CUPE members launch human rights claim alleging union promotes antisemitism
CTV
Almost 30 members of Canada’s largest union filed a human rights claim on Monday alleging that the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has engaged in systemic discrimination and promoted antisemitism that isolates Jewish members.
Almost 30 members of Canada’s largest union filed a human rights claim on Monday alleging that the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has engaged in systemic discrimination and promoted antisemitism that isolates Jewish members.
Carrie Silverberg, a CUPE member of 17 years, said she's endured years of mental anguish in the union, particularly when she took on an executive position in a local and started attending conventions nearly a decade ago.
“I basically felt alienated, isolated and alone,” Silverberg said on Monday, after her concerns that the antisemitism encouraged in the union were silenced, she added.
She said her wound only deepened when Hamas launched a surprise assault on Israel Oct. 7, killing thousands and taking hundreds hostage, which CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn responded with a celebratory post about the “Power of resistance.”
“It made me cry and it made me sick,” Silverberg told CTV News Toronto in a telephone interview on Monday.
After two weeks of public backlash over Hahn’s post, he apologized in an open letter on Oct. 21 and admitted the timing of it was wrong. But Silverberg called it a “false apology” that lacked sincerity. “That went through me like a knife,” she said.
“This has caused the Complainants to feel isolated, unwelcome, scared, silenced, discriminated against, threatened and harassed. All of which has been expressed to Mr. Hahn numerous times, to no avail,” the claim reads.
