About 50 people gathered outside the offices of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the country’s largest public-sector union, north of Toronto on Tuesday afternoon to call for the resignation of Fred Hahn as the union’s general vice president.
Hahn shared a video on social media on Aug. 11 that showed an Olympic diver with a Star of David on his arm turning into a bomb. The national officers of CUPE asked him to step down for sharing the “deeply problematic video” that was “a clear violation of our union’s equality statement.”
On Aug. 18, Hahn posted on Facebook that he had deleted the post, “which I understand caused pain for some who viewed it,” and that “I deeply regret any such reaction.” He said that he aimed to “call attention to the reality that, while the Russian Federation was barred from participating at the Paris Olympics, the state of Israel was permitted to participate—which appeared clearly to me to be a double standard.” (Russians competed at the Olympics as “individual neutral athletes.”)
He added that his “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 antisemitic, to conflate abhorrent actions by the State of Israel with Jewish humanity or identity.” In an Aug. 22 post, he wrote that “I utterly reject the charge of antisemitism” and that “anyone who knows and works with me knows it to be a lie.”
Amir Epstein, director of the grassroots group Tafsik that organized Tuesday’s protest, told JNS that the gathering was necessary “because nothing has happened to Hahn.”
“CUPE has such a long history of spreading harmful information about Israel and Jews,” he said, noting that the union’s Ontario president from 1992 to 2009 and former president of the Ontario Federation of Labour “was guilty of the exact same thing.”
“They all just keep getting away with it,” Epstein told JNS. “Hahn just never gets challenged on any of this, and it’s about time the Jewish community said, ‘We need to step up and not just complain, but be angered by it, to stand up and we’re done being silent.’”
Daniel Bordman, a local broadcaster and social media personality, attended the Toronto rally. “We all had an idea that there’s this guy’s pattern of, not just antisemitism but spreading propaganda,” he told JNS of Hahn.
“He celebrated Oct. 7, posts all kinds of anti-Israel stuff and shares this video made by the Islamic Republic of Iran in their series of crazy antisemitic, homoerotic Olympic videos,” Bordman added.
“He finally got nailed on it, had to apologize and suddenly now it’s acceptable to criticize Fred Hahn in the political sphere,” the broadcaster said. “There’s no other way to parse it.”
Bordman figures that Hahn is either “a direct pawn or a useful idiot of antisemitic groups.” (JNS sought comment from Hahn.)
‘A bully for 20 years’
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal of Canada called Hahn’s apparent mea culpa on Facebook “insincere and insufficient.”
“Given the repeated harm his words and actions have caused to the Jewish community, Hahn must be replaced by someone who can represent all CUPE members,” the advocacy group stated.
The group also commended CUPE for insisting that Hahn resign “and making it clear that antisemitism and the toxic environment he created for Jewish CUPE members are no longer acceptable.”
Before becoming president of the Ontario chapter of CUPE—which has some 300,000 out of the union’s roughly 750,000 members—in 2010, Hahn was secretary-treasurer of the Ontario group, and before that, he was a member of its executive board.
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, didn’t mince words about the longtime labor leader in a statement.
“This guy’s been a bully for 20 years,” he said. “Do you know what’s funny? I’m getting messages on my phone from CUPE members saying ‘his comments have been disgusting.’ In my opinion, he’s a disgusting human being anyways, but that’s here nor there.”
The controversial anti-Israel comments were coming from “a terrible human being” that was “unacceptable” and “bigoted,” Ford added.
‘A breeding ground for radicalization’
David Piccini, Ontario’s minister of labor and immigration, confronted Hahn publicly on Aug. 22. “You’re antisemitic,” Piccini said. “Please stop hating on Jews. … Your members deserve better. Think about how you behave.”
Posting the video “marked a particularly egregious moment in Hahn’s leadership,” stated the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “Under his watch, the union has become a breeding ground for radicalization and extremism, affecting both workplaces and campuses.”
“His promotion of radical ideologies is causing irreparable harm to CUPE’s integrity, unity and effectiveness,” it added. “His actions and statements, both online and offline, have repeatedly crossed the line from legitimate political discourse into hate speech, discrimination and antisemitism.”
“CUPE has strayed far from its core mission of representing all workers—becoming a platform for extremist ideologies that are fundamentally anti-democratic and contrary to Canadian values,” the pro-Israel group said.
‘Long live the resistance’
On Oct. 8, Hahn wrote in a since-deleted post that he was thankful for “the power of resistance around the globe.” He added that “resistance is fruitful and no matter what some might say, resistance brings progress.”
He has also reposted comments on social media accusing Israel of “war crimes,” “crimes against humanity” and “ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide” and a post that referred to Israel’s defensive war after Oct. 7 as a “Holocaust.”
Wesley Lesosky, the president of the Air Canada Component of CUPE, which represents 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants, stated last week: “Being part of our union is about being part of a team, and Fred stopped being a team player a long time ago.”
“His reckless comments last October put our members who have to travel to the Middle East as part of their flight duties in the crosshairs and he has never apologized for his role in jeopardizing their safety,” Lesosky stated. “Earlier this month, he proved he hadn’t learned a thing when he reposted a racist and antisemitic video online. That is not leadership, and that is not what we expect of leaders in our union.”
He said the “responsible” action would have been for Hahn to resign in October. “The next best thing is for him to resign today,” he added.
In his retraction for the October posts, Hahn stated that “Hamas committed a horrific terrorist attack on civilians in Israel,” adding that “on the day immediately following that, I tweeted about resistance. The timing was wrong. That was an error, and I apologize.”