A professor suing a host of Jewish organizations, along wth York University, for allegedly conspiring against him and defaming him by accusing him of anti-Semitism, has put out a press release. It states that he is suing the “Israel Lobby,” and asserts that this “Israel Lobby” is composed of several major provinicial Jewish organizations, i.e., “Hillel of Greater Toronto, the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto, and the Canadian Jewish Congress, Ontario,” and “their agents.” He further alleges in the press release that “These rich and powerful people pretend to be friends of higher learning but are in fact its worst enemies. They think they have bought themselves a university [York].”
In 2004, Noble distributed flyers around campus, which made claims that directors and members of [York University] foundation had ties with pro-Israeli groups. The pamphlets [entitled, “The Tail that Wags the Dog”, and, which, according to an article in 2004 in the Globe and Mail, “names members of the [York University]foundation’s board of directors and their affiliation with Jewish groups”] also claimed that the university was biased and favoured Israeli groups.
After the distribution of the flyers, a fax was sent by Hillel of Greater Toronto to the university with their concern that the flyers insinuated that “Jews control York University.” Noble denied this was in the material he distributed.
In response, a press release was shortly issued by the university, in which [university president] Marsden condemned the literature. The press release did not name Noble individually but did quote Dori Borshiov, the former president of Hillel at York, who expressed concern with the material that was handed out stating, “it is unacceptable for any students to be exposed to this type of bigotry.”
Also see this story from the Toronto Star.
I haven’t seen the original flyers, and I generally think university presidents should refrain from taking sides on speech-related controversies on campus, but I can’t imagine how anyone could ever interpret any remarks made by the plaintiff as insinuating that Jews control York University. And it’s not like the plaintiff had ever engaged in any other actions that even remotely suggest hostility to the Jewish community.