Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

My name is Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, and I'm the senior director of policy and advocacy at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, based in Toronto.

I feel very privileged to be here today, to have the opportunity to speak to this room of esteemed lawmakers, alongside some truly fantastic community advocates like Mr. Marceau, Mr. Robertson and Special Envoy Lyons. Thank you for having me.

Since October 7, we have seen in our country an explosion of anti-Semitic hate, the likes of which we have not seen before. At ground zero of this problem are our nation's universities, which have served as fertile grounds for the mobilization and recruitment of anti-Semitic hate groups, where students, faculty and staff have been able to engage in the ugliest of hate speech and glorification of violence and terrorism against Jews, without any fear whatsoever of consequences.

Jewish students have increasingly found themselves targeted by abuse from their peers, singled out by their professors, subjected to harassment and discrimination, and fearful that they will be discriminated against when it comes to grading. Students in some cases no longer feel safe physically even crossing their own campuses, as they know they will have to pass by protest encampments and demonstrations, which are perpetrating hateful rhetoric.

With respect to university administrations, we have seen, unfortunately, for the most part that they have leaned into political cowardice. We have seen an abject failure to hold accountable students, faculty and staff who have perpetrated the most ugly of hatreds, who have glorified the most ugly of terrorist acts. We have seen an effect on our campuses of a failure to make the strategic decisions to ensure that campuses remain safe for Jewish students, a failure of university leadership.

This is not the first time in the long history of Jewish people that we have seen universities become a breeding ground for the vilest anti-Semitism, a breeding ground for anti-Semitic hate groups. We have seen this all before in our long history, and we know where it leads. This is why we know that the time for action is now.

Simon Wiesenthal, the namesake of my organization, is a holocaust survivor who dedicated his life to justice. He said that freedom is not a gift from heaven; it is something we need to fight for every day.

I thank you all for joining me here today as we work together to fight for freedom for all students on our campuses, including Jewish students.