CUPE Ontario sponsoring 'Hands off Iran' rally outside U.S. consulate this Sunday

National Post

4 hours ago

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Last week, Israel launched a series of air strikes across Iran aimed at the country's nuclear infrastructure and military leadership. Negotiations between the United States and the Islamic Republic were scheduled for Sunday in Oman; however, President Donald Trump has since publicly criticized Iran for dragging its feet during the talks and failing to make a deal sooner.
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For decades, the religious leadership of Iran has sought a path to an atomic weapon, collaborating with Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan to advance its nuclear capabilities and ballistic missile program. The country has long been widely viewed as a state sponsor of terror, including by the Canadian and American governments, playing a pivotal role in training and equipping designated terror entities such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
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On several occasions, the political and religious leaders of Iran have called for the destruction of Israel. In 2005, then Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared, 'Israel must be wiped off the map.' Ten years later, current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed the Jewish state would not exist in '25 years' during a speech in Tehran.
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In 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Iran's possession of nuclear weapons was a 'red line.'
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CUPE Ontario has faced increased scrutiny since the October 7 terrorist attacks, when union president Fred Hahn called the atrocities the 'power of resistance.' He later issued an apology for his comments and said they were misconstrued by 'bad faith actors with a divisive agenda,' but the union has remained opposed to Israel throughout its conflict with Iran's proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — and has encouraged members to attend anti-Israel vigils and rallies.
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In November 2023, a group of Jewish members filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) alleging CUPE Ontario and Hahn 'engaged in systemic discrimination against the complainants by promoting and engaging in antisemitism.' On Tuesday, one of the members, Carrie Silverberg, and the group's attorney, Kathryn Marshall, told the Post in a written statement on behalf of Jewish union members in the complaint that they were 'shocked and disgusted to see CUPE Ontario is proudly endorsing a 'hands off Iran' protest.'
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'Despite being involved in active litigation from its own Jewish members, CUPE Ontario continues to show it doesn't care and doubles down on its discriminatory actions,' they wrote.
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In August 2024, dozens of union members called for Hahn's resignation after he shared a video on his Facebook of an Olympic swimmer wearing a Star of David jumping off a diving board and turning into an exploding bomb.
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'My intent was never to associate Jewish people with the violence enacted by the state of Israel. It remains my strongly held view that it is a terrible mistake, and anti-Semitic, to conflate abhorrent actions by the state of Israel with Jewish humanity or identity,' he later wrote in a Facebook post.
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