ROBINSON: BC campuses are overrun with antisemitism — and govt doesn’t give a damn

The disruptive anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian encampments that overtook some of our post secondary campuses in 2024 may have been dismantled, but the message that Jews aren’t welcome on our campuses is still alive and well.  

Earlier this month the federal government released a report entitled “Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences.” It drew on the experiences of Canadian Jewish students and the wider student population regarding antisemitism since the dismantling of these encampments.

The evidence is clear – almost 96% of students experienced or witnessed antisemitism on campus during the previous year (2025), with one in five incidents reported to be antisemitism from faculty – the folks who are supposed to help people learn.  

While 54% reported intimidation or threats directed at Jews, 22% reported physical violence. It is no wonder that students don’t believe that campuses are safe for Jewish students, many of whom now choose to hide their identities to minimize their risk of isolation, intimidation, harassment and violence.

I don’t think we really needed this research to tell us this was a problem. We all got to witness this swift scourge of antisemitism engulf our campuses within days after October 7, 2023, when some BC university and college instructors celebrated the massacre carried out by Hamas and called for anti-Israel walkouts and protests while Israelis were still counting bodies. Who doesn’t recall the encampments on campuses right across the country, many of which were coordinated and orchestrated by those who weren’t even part of the student body?

In the months after October 7, I took my responsibility seriously to address this hateful scourge as the Minister of Post-Secondary Education. The post-secondary sector is a responsibility of the provincial government. It is the province that subsidizes post-secondary education for our students, it is the province that holds the legislation and authority for these institutions, and it is the province that appoints most of the board members to university boards. 

In my role, I responded immediately after we started witnessing attacks on Jewish students. I reminded post-secondary education presidents that it was their responsibility to enforce existing policies, and it was their obligation to keep campuses safe for all students, including Jewish students who were reporting harassment, intimidation and exclusion by their peers and by instructors. 

I had meetings with Deborah Lyons, then the Government of Canada’s Special Envoy on Antisemitism and Holocaust Remembrance along with other Ministers of Post-Secondary Education from across the country as we talked about what we saw happening on campuses primarily in Ontario, Quebec, and here in British Columbia.  We shared a commitment to pursue strategies that could help deliver safer campus environments for Canada’s Jewish student population. I was fired by David Eby before I could see this through — and the atmosphere on our campuses has only deteriorated for Jewish students since then.

After Eby fired me, he put Minister Lisa Beare in charge of the Post-Secondary file. This is the same minister who assured me by text about a week after I was fired:

“Sending you big hugs and looking forward to seeing you soon my friend,” to which I responded, “Don’t need hugs. Need people to stand up to antisemitism”. 

Her response? “We do Selina. Absolutely.”

Then we watched as encampments established themselves later that spring demanding that campuses castigate anyone who identified as Israeli or in any way felt connected to the country. There are plenty of stories of Jewish students being harassed and socially excluded during that time, and numerous tales of course instructors demanding that Jewish students self-identify and declare their opposition to the State of Israel. 

During Lisa Beare’s tenure as minister of post-secondary education, and under the tenure of the current minister, Jesse Sunner, I have not seen a single action or policy to address antisemitism on our campuses. These ministers were made aware of all these concerns by letter and in meetings with the organized Jewish community. From what I can tell, they have done nothing.

We might witness a bit of hand wringing and “this is not who we are” words, but there has been no substantive action or attempt to make our campuses safe for Jewish students.

Now, after time and reflection, I am reminded of one more episode during my tenure as BC minister of post-secondary education that is telling of how our government thinks about antisemitism on our campuses. 

Before the end of the Fall 2023 legislative session, I was asked by the NDP headquarters if I would go to the University of Victoria and meet with the Young New Democrats, to rally the troops and ensure that they were well connected to their political party. As a New Democrat politician, this is part and parcel of the role, and I was eager to join them on campus once the legislative day was done.

The day before I was to go to UVIC, I received a note from Eby’s office. The premier didn’t want me to physically go to the Victoria campus because he was worried for my safety given the anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian activity on campuses. I did not think that a Zoom “meeting” with these young people would be worth my time and I doubted that this would meet the needs of the Young New Democrats. I suggested we cancel the event.

If the premier was concerned for my safety as a Jew on one of our campuses, then where was his concern for the Jewish students? What about their safety? He said he was concerned for my safety back in November 2023, but neither he nor his ministers have acted on these concerns for Jewish students – almost all of whom have been targeted by hate for almost three years. 

In retrospect I have come to believe that it really wasn’t my personal safety that the premier was concerned about, because if that was the case, then he would have recognized that all Jews were at risk for hate and violence on campuses, especially Jewish students. And I think he would have made this a priority for his new ministers.

No, I think he was not particularly concerned for my physical safety. It was more likely that my presence, as a Jewish minister, might draw the attention of the anti-Israel mob on campus and create a firestorm of protest that he would somehow have to manage. I believe that it was his political safety that he was most worried about, not my physical safety.

It’s no wonder that more than 95% of students on campus have experienced or witnessed antisemitism, which has been out of control, unchecked and ignored for three years. Our government simply doesn’t give a damn.

Selina Robinson MA was a family therapist for over 25 years before entering politics in 2008, first as a city counsellor, then as an MLA. She held several cabinet portfolios in the BC government, including municipal affairs & housing, post-secondary education, and finance. Amid rising antisemitism following the October 7 terrorist attacks, Robinson, a Jew, found herself targeted by anti-Israel activists and was fired from cabinet by Premier Eby. She wrote about her experience as a progressive Jew in government in her memoir, Truth Be Told.