TORONTO, ONT. โ The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has awarded $7,000 to a former Toronto Metropolitan University teaching assistant whose controversial Arabic-language prayer included remarks widely condemned as offensive to Jews, while rejecting his central claim that the university dismissed him because he was Muslim.
In a July 24 ruling in Elkasrawy v. Toronto Metropolitan University, adjudicator Cyndee Todgham Cherniak found that Ayman Elkasrawy had not established that his Muslim creed was a factor in the universityโs decision to terminate his employment.
The tribunal instead found a narrower violation of Ontarioโs Human Rights Code involving then-Ryerson University president Mohamed Lachemiโs decision to disclose Elkasrawyโs employment status directly to Bโnai Brith Canada.
The university was known as Ryerson University at the time and changed its name to Toronto Metropolitan University in 2022.
Cherniak found that Elkasrawyโs creed was a โsmall factorโ in Lachemiโs decision to depart from the universityโs usual practice of not publicly discussing human resources matters and tell Bโnai Brith that Elkasrawy was no longer employed by the institution.
The tribunal awarded Elkasrawy $7,000 as compensation for injury to dignity, feelings, and self-respect arising from that specific violation.
The distinction is critical to understanding the ruling.
The tribunal did not find that TMU discriminated against Elkasrawy by terminating him. It also declined to award lost wages because it did not find the termination itself violated the Human Rights Code.
Controversy Began With 2016 Prayer
The case dates back a decade to June 2016, when Elkasrawy, then a graduate student and teaching assistant at Ryerson, delivered Arabic-language prayer supplications at Masjid Toronto, where he also served as an assistant imam.
A recording was subsequently circulated publicly, and English translations of portions of the prayer generated significant controversy.
One translation attributed to Elkasrawy a supplication calling for people to be slain โone by one.โ Another referred to cleansing the Al-Aqsa Mosque of โdesecration by the Jews.โ
Elkasrawy disputed the interpretation that he had called for Jews to be killed.
He maintained that the first statement concerned the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and that the reference to Al-Aqsa concerned Israeli control of Jerusalem rather than Jewish people as an ethnic or religious group.
The tribunal accepted his explanation of the disputed passages.
The controversy nevertheless resulted in condemnation at the time from Muslim organizations associated with the mosque.
Masjid Toronto and the Muslim Association of Canada condemned the prayer as offensive to Jewish people when the controversy emerged.
Elkasrawy also apologized for the offence caused by his words.
Bโnai Brith Called For His Dismissal
Bโnai Brith Canada became involved in the controversy and called on Ryerson to dismiss Elkasrawy.
The university subsequently terminated his employment contracts as a teaching assistant and invigilator.
Lachemi then informed Bโnai Brith that Elkasrawy was โno longer employed by the university.โ
That communication became the decisive issue in the portion of Elkasrawyโs human rights complaint that ultimately succeeded.
The tribunal heard evidence that the university generally did not comment publicly on individual human resources matters.
Bโnai Brith had raised concerns specifically about Elkasrawyโs off-campus conduct as a Muslim religious leader.
The tribunal found that Lachemi had not provided an explanation for departing from the universityโs customary confidentiality practice and informing the outside advocacy organization about Elkasrawyโs employment status.
Cherniak concluded there was sufficient circumstantial evidence to infer that Elkasrawyโs creed played a small role in the decision to communicate directly with Bโnai Brith.
The tribunal characterized the disclosure of confidential employment information to an outside organization, in circumstances where such information would not ordinarily be disclosed, as adverse treatment.
That finding was separate from the universityโs decision to terminate Elkasrawy.
Tribunal Rejects Discrimination Claim Over Firing
On the central question of whether Elkasrawy was fired because he was Muslim, the tribunal ruled against him.
Cherniak found insufficient evidence to establish that his creed was a factor in the termination.
The tribunal also dismissed a separate claim concerning the universityโs subsequent public statement, which referred to โantisemitic commentsโ without identifying Elkasrawy by name.
According to subsequent legal reporting on the decision, the tribunal found the statement factually accurate and did not find that issuing it constituted discrimination.
Elkasrawy also alleged that posters circulated on campus demanding his dismissal were Islamophobic.
That claim was unsuccessful.
The result was therefore substantially narrower than some descriptions of the ruling have suggested.
Elkasrawy was not awarded $7,000 because the tribunal found his dismissal discriminatory.
He received compensation because the tribunal concluded that his creed was a small factor in the university president’s separate decision to disclose confidential information about his employment to Bโnai Brith.
$7,000 For Injury To Dignity
In determining compensation, the tribunal considered the disparity in institutional power between a university president and a graduate student.
It awarded Elkasrawy $7,000 for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect.
The tribunal declined to award lost wages because it did not find the termination discriminatory.
It also declined to order a retraction and rejected a request for mandatory human rights training for university leadership, treating the disclosure as an isolated incident unlikely to recur.
Elkasrawyโs lawyer, Faisal Bhabha, has characterized the decision as a measure of accountability after representing him for nearly a decade.
Bhabha has also criticized aspects of the ruling, including the tribunalโs distinction between Elkasrawyโs creed and the prayer’s political content, and its conclusion that creed played a role in the disclosure but not the termination.
The case had been filed in 2018. Proceedings were significantly delayed, including by the COVID-19 pandemic, and final arguments concluded years before the July 2026 decision.
The ruling ultimately produced a divided outcome.
The tribunal rejected Elkasrawyโs allegation that TMU discriminated against him when it terminated his employment following the controversy.
At the same time, it found that the university crossed a human rights line when Elkasrawyโs Muslim creed became a small factor in Lachemiโs decision to disclose his employment status to Bโnai Brith Canada.
It was that limited finding, not the dismissal itself, that resulted in the $7,000 award.
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