every student to respect and security.
“At each of our firms, we prohibit any form of discrimination, hostility or harassment, whether verbal, visual or physical,” say the law firm signatories in their Dec. 7 letter to “Canadian law school deans.”
“Let us be clear: there is no room for anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism or any other form of violence, hatred or bigotry on your campuses, in our workplaces or our communities,” say the firms, which include global business law firm DLA Piper, full-service international law firm Cozen O’Connor, intellectual property specialist Bereskin & Parr LLP, Alberta regional law firm Parlee McLaws LLP, and the World Law Group, which comprises a network of 61 independent law firms in multiple countries.
“As employers who recruit from each of your law schools, we look to you to ensure your students are prepared to join workplace communities such as ours that have zero tolerance for any form of discrimination or harassment,” the signatories say, adding they “trust that you will take the same unequivocal stance on your campuses.”
Since Oct. 7 “we have been alarmed by the surging reports of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and assaults on university campuses,” the letter states. “These include protesters calling for the death of Jews. Such anti-Semitic acts would never be tolerated at any of our law firms, nor should they be tolerated at our Canadian universities.”
The law firms add that universities should not accept student societies and outside groups engaging in acts of harassment and threats of violence, “as has been occurring and tolerated on many campuses.”
“In fact, some of these student groups associated with many of your universities have shown outspoken support for the terrorist group Hamas,” the law firms state.
They go on to invite law deans to meet with them “in order to arrange a respectful dialogue so that we can understand how you are addressing with urgency this serious situation.”
“We understand that as educators of higher learning, you must encourage discourse on various issues,” the signatories add. “This comes with the responsibility of managing a balance of the free exchange of ideas with the respect, safety and security of its students. As the leaders of these institutions this responsibility falls squarely on your shoulders.”
Since Oct. 7, Jewish university students in Canada and the United States have experienced a rise in antisemitic incidents at their schools. For example, last month a group of Concordia University students in Montreal were verbally and physically abused by an angry crowd after the Jewish students had set up a table with posters of hostages, including children, who were kidnapped by Hamas.
In October, after the Hamas attack, dozens of law students at Toronto Metropolitan University signed an open letter expressing “unequivocal support” for “all forms of Palestinian resistance.” After a vote by students last month, McGill’s student union adopted a “Policy Against Genocide in Palestine,” demanding that McGill denounce Israel’s war against Hamas and cut ties to groups complicit in “genocide, settler-colonialism, apartheid or ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.” (A Quebec Superior Court judge temporarily enjoined the policy’s implementation, pending a hearing next year on the request for a permanent injunction from a McGill student who alleges the policy is discriminatory.)
In the U.S., a committee of the House of Representatives opened an investigation this week into the responses of Harvard, M.I.T. and the University of Pennsylvania to burgeoning antisemitism on their campuses, with the schools facing accusations that they have failed to adequately protect their Jewish students from threats and harassment. Last month, the Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Education also started investigating some universities for “shared ancestry” discrimination as part of what the office described as the Biden administration’s “continued efforts to take aggressive action to address the alarming nationwide rise in reports of antisemitism, anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and other forms of discrimination and harassment on college campuses and in K-12 schools since the October 7 Israel-Hamas conflict.”
This month’s letter from Canadian law firms to law deans here follows a similar move last month by more than 200 U.S. law firms, which signed a letter urging 14 leading American law schools to quash antisemitic activities on their campuses. Both letters were written against the backdrop of worldwide protests against the deaths of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including thousands of children, from Israel’s post-Oct. 7 air strikes and ground invasion aimed at destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages.
The U.S. law firms deplored antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assaults on college campuses, including rallies that called for the death of Jews and the elimination of the state of Israel.
“As employers who recruit from each of your law schools, we look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses,” stated the Nov. 1 letter that was obtained by The American Lawyer.
“We trust you will take the same unequivocal stance against such activities as we do,” said the letter reported by The American Lawyer. The law firms said they looked forward to a “respectful dialogue” with the law schools to help the schools understand the urgency of the situation.
The U.S. letter to law deans, like the Canadian letter, urged law deans to act against both antisemitism and Islamophobia. But the National Association of Muslim Lawyers, the American Muslim Bar Association and 11 allied regional bar associations wrote their own letter, stating that the U.S. law firms focused mainly on discrimination against Jews, a “one-sided approach” that made Muslim, Arab and Palestinian lawyers afraid to speak their minds about the Israel-Hamas war.
“We were dismayed ... that other than a brief reference to Islamophobia, your letter seemed to focus almost exclusively on addressing anti-Semitism, the associations said. “The letter unfortunately missed the opportunity to equally express concern for members of the Palestinian and Muslim communities who have been experiencing significant discrimination, harassment, silencing, hate, violence, and fear in the current social climate.”
The National Association of Muslim Lawyers and other signatories to its Nov. 13 letter to law firm leaders said the law firms “must make space for all of their colleagues” and urged the law firms to take several steps, including working “with us to issue a new letter to law school deans addressing Islamophobia, and anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian hate and bigotry.”
Allegations of antisemitic incidents on university campuses have sparked litigation in Canada. On Nov. 2, Diamond and Diamond Lawyers, a Toronto firm which signed on to the Dec. 7 letter to the Canadian law deans, announced it has launched a class action addressing alleged “recurring antisemitic incidents” at Toronto Metropolitan University, Queen’s University and the University of British Columbia. The lawsuit seeks $15 million damages from each university. It alleges that the defendants were negligent by: failing to address antisemitic incidents over the years; violating their institution's non-discrimination policies; and providing insufficient staff training on handling harassment. “Owning the campus space in question, they are obligated to demonstrate accountability,” Diamond and Diamond said in announcing the lawsuit.
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