November 13th, 2026 – On October 13th 2026, the University of Toronto’s Muslim, Arab and Palestinian Discrimination Working Group submitted its final commissioned report examining anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination on campus. Through consultations, students described pervasive and horrifying experiences of Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism and anti-Palestinian racism. Rather than taking meaningful responsibility for the safety and well-being of Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students, the University has chosen to reject both the report and its recommendations. This is an unacceptable failure of leadership. We call on the University to retract its rejection and formally accept the report and its recommendations, committing to their full implementation.
Students reported being ridiculed for wearing hijab, called derogatory names, having personal belongings and Palestine-related materials vandalized, and being subjected to racist stereotypes. They also raised concerns about the disproportionate policing and surveillance of their speech and advocacy, particularly on the ongoing genocide in Gaza. These experiences were compounded by deep institutional mistrust, which will only be further eroded by the University’s disregard for a report documenting systemic discrimination and its failure to protect the safety and dignity of Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students.
The recommendations call on the University to address the over-policing and under-protection of Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students; strengthen protections for freedom of speech and academic freedom; build institutional capacity to address the “incurious ignorance” surrounding Muslim, Arab and Palestinian experiences; and manage third-party partnerships in a way that centres equity and fairness. These recommendations are neither unreasonable nor extraordinary.
“Commissioning a report documenting serious allegations of human rights violations, systemic discrimination and harassment, only to reject the recommendations intended to address these harms, is a profound abdication of the University’s responsibility,” said Khaled Al-Qazzaz, Executive Director of the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council (CMPAC).
“The University cannot present the commissioning of this report as evidence of its commitment to addressing discrimination while simultaneously rejecting its findings and recommendations. Instead, the University has outlined a series of next steps that fail to address the systemic nature of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism on its campuses, deflecting from the substantive issues raised in the report rather than meaningfully addressing them.”
The report highlights serious concerns affecting a significant segment of the University of Toronto’s campus community. It is therefore imperative that these findings are taken seriously by the Canadian government and the Minister of Heritage. We call on the federal government, particularly the Minister of Canadian Heritage, to take these findings seriously and commission a national study on anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination across Canadian post-secondary institutions. At a time of rising Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism and anti-Palestinian racism nationally, the government must extend the same commitment demonstrated through the Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences (CASE) report to Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students.
Muslim and Arab students are an integral part of the university community and have every expectation that the University will acknowledge the issues raised and act on the report’s findings.
