The Canadian Union of Public Employees is Canada’s largest union, and has ended up in the Jihad Watch file for good reason: see HERE. York University is infamously toxic for Jews. Combine the anti-Israel efforts of both York and CUPE working together, especially after October 7, and the situation becomes nearly unbearable for Jewish students. A nightmare unfolded.

Weeks after October 7, a $15 million (CDN) class-action lawsuit was filed against York University for antisemitic incidents.

Our Managing Partner, Sandra Zisckind, discusses our $15 million Class Action Lawsuit against York University and the York Federation of Students regarding anti-Semitism. pic.twitter.com/LWUcenkbCP

— Diamond and Diamond Lawyers (@diamond_lawyers) October 26, 2023

“The allegations have not been proven in court,” according to the National Post. Of course, when a case enters a courtroom, all claims need to be proven; York University will be hard pressed to wiggle its way out of accusations of its longstanding antisemitism, which has grown to fever pitch since October 7.  In November, Global News reported that a “student group” issued an open statement “condemning Israel and defending the Palestinian right to resistance.” The university administration responded by “accusing the students of being out of step with the institution’s values.” Bear in mind that the University’s response was after the launch of the lawsuit; also, much has happened since then to demonstrate exactly what York University’s “values” really are.

The “student group” statement actually emerged only six days after the savage October 7 attack on Israel, in a York University student union “statement of solidarity with ‘Palestine.’” The statement did not even recognize Israel as a state, but instead, consistently refers to the Jewish State as “so-called Israel.” The statement began:

We the undersigned Unions present at York University reaffirm our solidarity with the Palestinian people, within Palestine and the global diaspora, and their ongoing fight against settler-colonialism, apartheid, and genocide. We vehemently condemn all forms of colonial violence and support Indigenous sovereignty. Recently, in a strong act of resistance, the Palestinian people tore down and crossed the illegitimate border fence erected by the settler-colonial apartheid state of so-called Israel….

The intimidation of Jewish students and tolerance of this intimidation by the York administration escalated. CUPE Local 3903 published a 15-page toolkit for teaching assistants at York University: “A guide for Teaching Assistants at York University on the importance of speaking about and teaching Palestine in the classroom.” The toolkit was a project of “the Education Committee CUPE 3903 Palestine Solidarity Working Group.” In other words, this was a York-sanctioned indoctrination toolkit, littered with propaganda, that would obviously serve to accelerate antisemitism on campus. In a report by CP24 News, a Jewish student describes the Toolkit’s effect on her:

Johanna Joseph says she feels nervous about wearing a necklace from her late grandmother when she goes to class at York University because it bears the symbol of the Star of David. “One of the pendants was from my late grandmother, who was a Holocaust survivor,” Joseph told CTV News Toronto in an interview. “Whenever I enter classrooms, I, you know, take it off. I get very nervous.” Joseph is part of Hillel York, a Jewish student group that feels targeted at school after “A Toolkit for Teaching Palestine” started to circulate……

That same student government has since hosted prominent activists who have been known to go on antisemitic rants, with one such diatribe rooted in a modern manifestation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

In the toolkit, particularly notable is the  claim that “Palestine is everyone’s issue.”

The truth is that support for the Palestinian jihad has become a woke issue. Absurdly, the toolkit calls “Palestine” a “feminist” issue, when it’s no secret how women are treated in Islam as inferiors, as sanctioned in Islamic texts.

According to Human Rights Watch:

Women’s rights groups have pushed for a comprehensive domestic violence law since 2007 and the Palestinian Authority has been reviewing a draft Family Protection Law since 2016. Ikhlas Sufan, who directs a shelter for victims of violence in Nablus, told Human Rights Watch in 2018 that domestic violence continues because “there are no legal or social deterrents” and the abuser “knows he can get away with it.”.

Gays are worse off than women — endangered in the Palestinian regions. The movement “Queers for Palestine” shows the pervasive lack of knowledge among woke activists. Women, gays and in fact every minority group live in peace in Israel, not in the Palestinian territories.

The lawsuit against York is packed with solid evidence. As for CUPE, it, too, needs to be challenged to remain within the boundaries of its duties and responsibilities to those it represents. CUPE must be forced to keep out of foreign politics that incites violence and hatred against its Jewish workers and Jewish students on campus. Those who support the State of Israel and reject antisemitism are also opposed to CUPE’s overreach.