York University’s practice of canceling classes on Jewish holidays is discriminatory, a panel found.
An Ontario Human Rights Commission investigation has found that the practice violates the provincial Human Rights Code’s protection against discrimination based on a person’s “creed.”
The Toronto university has canceled classes on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur for 34 years. All along it has stressed that students of any religious background can ask to be excused from classes for a religious
holiday.
The ruling is seen as vindicating York history professor David Noble, who is Jewish and has complained for years that it is unfair to cancel classes for Jewish students but not for those of other faiths.
A recent report by another York professor shows that 5.8 percent of the university’s 51,000 students are Jewish.
York has three weeks to respond to the report.
