The president of the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) has defended her controversial comments from four years ago after she was accused of antisemitism in a case that is proceeding before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO).

In a June 2021 webinar, Terezia Zoric denounced “an entitled powerful Zionist minority” after the university decided to pull Valentina Azarova’s appointment as director of the law school’s International Human Rights Program due to visa issues. Supporters of Azarova, a staunch critic of Israel, had accused U of T of bowing to external pressure and dismissed an independent investigation by retired Supreme Court Justice Thomas Cromwell that found no wrongdoing.