CUPE Ontario sponsoring 'Hands off Iran' rally outside U.S. consulate this Sunday
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The Ontario chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees is sponsoring a demonstration outside the American consulate in Toronto in protest of support for Israel amid its ongoing efforts to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.
'Hands off Iran,' the advertisement for the Sunday event reads in all caps. Nearly a dozen sponsoring groups are listed on the poster alongside CUPE Ontario, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, an organization that has repeatedly expressed support for the October 7 Hamas invasion of Israel.
CUPE Ontario on Tuesday called the poster 'an early unapproved draft version' and said a new poster was forthcoming. But the union's decision to support the protest drew widespread criticism from provincial leaders and Jewish community groups.
'By supporting this protest, CUPE Ontario is siding with a regime — run by unelected mullahs — that tortures and kills dissidents, oppresses women and LGBTQ+ Iranians, persecutes minorities, and sponsors terrorism across the globe,' the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) general counsel Richard Marceau said in an email.
'In what world is this considered progressive? In backing Tehran's theocracy, CUPE Ontario has aligned itself with the most extreme of the extremists.'
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