How IHRA Harms Us: An Anti-Racist Conversation on Weaponized Antisemitism

Join Independent Jewish Voices Canada for a webinar marking three years since the launch of our NoIHRA campaign. 

This webinar will place anti-racist scholars and activists in conversation on how the struggles against Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism and antisemitism are intertwined with the fight to resist the IHRA definition of antisemitism. It will discuss how the IHRA definition continues to harm anti-racist movements in Canada, and what we can do instead to combat these forms of racism.

* Closed captioning will be available for this event

** Speaker info **

Jasmin Zine is a Professor of Sociology and Religion & Culture at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada. Her new book, Under Siege: Islamophobia and the 9/11 Generation explores the impact of 9/11, the “war on terror,” and domestic security discourses and policies on Canadian Muslim youth. She will also be releasing a study mapping the Canadian Islamophobia Industry that documents the networks which comprise Canada’s Islamophobia ecosystem. Dr. Zine has worked as a consultant with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization on developing guidelines for educators and policymakers on combating Islamophobia, served as the Co-chair for the Islamophobia sub-committee of the Ontario Anti-racism Secretariat and was an invited speaker at the Canadian Islamophobia Summit in 2021. She is also the co-founder of the International Islamophobia Studies Research Association and an affiliated faculty member with the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project (IRDP) at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Dania Majid is the co-founder and president of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association. She is also the co-founder and artistic director of the Toronto Palestine Film Festival. She was the lead author of the ACLA’s recent report on anti-Palestinian racism, and sits on the steering committee for the Hearing Palestine program at the University of Toronto. In addition to being a long-time advocate for the Palestinian and Arab community, Dania is also a human rights lawyer and housing advocate with a legal aid clinic in Ontario. She completed her Hon. B.Sc. at the University of Toronto before completing her MES/LLB at York University/Osgoode Hall.

Rowan Gaudet is the co-author of a forthcoming IJV report documenting the repression of Palestine-solidarity activism in Canada. He is a member of IJV’s NoIHRA campaign and has researched the use of the IHRA definition in Canada and around the world. He is currently IJV’s Interim Communications and Media Lead, and in his free time is completing a Master’s Degree in interdisciplinary humanities.

Rima is the recovering former NDP MPP for Beaches-East York. Before she was asked to run for the seat, she taught Diaspora Studies at the University of Toronto at Mississauga. Rima was born in South Africa of a mixed Jewish-Cape Coloured background and is a lifelong social justice advocate. She is proud of having held her ground in politics — in the face of constant attempted silencing — as a progressive Jew who fought hard against antisemitism, anti-Black racism, and Islamophobia, as well as all other forms of bigotry — and for Palestinian human rights. Rima decided not to run again in 2022, and is writing a book on how to make politics less toxic.