A comic hired for a Marguerite-Bourgeoys School Board event is being accused of crossing the line between humor and anti-Semitism.
The French-language school board recently held a conference with the theme of confronting radicalization in school, and the comic, Anas Hassouna, was brought in before the lunch hour to lighten the mood.
But some teachers say one of his jokes didn't land — he said "at the end of the day we're all human...except for the Jews".
Hassouna says the point of the joke was not to make fun of Jews, but rather, to make fun of racists.
"It wasn't my intention [to offend anyone], and I'm pretty sorry to have offended them," Hassouna told CJAD 800. "If you look at the joke as it is, it doesn't mean Jewish people aren't human, it means I'm racist, and you're pretty stupid for being racist."
But one of the teachers who was in attendance who spoke with CJAD 800 and didn't give his name, said he didn't exactly see it that way.
"I can understand if you bought a ticket for the Nasty Show for the Just For Laughs festival and somebody said that," he said, "but here you are, at a school board-sponsored event. They paid the speaker to come and say that. He never apologized or said 'hey, I'm just kidding'.