View this in pdf format  Montreal, June 12, 2026 — The Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) expresses deep concern over the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) decision to cancel an educational session on anti-Palestinian racism just one day before it was scheduled to take place. This last-minute cancellation, reportedly justified by the Board as a response to “divisiveness,” undermines both the principles of equity and inclusion and the Board’s own policy commitments. The TDSB formally adopted anti-Palestinian racism (APR) into its Combating Hate and Racism strategy in June 2025, recognizing the need to support Palestinian students, develop targeted professional learning for staff, and prevent the erasure of Palestinian identity in schools. Cancelling this session disregards that mandate and signals to students that conversations about Palestinian rights and experiences are unwelcome in educational spaces. Continue reading

The Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) has sent a letter to Westmount High School expressing serious concern over a Holocaust education presentation that reportedly identified the Palestinian flag and watermelon emoji as examples of antisemitic hate symbols. The letter warns that equating Palestinian national and cultural symbols with “coded Jew hatred” is a form of anti-Palestinian racism, as it stigmatizes Palestinian identity, miseducates students, and contributes to a hostile environment for Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and allied students. ARPCF urges the school to issue a clarification, review the materials for anti-Palestinian bias, and ensure future anti-hate education distinguishes between genuine antisemitism and legitimate Palestinian identity, history, and human rights advocacy. View this in pdf format Continue reading

View this in pdf format Montreal, March 24, 2026 — The Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) expresses serious concerns over the decision by Toronto Police to prohibit pro-Palestinian demonstrations on residential streets in the York Centre area. While authorities have framed this measure as a response to safety concerns, the APRCF argues that restricting access to public space based on the political content or location of protest raises profound civil liberties issues. The right to peaceful assembly is a cornerstone of a democratic society, and any limitation on that right must be narrowly justified, evidence-based, and applied without discrimination.   Continue reading

The Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) has sent a letter to the leadership of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) expressing serious concern over reported revisions to artifact labels in the Near East collection, particularly the removal or dilution of “Palestine” as a geographic designation. The letter warns that reframing historically grounded terms under political pressure undermines curatorial integrity, contributes to the erasure of Palestinian history, and contradicts the ROM’s stated commitments to equity, decolonization, and public accountability in museum practice. View this in pdf format Continue reading

View this in pdf format  Montreal, December 22, 2025 — The Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) has released a new report, Policing Palestine Solidarity: A Crisis of Civil Liberties in Canada (2021-2025). This groundbreaking research documents the alarming state response to mass mobilizations for Palestinian rights following October 7, 2023. Amid one of the largest protest waves in Canadian history, the report finds that instead of respecting democratic dissent, authorities responded with surveillance, criminalization, and repression. Through the use of intelligence agencies, riot squads, legal overreach, and unprecedented inter-agency coordination, the Canadian state treated a peaceful human rights movement as a threat to national security.   Continue reading

View this in pdf format Montreal, December 01, 2025 — The Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) condemns the decision by the YMCA of Greater Halifax/Dartmouth to rescind its 2025 Peace Medal from longtime peace and human rights activist Rana Zaman. The ARPCF argues that this decision, taken after targeted pressure from pro-Israel lobby groups including B’nai Brith and the Atlantic Jewish Council, represents a deeply troubling act of anti-Palestinian racism. Rana Zaman, a Muslim community leader, was selected for the award in recognition of her decades of grassroots humanitarian work. The YMCA’s decision, which appears to be based on her public advocacy for Palestinian rights and criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, raises serious concerns about respect for free expression and seems at odds with the Peace Medal’s stated values of peace, inclusion, and justice. Continue reading

View this in pdf format Montreal, August 13, 2025 — The Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) welcomes the recent resolution passed by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) at their current Annual General Meeting, which calls for the creation of a pedagogical resource to support Palestinian students. Originally introduced by the Elementary Teachers of Toronto local, the resolution—passed by 71.32% of voting delegates—commits ETFO to developing and distributing materials that help educators affirm Palestinian identity, address anti-Palestinian racism, and teach Palestinian history. The ARPCF applauds this crucial step toward equity and inclusion in Ontario classrooms and echoes the resolution’s rationale: educators need age-appropriate tools to foster safe, affirming spaces for Palestinian students and to deepen their understanding of the structural nature of anti-Palestinian racism. Continue reading

View this in pdf format  Montreal, August 06, 2025 — The Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) is amplifying the urgent findings of York University’s Documenting the ‘Palestine Exception’ report, which exposed a pervasive, systemic pattern of suppression of pro-Palestinian speech across Canada following October 7, 2023. As concluded by report authors from the Islamophobia Research Hub, this suppression has created a dangerous "Palestine exception" to democratic rights where advocacy for Palestinian rights is stigmatized as illegitimate or terroristic. In this way, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism have converged to silence and vilify Muslim, Palestinian, Arab, and allied communities through incidents of censorship, doxing, bullying, disciplinary actions against students and educators, and biased media silencing. These patterns reveal a climate of repression rooted in institutional biases and power imbalances.   Continue reading

View this in pdf format  Montreal, July 15, 2025 — The Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) welcomes the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) decision to reverse its censorship of a yearbook photo showing two students wearing keffiyehs at Ursula Franklin Academy. This change, which was confirmed in an email from the TDSB to the ARPCF, follows a formal letter sent by the ARPCF condemning the concealment of the image and warning that it constituted a clear act of anti-Palestinian racism. The TDSB’s acknowledgement—that keffiyeh-wearing students have the right to express their identities—marks a small but important step toward addressing the systemic erasure of Palestinian identity in Canadian schools. Continue reading

View this in pdf format  The anti-racism program of the CJPME Foundation (APRCF) has launched a national survey to document the legal and police repression faced by individuals involved in Palestine solidarity activism across Canada. Continue reading