Why is Ontario CUPE organizing a rally in support of Iran?

An accompanying social media post called for “building and preserving unity in confronting Zionism” and pledged support for the Palestinian and Iranian people, and “all people across the world who continue to resist imperialist and Zionist domination.”

The lead sponsor of the event, it turns out, is the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). The union drew immediate criticism and condemnation from politicians, the media and many of its own members.

The flyer was taken down, and CUPE issued a statement saying it was “an early unapproved draft version” and that an approved flyer “would be shared shortly.”

However, they have issued no such new version, and the demonstration is going ahead.

The mishandling of promotional material for such an obviously contentious event (if it was mishandled, which I question), should alone raise alarm bells about CUPE’s leadership. But the fact that the union is involved in this event at all is beyond the pale.

Iran has the world‘s worst human rights record, and a well-known history of torturing and murdering its dissidents, raping female prisoners, persecuting minorities and sponsoring terrorism around the world.

It is also famously opposed to organized labour, and CUPE itself has previously condemned the Iranian regime for persecuting labour activists.

So why is Ontario CUPE organizing a rally in support of Iran, a country recognized by Canada (and others) as a state supporter of terrorism? Does it hate Jews so much that it would ally itself with a regime that, other than antisemitism, opposes everything the union ostensibly stands for?

For years, I have had Jewish union members complaining to me about antisemitism in their unions, particularly public sector ones. This dramatically exacerbated after Oct. 7 when unions, along with universities and the radical left, organized and came out to support the pro-Hamas rallies that ubiquitously took over Canadian streets.

Their Jewish members, unsurprisingly, felt discriminated against, disenfranchised by their unions’ public position supporting groups calling for their extermination.

Remember, CUPE’s legal obligation is to represent its members, not discriminate against them. Similarly, as unions conducted DEI seminars, Jewish members felt excluded — not only because the seminars failed to recognize them as a group that, according to Statistics Canada, experienced dramatically more discrimination than any other, but because the DEI trainers characterized Jews as residing at the top of the hierarchical pyramid, part of the “white oppressor class.”

This is similar to the experience of Jewish employees compelled to attend corporate DEI seminars with the same anti-semitic messaging, but seemed even worse because their unions were ostensibly there to protect them against just such discrimination.

Ontario CUPE’s sponsorship of this weekend’s rally supporting Iran takes this to ludicrous heights. Why are unions permitted to use their Jewish members’ monies to oppress them and to organize around a regime that poses such an obvious existential threat?

CUPE and its leader, Fred Hahn, are already being sued by Jewish members for antisemitic conduct. That lawsuit has obviously not dissuaded them.

This is the same Fred Hahn who tweeted his support of Oct. 7 at the time, and the same CUPE that asked one of its locals at York University to hijack their classes and teach on “Israeli oppression” instead.

We do not see CUPE or other unions concerning themselves with states that have no democratic foundation at all and routinely violate human rights. If they did, the world’s most egregious violator is Iran. What is telling is that, when it came time to put its foot on the scale to either fight discrimination or support antisemitism, CUPE came out unequivocally in favour of the latter.

Unions receive taxpayer subsidies and compulsory union dues, ostensibly for the purpose of assisting them in their collective bargaining.

One can understand how some expenses beyond those of strict collective bargaining can be justifiable, such as lobbying for worker-friendly political parties, or on behalf of causes supportive of workers’ collective bargaining gains.

But supporting Hamas or Iran, beyond discriminating against some of their members, cannot possibly assist unions in obtaining higher wages, benefits or other terms of employment for their members, which is a unions’ legal purpose, Yet there is no legal restraint on unions’ spending membership and taxpayer money on whatever their hearts desire.

This is not only of concern to union members but to taxpayers, since we all subsidize unions. Union dues are tax deductible, and strike pay and union investment funds are not taxed.

So, what can be legally done?

Legislation should be passed limiting money obtained from compulsory union dues or government tax subsidies to non-collective bargaining purposes and have that be audited. If unions wish to spend money for other purposes, it should only use funds collected from their members voluntarily for those purposes. Ideally, CUPE would know that if it were the law, virtually no member would contribute their wages for such union picadilloes.

As for the aggrieved union members, they should organize to decertify CUPE for a union that does not violate its obligations to them. In the meantime, expose the union’s behaviour on social media, organize against it, make clear that they will not participate in its activities and will continue to work if CUPE calls a strike.

They could also commence a lawsuit, potentially a class-action one, against the union for intentional infliction of mental stress, conspiracy to injure, intimidation and defamation.

Another option is to petition the union to cease its activities, and, if they do not receive a response, publish the letters on social and other media. They could also file an application with the labour relations board, on the grounds that the union has breached its duty of fair representation in a manner that was discriminatory and in bad faith toward Jewish members.

There are remedies. It is past time to utilize them and for government to pass the necessary legislation.