Anthony Hall. Photo: Video Screenshot.

The recent suspension of a tenured University of Lethbridge professor who used his classroom as a platform to promote antisemitic and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories signals that Canadian universities are finally taking the concerns of the Jewish community seriously, an official from a major Jewish advocacy group told The Algemeiner on Thursday.

Amanda Hohmann, national director of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights, the organization that prompted Lethbridge to investigate Anthony Hall for supporting “open debate” on the Holocaust and blaming Israel for the 9/11 terror attacks — called the move “symbolic of the fact that the pendulum is starting to swing the other way and that some university administrations are waking up to the fact that indoctrination into subtle, sub-textual and systemic antisemitism begins on campus.”

In a video posted online on Wednesday, Hall announced he had been suspended without pay while the university prepares termination procedures. He suggested that the “organized Zionist Lobby” is responsible for “breaking down the structural basis for free and open discussion” on campus, and directly accused B’nai Brith Canada of “taking control” of Lethbridge to advance its own agenda.

Hohmann scoffed at the accusation, saying that Hall himself “is solely responsible for his suspension.” The Jewish community, she told The Algemeiner, “refuses to be victimized by his hateful speech and spoke out against it, and I am proud of the united front we presented in saying that this was not okay.” 

Hall — a co-host of the YouTube program “False Flag Weekly News,” has come under fire in the past, as The Algemeiner reported, for his spread of antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment. In June, Lethbridge defended Hall’s right to do so, on the grounds of academic freedom.

According to anonymous reviews of his classes by students, Hall “basically abuses the stage he receives as a ‘teacher’” and “would rather spread his misguided views than actually teach a class.”  One student said that “anyone who does not believe in the 9/11 conspiracy should not take this class.”

Hall’s suspension follows similar moves against a York University lab technologist who, as reported by The Algemeiner, was recently fired from his position for a slew of antisemitic and anti-Zionist social-media postings.

According to Hohmann, the decisions by Lethbridge and York are “a direct response” to the Jewish community’s “refusal to allow antisemitism to go unchallenged and to be silent about our rights.”

Watch Hall’s video below: