Toronto, ON (February 25, 2026) – StandWithUs Canada is outraged by an antisemitic incident that occurred on February 23 during our WordSwap program at Toronto Metropolitan University.
WordSwap is a central StandWithUs Canada program that brings Israeli voices to Canadian campuses, countering the reductive and often distorted portrayals of Israelis promoted by antizionist activism on campus. Participants are not representatives of the Israeli government or the IDF, but of the people of Israel, a diverse society that has too often been flattened into a single narrative on the global stage by critics who, in many cases, have never visited Israel or met an Israeli.
At TMU, our WordSwap delegation partnered with the student group ‘Students Supporting Israel’ at TMU, to run a table on campus with a sign reading: “I’m Israeli, Ask Me Anything.” The purpose of the table was to invite respectful questions and open dialogue about the lived experiences of regular Israeli people. Instead of engaging in dialogue, a masked individual approached the table and threw expired milk at the participants, targeting and assaulting the Israeli delegation, TMU students, and StandWithUs Canada representatives in an apparent attempt to silence conversations and intimidate Jewish and Israeli students.
Across Canadian university campuses, Jewish and Israeli students increasingly report being verbally harassed, socially ostracized, threatened, and in some cases physically assaulted, as we saw at TMU, simply for expressing their identity or facilitating conversations about Israel. This pattern of hostility is designed to push Jewish and Israeli voices out of campus life. StandWithUs Canada recognizes the need to confront this harmful climate, which is precisely why we run programs like WordSwap that normalize conversations about Israel, humanize Israelis, and stand up to antisemitism and intimidation through productive dialogue.
Despite this incident, the delegation, our students, and our staff showed resilience and continued with the planned event, engaging with students who were interested in constructive conversations. While this incident reflects the alarming rise in antisemitism and intimidation targeting Jewish and Israeli students on Canadian campuses, it also underscores why these conversations must continue, especially in environments where hostility is more pronounced. Our delegation will continue its scheduled appearances on campuses across Canada for the remainder of the week, meeting students, answering questions, and engaging in open dialogue.
We are grateful to and continue to work with the Toronto Police Service and TMU Security on the ongoing investigation and expect that those responsible will be identified and held accountable. We call on Toronto Metropolitan University to take concrete steps to ensure the safety and well-being of Jewish students, and to state clearly that such conduct is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
