CUPE’s Latest Gimmick: Just Plain Wrong
January 6th, 2009 by Julia Bolotina
Today CUPE Ontario announced that it would “CUPE Ontario’s university workers committee will bring a resolution to its annual conference supporting a ban on Israeli academics doing speaking, teaching or research work at Ontario universities…unless they explicitly condemn the university bombing and the assault on Gaza in general,” (CUPE Ontario).
Now, last I checked, Canada’s society was largely based on a little piece of paper called the “Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” And in a section curiously labelled “Fundamental Freedoms” this little piece of paper says
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
a) freedom of conscience and religion;
b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
d) freedom of association. (Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms)
I don’t know about you, but I think those are pretty important rights. And these rights, especially clause “b)” are being severely threatened by CUPE’s new resolution. They are essentially forcing academics to not only hold but publicly express a certain opinion, and threatening to take away their livelihood if they refuse. True, as a non-governmental organization CUPE is not legally bound by the charter, but it is morally bound by it, and subsequent legislation also identifies these as illegal grounds of discrimination against employees.
Legal mumbo-jumbo aside, CUPE’s proposed resolution is just plain wrong. It singles certain individuals out based on nothing but their race/place of birth, and puts them in a position where they must either potentially go against their conscience or lose their jobs. Your opinions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are irrelevant in this case. There are lots of groups that do questionable things, but it is the very basis of our society to not judge the individual on the actions of the group. To single academics out from our campuses because they belong to a certain race or had the mis/fortune to be born in a certain country is bigotry and racism. When a powerful union like CUPE does this and then forces them to hold and publicly defend a certain set of opinions is more than a little terrifying. This is bigotry. This is wrong. And this has no place in our society.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I couldn’t agree with you more. I wonder if CUPE is also banning anyone who represents Hamas or other Palestinian groups – this is pure racism.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:29 am
What gives them the right to interfere in students’ right to get education – by selecting the professors who can or cannot teach. Blackjack99 has a good point – let’s ban all the Syrian professors as well as Iranians for threatening Israel’s existence. Do we want the holy war to spread even further!?
I say disban the damned CUPE. They’ve cause too much crap at York and UofT.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I understand the conflict with the charter here. But the question is, do we want people on our campus who support bombing universities?
January 6th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Thanks for bringing this to attention. I had no idea.
January 6th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Thanks for your comments! I see your point, Aws, but there is a difference between supporting bombing and not denouncing it.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Wait… what? The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is in our constitution. It applies to everyone, to all organizations, not just to government organizations.
Unless I’m missing something huge? How can anyone be exempt from the Constitution?
January 6th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
The Constitution only binds government action. It does not bind CUPE Ontario, though it binds most of the workplaces of CUPE Ontario members.
I am considering boycotting CUPE Ontario in turn. Does anyone have a list of workplaces whose employees are affiliated with CUPE Ontario.
January 6th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Aws, it is impossible to hold a single event seperate like that. You are forgetting that Hamas uses civilian buildings to launch their bombs at Israel. Not only did Israel have intelligence that there were attacks originating from there, but there are many Palestinian witnesses who can attest to seeing rocket fire. It is unfortunate that Hamas hides behind civilians to further their extremist agenda, but to stop terrorism sometimes something like this has to happen.
The real question, I think, is not whether we want people on our campuses who support bombing universities, but rather do we want people in the head of important Canadian organisations who support extremist organisations whose only goal is to wipe an entire country off of the map, and condemn that country when it begins to defend itself?
Also, I think the terms allowing Israeli professors to stay are inherently prejudiced, not even because they single out people by their race/birthplace, but in the first place because they assume right from the start, that every Israeli feels the same way about the bombings. Even with the antisemetism aside, that in itself is prejudiced.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Torntoist seems to be stuck for content because its just reprinting your stuff.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:41 am
Although I’m not in favour of the boycott/ban, because it sounds like McCarthyism (see below) but you and most of the posters hear urgently need to know some background and some basic info:
1. This sort of thing was used successfully in the 80′s against South African apartheid, where there were multiple boycotts and bans including academics. The current ban proposal (which looks like it hasn’t passed yet) is not against “jewish” profs, but academics who are Israeli nationals (or nationals who don’t denounce the bombings that is).
2. The Charter of Rights does not apply to people who aren’t Canadian citizens. The proposed ban isn’t on Canadian citizens.
3. The Charter of Rights limits government agencies, and not businesses, organizations, etc. You are thinking of the Human Rights Code, which only applies to non-citizens in a limited way and is different in different provinces.
The problem with the ban is that is smacks of McCarthyism (at least the way it is currently drafted). In the early 50′s the US forced people to sign an oath condemning Communism. People who refused to sign it on a matter of principle were not hired for government jobs (and famously, film and TV jobs too).
Hope that helps.
Chris
January 7th, 2009 at 12:42 am
…”here” not “hear”
sorry,
chris
January 8th, 2009 at 3:01 am
Right. Thanks for the corrections.
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