Ontario tribunal awards former teaching assistant $7,000 over dismissal dispute

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal ruled in favor of Ayman Elkasrawy, granting him $7,000 for injury to his dignity, feelings and self-respect after his termination from Toronto Metropolitan University’s engineering faculty. While the adjudicator, Cyndee Cherniak, dismissed Elkasrawy’s allegation that Islamophobia directly caused his dismissal, she noted that a university president’s email to a Jewish group about his case breached confidentiality and reflected his religious affiliation.

The case stemmed from a 2016 prayer at Masjid Toronto that called for Jews to be “slayed one by one,” a statement condemned by the mosque and the Muslim Association of Canada and leading to his firing. Elkasrawy argued the translation was inaccurate and that the violent language referred to Syrian officials, not Jews, a view the tribunal partially accepted. The tribunal also found the campus posters featuring his image and the prayer’s translation were not inherently Islamophobic. The award addresses the privacy violation and the perceived discrimination linked to his faith.