{"id":115236,"date":"2024-08-23T17:00:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=115236"},"modified":"2024-08-23T07:49:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T05:49:56","slug":"26-00-99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=115236","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s Largest Union Asks Vice President to Resign Following Antisemitic Facebook Post"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Canada\u2019s Largest Union Asks Vice President to Resign Following Antisemitic Facebook Post<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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A Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer stands guard outside the Senate of Canada prior to the Speech from the Throne in Ottawa, Canada on September 23, 2020. Photo: AFP photo\/DAVE CHAN<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The national executive board of Canada\u2019s largest union has asked one of its senior officials to resign this week after he shared an antisemitic video on social media earlier this month.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which has 750,000 members across the country,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in a statement on Thursday that its national board made \u201cthe difficult decision\u201d to ask Fred Hahn to step down from his position as general vice president \u201cbecause he reposted a deeply problematic video that was a clear violation of our union\u2019s equality statement.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

CUPE\u2019s national executive board passed a motion on Tuesday that said it \u201clost confidence\u201d in Hahn\u2019s ability to represent the union as general vice president, according to\u00a0a letter<\/a>\u00a0CUPE send to related organizations. The board cited a video Hahn shared on Facebook on Aug. 11 and \u201cthe impact it has had on CUPE members and the national union.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The controversial video\u00a0showed<\/a>\u00a0a diver at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris with a Star of David tattoo on his arm, jumping off a diving board before turning into a bomb that exploded on civilians. The video\u2019s narrator called the diver an \u201cOlympic champion\u201d and the clip concluded with a message that said: \u201cThe athletes of the olympic team of Isreal [sic] has participated in the genocide of the Palestinians as they were a part of the IDF. Shame on them. Shame on the sports. Shame on the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hahn, who is also the president of CUPE\u2019s branch in Ontario, deleted the video and in an Aug. 18 Facebook\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0apologized for sharing a clip that \u201ccaused pain for some who viewed it.\u201d He said he wanted to draw attention to what he described as \u201cclearly a double standard\u201d at the 2024 Olympics since Russian athletes were banned from competing in the Summer Games under their own flag, because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, while athletes from Israel were allowed to represent their country despite the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy intent was never to associate Jewish people with the violence enacted by the state of Israel,\u201d Hahn wrote in the Facebook post. \u201cIt remains my strongly held view that it is a terrible mistake, and antisemitic, to conflate abhorrent actions by the state of Israel with Jewish humanity or identity \u2026 Our collective focus should be on the unfolding genocide, on the continued contravention of international law by the state of Israel \u2014 not on me or my social media posts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThere is so much pain and suffering in our world and the last thing anyone with a conscience, me included, would want to do is cause more of it. I believe other people of conscience would agree that any public discussion now should not take away from organizing for a ceasefire, for justice and peace for all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hahn was elected president of CUPE Ontario in May. He also faced calls to resign last year after he\u00a0praised on X<\/a>\u00a0the \u201cpower of resistance\u201d a day after the Oct. 7 deadly Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday in a post on X\/Twitter that he supports CUPE\u2019s decision to have Hahn resign. \u201cI applaud CUPE National for asking Fred Hahn to step down,\u201d he\u00a0wrote<\/a>. \u201cNow it\u2019s time for Fred to put his members first and do the right thing by resigning from all his positions of leadership.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

During an unrelated news conference that same day, Ford\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0Hahn \u201ca bully for 20 years.\u201d The president said he was getting messages on his phone from CUPE members who called Hahn\u2019s comments disgusting. \u201cIn my opinion, he\u2019s a disgusting human being anyways, but that\u2019s here nor there,\u201d he added. \u201cHis bigoted comments \u2014 it\u2019s unacceptable here in Ontario \u2026 someone has to discipline this guy and I encourage the [CUPE] workers next time, next time a vote comes, vote this character out, because, in my opinion, he\u2019s just a terrible, terrible human being.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ford also applauded Ontario\u2019s Labor Minister David Piccini for confronting Hahn in-person about his actions. During their exchange, which Piccini\u00a0shared<\/a>\u00a0in a video on Tuesday, the minister called Hahn an \u201cantisemite\u201d and told him \u201cyou have to stop hating Jews \u2026 you\u2019re a labor leader and your members deserve better than you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Canadian branch of the human rights and social advocacy organization Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center\u00a0voiced support<\/a>\u00a0for CUPE\u2019s request that Hahn resign, and called on him to also step down as president of the union\u2019s branch in Ontario. Earlier this week, the Jewish group\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0Hahn\u2019s apology for his antisemitic Facebook video \u201cinsincere and insufficient.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the repeated harm his words and actions have caused to the Jewish community, Hahn must be replaced by someone who can represent all CUPE members,\u201d the organization added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In its statement on Thursday, CUPE criticized Piccini and Ford for their decision \u201cto attack Fred Hahn, in a way that is completely revolting and unacceptable.\u201d The union also explained that while it does not support Hahn\u2019s antisemitic social media post, CUPE does condemn Israel for its actions during the ongoing war targeting Hamas terrorists in Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNothing about this decision changes CUPE\u2019s clear, consistent position on the bombardment of Gaza by Israel,\u201d the union noted. \u201cCUPE continues to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire; a release of all hostages from Gaza; and an end to the blockade of Gaza and the restoration of humanitarian aid. CUPE also calls on the Government of Canada to suspend the sale of arms and military equipment to Israel as it committed to doing in March 2024.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo suggest that asking for Fred\u2019s resignation as a GVP is to throw in with those who support the genocide in Gaza, or is in response to a conservative premier\u2019s bullying, is frankly ludicrous,\u201d the union said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Canada\u2019s Largest Union Asks Vice President to Resign Following Antisemitic Facebook Post Shiryn Ghermezian A Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer stands guard outside the Senate of Canada prior to the Speech from the Throne in Ottawa, Canada on September 23, 2020. Photo: AFP photo\/DAVE CHAN The national executive board of Canada\u2019s largest union has asked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115236"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115253,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115236\/revisions\/115253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}