A delegation of more than 30 university students travelled to Ottawa on Sept. 24 to urge the government to improve campus security for Jews, days after an Ontario synagogue was attacked.

Delegates met MPs and other elected officials to ask that they protect students’ rights to learn, and identify as Jews. Kate Blumberg, a third-year McMaster University student, and Livia Mamane, who’s in her first year of law school at the Université du Québec à Montréal, represented the delegation during a press conference at Ottawa’s National Press Theatre.

Blumberg and Mamane were joined by Liberal MP Anthony Housefather (Mount Royal), Conservative MP Adam Chambers (Simcoe North), Hillel Ontario CEO Jay Solomon, and Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) CEO Noah Shack.

“Unfortunately, we live in a time when being recognizably Jewish on campus, whether by your name, the necklace you wear, or the kippah that adorns your head, comes with repercussions,” Blumberg said in the press conference. “This is because being Jewish itself has become political.”

When she served as the only Jewish member of the Student Representative Assembly, which governs McMaster’s student union, Blumberg heard many stories of Jewish students feeling singled out, excluded or unwelcome on campus.

Blumberg said some students have begun avoiding certain classes or professors because political discussions consistently take place even when they’re irrelevant to the course. She said schools shouldn’t police people’s opinions, but they must enforce their standards and make sure everyone is included.

“If there is no consistency with that, there is no action, and I’ve had many meetings at different levels of administration where there’s kind of a sentiment of ‘My hands are tied because it’s not a Belleville incident,’” she said.

The press conference came days after a Sept. 20 shooting in Belleville, Ont., that critically injured a police officer standing security outside the Sons of Jacob synagogue. The suspect died in hospital Sept. 21.

Mamane said university and college campuses are no longer safe for her and her colleagues, and that her freedom to learn is under threat. She said friends have witnessed Hitler salutes or had disputes with administrators, including some that required the students to seek legal help. Her life on campus is “inundated with discomfort and fear” around her Jewish identity.

University administrators should be more involved in monitoring campus activities, such as how student clubs or organizations operate, to make sure they follow codes of conduct and should hold back funds from groups that exclude Jewish students or other minorities, she said.

“They should ensure that Jewish clubs aren’t being antagonized,” Mamane added.

She told The CJN after the press conference that protecting students is about more than reacting to violent or hateful incidents.

“It’s about preventing them,” Mamane said. “This can come from educational programs ensuring that every single student on campus knows that, for instance, a Hitler salute should not be something that is welcome.”

Shack said the students’ stories represent what Jews and Jewish students are experiencing across Canada.

He cited the August 2026 Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences report, which found that 68 per cent of around 900 surveyed Canadian university students said their campus isn’t safe and inclusive for Jews. Almost 96 per cent of respondents said they had experienced or witnessed at least one antisemitic incident on campus in the last year.

Shack said the Belleville shooting should be a wake-up call that “a small number of extremists are driven by conspiracy theories and libels” to attack Jewish Canadians.

“Universities are supposed to be institutions that advance higher learning and cutting-edge research, but on too many campuses, these extremists have been permitted to undermine this fundamental function in a free and democratic society,” Shack said.

He said the universities also need to improve how they enforce their existing policies. He called on the government to “use every lever they have available to drive change.”

Housefather echoed Shack’s comment, saying many universities and provinces have failed to make sure people aren’t shunned for supporting Israel. Ontario was an exception to this because of Bill 166, the Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act, which received royal assent in 2024 and was updated earlier this month.

Under Bill 166, universities and colleges must create anti-hate policies that make reporting incidents more transparent and accessible, increase security at potentially unsafe protests, and limit the times and places where protests can occur. Schools that fail to comply could have funding decreased by the province.

Housefather said every province should adopt its own version of Bill 166.

“Some universities are doing better than others, which is why a law like Ontario’s … is what we need all across Canada,” he said.

Solomon, CEO of Hillel Ontario, said the first step schools should take to address antisemitism is “speaking with moral clarity” around what is and isn’t acceptable on campus.

“A week into the school year, Jewish students at Laurier found mezuzahs torn from their doors. At McMaster, Hillel student leaders were harassed while simply staffing their table at a campus club fair. These are not isolated incidents,” Solomon said.

“Jewish students are not asking for special treatment,” Shack said. “They are asking for something fundamental: the same promise we make to every Canadian, that they can learn, participate in campus life, and belong fully and safely without having to hide who they are.”

Chambers said he attended the press conference with Housefather to show Canada’s Jewish students that they have cross-party support. He said they’ve faced rising discrimination for “trying to do the most innocent thing as a student, which is to attend an educational institution.”

“We have a responsibility to them to make sure they can attend their schools in a way that is responsible, that recognizes their individual freedoms, and their right to participate in our society fully, without fear of who they are and what they believe in,” he said.