Chan's Personal Blog

CUPE Ontario has embarrassed itself again.

The union’s president, Sid Ryan, is backing a move that would call on Ontario universities to ban Israeli academics who aren’t prepared to condemn Israel’s current military operations in Gaza, and specifically the Dec. 29 bombing attack on the Islamic University of Gaza.

Mr. Ryan’s meddling is wrong-headed, on multiple levels.

As many in Ontario academia have pointed out in denouncing Mr. Ryan’s plan, the proposal violates the essence of the concept of academic freedom. By demanding adherence to a particular political point of view, with a professor’s job hanging in the balance, CUPE’s stated goal runs counter to the core mission of institutions of higher learning: promoting free academic inquiry.

Mr. Ryan proposes a political litmus test to decide whose views should be allowed to be expressed. That’s a contravention of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ protection of free speech, as well as an act of discrimination under this country’s human rights codes.

CUPE Ontario’s actions are also inconsistent in that no such bans are sought on academics from oth­er parts of the world where charges of repression are rampant. If Israeli professors are to be barred from teaching based on what they say about Gaza, why not ban Chinese academics over China’s role in Tibet? Or Russian professors for their country’s controversial campaigns against Chechnya? As Bernie Farber, Canadian Jewish Congress CEO, pointed out last week, CUPE has not called for Palestinian academics to be banned over Hamas rocket attacks. (It should be noted that Israel claims the Islamic University in Ga­za was a storehouse for munitions and bomb-making centre.) Such scenarios should seem ludicrous, of course, but that further underlines the fact CUPE Ontario seems to devote a lot of time and attention to anti-Is­raeli efforts. That obsession has not surprisingly led to accusations CUPE Ontario is anti-Semitic. The union denies such charges.

Another question many have is why a union that supposedly exists to fight for better wages, working conditions and other benefits for members is using its resources to take sides in a bitter, deeply complex dispute thousands of miles away. CUPE Ontario was roundly criticized several years ago for calling on learning institutions to divest themselves of Israeli investments. Mr. Ryan’s latest salvo seems more of the same.