The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)’s proposed Policy Against Antisemitism sparked intense debates at Fall 2024 Legislative Council meetings, and ultimately faced legal contestation when it was passed on Dec. 5. A Dec. 9 court-ordered injunction prohibiting the policy’s ratification ultimately expired on Dec. 19, allowing the SSMU’s Board of Directors (BoD) to potentially pass the policy this semester.

According to SSMU Vice-President (VP) External Affairs Hugo-Victor Solomon, the proposed Policy Against Antisemitism intends to bridge gaps in SSMU legislation to more sensitively and rigorously address the many forms of antisemitism among SSMU members. A draft of the Policy was initially presented during the Oct. 24 SSMU Legislative Council meeting as a notice of motion. Solomon reported that he had requested consultation on this draft from stakeholders such as McGill’s Hillel, Chabad, Chavurah, Independent Jewish Voices, and the Jewish Studies Students’ Association. Members of some of these groups expressed concerns that the Policy did not use the working definition of antisemitism established by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Solomon stated that some of these members then met with SSMU President Dymetri Taylor.

“[They] told the President that all of the executives needed to immediately step down, that they needed to issue an immediate statement apologizing,” Solomon said on if the motion passed.

Taylor wrote to The Tribune that he neither agreed nor disagreed when approached with these requests.

The Policy motion was then debated without approval at Nov. 7 and Nov. 21 Legislative Council meetings, during and between which councillors proposed amendments to the Policy. These recommendations led to the Legislative Council removing multiple passages from the Policy by the end of the Nov. 21 session. 

One of these amendments removed the phrase “between the river and the sea” from the Policy, which had appeared in a clause stating that support for full legal equality for all inhabitants of Israel’s geographic locale would not be considered antisemitic. Solomon explained the removal followed criticism from some McGill Jewish groups.

“Groups like Hillel McGill requested that this phrase be removed in a public letter,” Solomon told The Tribune. “Students felt like that was an attempt to legitimate or provide some kind of tacit support for a political slogan, and as I was able to find other language that accomplished the exact same goal, but without the part of that slogan […] it was removed.”

The Policy was again discussed during the Dec. 5 Legislative Council meeting, unchanged from its Nov. 21 form. The Policy was passed with 16 members in favour of the motion, six against, and two abstaining. 

Less than 24 hours later, lawyers Neil Oberman and Michael Hollander sent the SSMU a demand letter on behalf of groups including McGill’s Jewish Law Students’ Association, Hillel, Chabad, and Israel on Campus. Oberman and Hollander alleged that the vote on the Policy had occurred incorrectly and lobbied for its withdrawal, claiming that affected individuals had not all been properly consulted by SSMU, nor given proper notice that the motion would potentially be passed.

Both parties’ lawyers attended court on Dec. 9, where a judge granted Oberman and Hollander’s request for a provisional injunction against the Policy, set to expire on Dec. 19. SSMU then sent Oberman and Hollander an affidavit alleging that the lawyers had relied on outdated SSMU governance regulations from 2021 to make their case. Oberman and Hollander thus allowed the injunction against the Policy to expire on Dec. 19, requesting that SSMU inform the plaintiff side when the BoD will next vote on the Policy. Taylor confirmed that SSMU executives have not yet established this BoD date while the Policy is reviewed by their lawyers. 

“The SSMU has already approved a budget of $1,000 [CAD] to get a review of the Policy, just to ensure that there are no potential legal concerns, whether those be internal to the SSMU, or external to Quebec law, to ensure that no one’s rights are being invalidated,” Taylor told The Tribune. 

“As the matter is pending before the courts I cannot comment on it,” Hollander wrote to The Tribune. 

Representatives from McGill’s Jewish Law Students’ Association, Hillel, Chabad, and Israel on Campus did not respond to The Tribune’s requests for comment regarding the lawsuit.