Toronto Law Students’ Pro-Palestinian Letter Was ‘Greatly Flawed’ But Didn’t Breach School’s Code Of Conduct

Following up on my previous post, Law School Founded On DEI Pillar Is Now 'Riven With Betrayal And Fear' Over October 7th And Israel-Hamas War:  Toronto Star, TMU Law Students’ Pro-Palestinian Letter ‘Greatly Flawed’ But Didn’t Breach School’s Code of Conduct, External Review Finds:

Law students at Toronto Metropolitan University who last fall signed a letter of “unequivocal support” for Palestine and “all forms of Palestinian resistance,” triggering a massive backlash including calls for their expulsion, did not breach the school’s code of conduct, according to the findings of an external review.

“While the letter was understandably troubling and offensive to many, the students’ participation in the letter, when placed in its appropriate context, was nonetheless a valid exercise of student expression and therefore protected under the university’s statement on freedom of speech,” retired Chief Justice of Nova Scotia J. Michael MacDonald concluded in his 200-page report released Friday.

The report noted that free speech must be highly protected and is fundamental in a university setting where students must be given a wide latitude to have critical discussions, to learn, to express dissenting views and make mistakes. ...

The letter, a response to what was perceived as the LASL’s “neutral position” in an earlier communication, condemned institutions that had denounced Hamas’s “recent war crimes” but not “the historic and ongoing war crimes committed by Israel.”

Some students, faculty, members of the private bar and organizations like B’nai Brith Canada interpreted it as endorsing the Oct. 7 attacks and demanded the law students be expelled and/or excluded from job opportunities. Donors pulled scholarship funding. The law students were doxxed and received threats on social media. ...

LASL was launched in 2020 to be a different kind of law school, focusing on diversity and access to justice. Of its 450 students, 56 per cent are racialized and 60 per cent women. ...

“I am shocked, disturbed and aghast that Justice MacDonald did not find the students’ letter to be antisemitic,” said Jonathan Rosenthal, a Toronto criminal lawyer and adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. He was one of a group of 23 lawyers who wrote to TMU and LASL last fall demanding the university take action against the students or risk losing professional placements.

“The words in the letter can only reasonably be interpreted as support for the Oct. 7 terrorist massacre ... and can only be interpreted as support for the repetition of such acts of resistance as promised by Hamas.

“Despite Justice MacDonald’s findings, the LALS has been irremediably damaged.”

Joshua Sealy-Harrington, an assistant professor at LASL who has defended the students and who participated in the external review, said the report is a clear vindication of the students.

“I am relieved that these brave students will face no formal sanctions and that their support for Palestinian resistance and opposition to Israeli apartheid was properly characterized as not antisemitic. But I remain disheartened that these students were forced to endure systematic and racist reprisal from the legal community, as well as outrageous misrepresentation of their views by the very law school administration that should have been defending them.”

Toronto Star Op-Ed:  TMU Law School Students Deserve an Apology From Prominent Lawyers Who Rushed to Judgment, by Faisal Kutty (Rutgers University), Faisal Bhabha (Osgoode Hall Law School) & Alex Neve (University of Ottawa):

As law professors, we teach our students how to advocate for themselves and to use their skills to do so for others who cannot. We were, in fact, drawn to law in the first place because we wanted to be effective advocates.

The same is likely true for the more than 70 law students at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Lincoln Alexander School of Law, who learned a lesson on the costs of advocacy. After advocating for Palestinian human rights, they were confronted with the risk of expulsion and a stillborn legal career.

The students’ offence was signing a letter to the law school, leaked on Oct. 20, highlighting Israeli violations of international law, including apartheid, as the necessary context to the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.

While the letter rightly characterized the killing of civilians as “war crimes,” it did not specifically mention the Israeli victims or hostages and ambiguously endorsed “all forms of Palestinian resistance.” Many people found this insensitive considering the pain that many people, including TMU students, were feeling as a result of the Hamas attack.

At the same time, what many others found insensitive was the lack of any meaningful acknowledgment by TMU of the mounting death toll in Gaza as Israel unleashed its disproportionate bombing campaign. ...

Justice MacDonald observed that the group of lawyers had done the very thing they accused the students of doing, such as speaking harshly, rushing to judgment, and not acknowledging opposing viewpoints. Those prominent lawyers “talked about the importance of civility and respectful dialogue, without extending those empathetic sentiments to the students involved.”

It is time for those prominent lawyers to make amends. They should retract their letter and apologize to the students.

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• Law School Founded On DEI Pillar Is Now 'Riven With Betrayal And Fear' Over October 7th And Israel-Hamas War (Jan. 15, 2024)