UofT Faculty of Law Dumps Human Rights Lawyer Over Defence of Palestine

By Samir Mechel, YCL-LJC member in Hamilton

Over the past few months, a scandal has erupted around the Dean of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law, Edward Iacobucci, after he rescinded an offer given to legal scholar Valentina Azarova to lead the faculty’s International Human Rights Program. This move, done at the pressure of a sitting judge who is also a major donor to the faculty, was due to Azarova’s work on Palestinian human rights. The irony of this reasoning has not been lost on anyone, and the faculty’s defence of its decision has been embarrassing at best. 

Azarova has an extensive history working in the field of human rights both in Europe and with the United Nations, and was unanimously chosen by the selection panel according to its chair, Audrey Macklin. Azarova was then offered the job, which she accepted. UofT had chosen to deny this well-documented fact, and insists that they never offered the position to Azarova. They allege that the “technical and legal constraints pertaining to cross-border hiring” due to COVID-19 made it impossible for anyone to be chosen, and maintain that they did not offer the job to anyone. However, according to multiple sources, including two past directors of the same International Human Rights Program, Carmen Cheung and Samer Muscati, Azarova accepted the offer in mid-August. Every member advisory board that worked to find the director has resigned in protest of UofT deceitful behaviour and lies.

The offer was rescinded two days after Iacobucci spoke with Tax Court of Canada judge David Spiro, an alumnus and donor to the faculty, who objected to Azorova’s criticisms of Israel. Spiro’s family has donated “tens of millions dollars to the [University of Toronto],” and has also had a significant impact on the City of Toronto; the University’s Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies is named after Spiro’s maternal grandmother, and recently, Spiro personally advised the faculty on its $30 million dollar fundraising campaign.

It should be mentioned that Azarova’s work regarding Palestine is not remotely disqualifying, nor is it radical within the field of human rights. Her criticism focuses primarily on illegal Israeli settlements, and her views are squarely within the international consensus on them. Itamar Mann, associate professor at the University of Haifa’s Faculty of Law stated, “[Azarova’s] criticism of Israel is extremely legitimate within Israel. It’s a criticism that I share. It’s a criticism of long-standing human rights violations of international law, primarily through the project of settlements which is unquestionably illegal and that’s the kind of majority position around the world.”

The local and international legal community has given considerable support to Azarova in the ensuing weeks since the scandal began. The UofT Students’ Law Society published an open letter calling the allegations contrary to the University’s “commitment to academic freedom.” Nine UofT law professors have signed a letter criticizing the decision, calling it a “sign of a decayed collegial environment.” Over one thousand Canadian and international academics and lawyers have signed a petition demanding that Azarova be re-offered the position and that Justice Spiro be investigated. Notable signatories include Angela Davis, Vijay Prashad, Richard Falk, and Viet Nguyen.

The University of Toronto has a long and poor track record on the issue of Palestinian human rights. However, students are fighting back: the first Israeli Apartheid Week was held at the University of Toronto in 2005, and since then a number of other student groups, including UofT Divest (which seeks to pressure the University to divest from companies funding and administrating Israeli apartheid) and the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union, have come out in support of BDS. This scandal also comes in the wake of Bill 168, which sloppily equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Having passed its second reading in the Ontario legislature in early 2020, a number of progressive groups, including Independent Jewish Voices Canada, have urged its rejection — the bill is now set to be discussed yet again in Ontario’s legislature, and it is inching closer and closer to approval*. Currently, the Canadian Federation of Students is working with IJV Canada to forward a more robust and progressive definition that targets antisemitism, but ensures that Palestinian rights are not trampled underfoot.

The situation is also looking more hopeful from the inside. On October 14th, Dean Iacobucci agreed to a review of the hiring process, which will be overseen by former President of Trent University Bonnie Patterson. However, the investigation will not be independent, and will involve members of the UofT faculty who were involved in the original scandal: for example, UofT’s vice president of human resources and equity, Kelly Hannah-Moffat, who announced the investigation, and who denied that the University ever offered Azarova the position. Iacobucci also denies any wrongdoing, and continues to attribute the decision not to hire Azarova to technical and legal difficulties. 

Justice Spiro is currently under review by the Canadian Judicial Council, which oversees federal judges. If the allegations against him are found to be credible, he would be subject to a public hearing, and, if found to have engaged in wrongdoing, could be expelled from the bench.

Though we have seen students taking up the banner of Palestinian rights and fighting for justice at the University of Toronto, more campaigning is still needed. The current Faculty of Law scandal sheds further light on the negative implications of the corporatization of education in Canada, as well as reliance on private industry and individual donors. Though students should certainly urge the University to conduct a fully independent review of the hiring process, it must be stressed that this scandal is ultimately due to the slow chipping-away of public education that is happening not only in Ontario but across Canada. Further organization and agitation is needed on campus, not only to ensure that the rights of Palestinian people are respected, but to ensure that staff, students, and education in general are not at the mercy of private donors.

*Update: Bill 168 was passed without due democratic process on Oct. 27, 2020. The IHRA definition has been adopted in Ontario.