On Oct. 8, 2023, one day after the Hamas terror attack on Israel, Fred Hahn—the president of Ontario’s chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)—wrote a tweet on his social media account: “I’m thankful for the power of workers, the power of resistance around the globe. Because #Resistance is fruitful and no matter what some might say, #Resistance brings progress, and for that, I’m thankful.” It was a controversial post, due to the timing, though Hahn denies he was referring to Oct. 7—even though the longtime labour leader has a history of pro-Palestinian activism, and CUPE Ontario has long come under fire for years for harbouring antisemitic sentiments. For Carrie Silverberg, it was the last straw. The Vaughan, Ont. woman–who is a CUPE member as required by her job in a public school board–decided to take Hahn, and the union to court. The education worker is the lead plaintiff in a human rights complaint filed with Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal. Her case was also joined by nearly 80 other union members. For years, Silverberg has fought to change her union’s anti-Israel policies; it makes her sick that CUPE uses her mandatory membership dues to support anti-Israel boycotts, calls to renew UNRWA funding, and standing with the recent encampments on university grounds. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, Carrie Silverberg joins to explain why she’s in for a long legal fight.

What we talked about:

• Read more about CUPE Ontario’s adoption of a pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions policy in 2006, in The CJN
• Learn about the time a CUPE local at the University of Toronto hosted a speaker who had been ordered to be deported from Canada because of his ties to the PFLP terrorist organization, in The CJN
• CUPE members supported and participated in the U of T encampment in May, in The CJN.

**Credits: **

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

On July 19, the International Court of Justice in The Hague demanded Israel leave the disputed territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, after occupying them since 1967. The UN’s high court also instructed Israel to repay Palestinian residents an untold sum for taking natural resources, segregating the Palestinians, forcing Palestinian families to flee their homes due to settler violence, transferring Israeli Jews into the area illegally and unlawfully turning what was once a legal postwar military occupation into a de-facto civilian annexation full of settlements. The ruling was the first time the UN’s highest court has ruled on the legality of Israel’s control of the area, which it captured 57 years ago from Jordan, during the Six-Day War. Israel immediately rejected the court’s non-binding ruling, asking how Jews could be occupying land that historically belong to the Jewish people. The Canadian government officially “took note” of the ruling but has said nothing further. So today, we ask: Is the ICJ declaration a game-changer for the Palestinian cause? Or is it, as some of the dissenting judges and critics have said, just another one-sided, politically motivated attack by the UN on Israel while the Jewish state fights for its survival against Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and other nearby enemies? On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we unpack the latest ICJ findings with two guests: Ben Murane, the executive director of the New Israel Fund of Canada, and Arsen Ostrovsky, who just wrapped a week of meetings in Canada as the CEO of the International Legal Forum, an Israeli-based NGO that uses courts to defend Israel around the world.

What we talked about:

• Read the International Court of Justice advisory opinion
• Learn more about the International Legal Forum and the New Israel Fund of Canada
• Hear what the January 2024 ICJ ruling on Israel’s war in Gaza means, from human rights lawyer Tamara Kronis, on The CJN Daily

**Credits: **

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Fredericton's annual LGBTQ pride parade wound its way through the New Brunswick capital on July 21—with the Fredericton Palestine Solidarity group leading the event as grand marshals. The march went ahead despite the mayor and provincial lieutenant-governor pulling out due to the event's distinctly political tone.

Local Jewish leaders and groups, meanwhile, tried to keep the parade apolitical and convince sponsors to boycott it. The parade has become the latest anti-Zionist flashpoint in Fredericton since Oct. 7, after at least three hate crimes against Jews have occurred in the past few months. A synagogue was vandalized before a Holocaust remembrance event; an Israeli high school girl was badly beaten by a Muslim classmate, with charges pending; and, most recently, a large rock was thrown through the apartment windows of an Israeli man studying at the University of New Brunswick.

And so, on today's episode of The CJN Daily, we ask: What's going on in Fredericton? To hear some answers, we're joined by Ayten Kranat, a leader of the city's Sgoolai Israel congregation, and by the Israeli UNB student who was targeted because he displayed his Israeli flag in the window of his off-campus apartment.

What we talked about:

• Why Pride events in Fredericton and Newfoundland became the centre of controversy after organizers chose to appoint Palestinian community groups as parade marshalls, in The CJN.
• Fredericton police arrest a high school student after Israel classmate attacked and beaten, in The CJN.
• How the wider community turned out in solidarity after Fredericton synagogue vandalized, in The CJN.

**Credits: **

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.