Toronto Universities Condemn Hate Pamphlets Planted in Libraries

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2005abc/november2005a/toronto.cfm

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Posted November 11, 2005.

Toronto Universities Condemn Hate Pamphlets Planted in Libraries

University officials have denounced and removed hundreds of copies of an anti-Semitic flyer found stuffed in books or lying on open shelves at five academic libraries in the Toronto area. The pamphlets, titled Jewish Supremacism Unmasked, were discovered the week of October 31 in libraries at Ryerson University, York University, and all three University of Toronto campuses in Mississauga, St. George, and Scarborough, the November 5 Toronto Globe and Mail reported.

The incident came a week before the annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly, held this year in Toronto November 11–15 and featuring an appearance by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Zac Kaye, executive director of the Greater Toronto branch of Hillel, said “the content is graphic, hateful, and comprises deeply painful themes of classic anti-Semitism coupled with a radical anti-Israel vitriol,” the YU newspaper Excalibur reported November 9.

Jim Delaney, UT assistant director for student affairs, said in the November 5 Mississauga News that the three campuses were taking extra security precautions in the libraries. Deputy Provost David Farrar told the Globe and Mail he hoped “no member of the UT community would stoop so low as to distribute anti-Semitic literature. But if that is the case, we will take swift and appropriate action.”

According to the November 8 Ryerson campus newspaper The Eyeopener, the perpetrators were caught on library surveillance cameras. The hate crime unit of the Toronto Police Services is investigating the incidents.

Posted November 11, 2005.