University confirms employee's dismissal after claims of antisemitism
In a decision dated July 24, 2026, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario's Cyndee Todgham Cherniak ruled that an Ontario university did not discriminate when it fired a graduate teaching assistant following a viral controversy over remarks he made off campus.
But the tribunal did find the university's president crossed a line that same day when he told an outside advocacy organization the employee had been let go, ordering the university to pay the former employee $7,000 in damages.
The employee, a PhD engineering student who also worked as an assistant imam at a local mosque, delivered prayer supplications in Arabic during Ramadan in 2016. A media outlet later posted an English translation online that went viral, with critics calling the words antisemitic.
The employee said the translation was inaccurate and posted a public apology, but a poster began circulating on campus calling for his firing.
According to the termination letter, the university determined the comments violated its collective agreement obligations and its policies on harassment and discrimination prevention, and it ended his employment contracts for cause. The employee had been employed under limited-term contracts as a teaching assistant and invigilator.
The tribunal dismissed the claim that the firing itself was discriminatory. It found the employee did not prove his creed was a factor in the...
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