TORONTO, August 20, 2026 — While serious concerns remain, this year’s Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) Annual Meeting avoided some of the deeply divisive outcomes Jewish educators and their allies had feared, with delegates stopping short of endorsing the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and voting to establish a Jewish Members Standing Committee.

After debate began on a motion from the Peel delegation calling for ETFO to formally endorse BDS, the motion was referred for further study and a report back to the union’s Representative Council. The referral was moved by ETFO’s Provincial President and supported by another member of the Provincial Executive.

CJLC is hopeful that the lack of immediate support for BDS from ETFO’s leadership reflects a growing recognition that a campaign targeting Israel for boycott is deeply divisive within the labour movement and alienates many Jewish union members.

“Jewish educators and their allies came into this meeting organized, prepared, and determined to stand together against antisemitism and antizionist hate,” said Leslie Wolfe, Labour Education Consultant for CJLC. “Their colleagues who stood with them demonstrated exactly what union solidarity should look like. With CJLC’s support, members and allies worked together for months to ensure these issues would not simply go unchallenged. There is still significant work ahead, but after what Jewish members have experienced in recent years, these developments are welcome. They also show what can happen when Jewish educators and their allies organize, stand together, and refuse to be marginalized.”

CJLC also welcomes ETFO’s decision to establish a Jewish Members Standing Committee, giving Jewish educators a dedicated forum within their union at a time when many have reported feeling increasingly isolated.

Inexplicably, delegates also rejected a proposal from members of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto to add “fostering solidarity within the union” to ETFO’s foundational articles. At a time when educators are facing the most difficult round of bargaining perhaps in their history, rejecting the very principle on which unionism depends is difficult to understand.

Both a motion brought forward by the Upper Grand local calling on ETFO to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism and a motion brought by the Toronto local to formally recognize the Ontario Human Rights Code were not reached before the meeting concluded.

What happens within a teachers’ union also matters beyond the convention floor. Parents should be able to trust that Ontario’s public schools are places where every student belongs and educators are focused on teaching — not importing divisive international political conflicts into classrooms.

This year’s meeting demonstrated the importance of Jewish educators and allies organizing together and refusing to be pushed to the margins. CJLC will continue working alongside them to ensure antisemitism and anti-Zionist hate do not go unchecked and to push for an ETFO in which solidarity includes everyone.

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Media Contact:  

Leslie Wolfe, Education Labour Consultant, Canadian Jewish Labour Committee  
[email protected] 
www.canadianjlc.ca

About the Canadian Jewish Labour Committee

The Canadian Jewish Labour Committee (CJLC) is a grassroots organization dedicated to uniting Jewish workers, advancing inclusion in unions, and combating antisemitism within the Canadian Labour movement. Founded by Jewish union members and allies, the CJLC advocates for equity, respect, and meaningful representation by engaging with union leadership, sharing best practices, and standing up to discrimination.