Canadian Union of Public Employees - Disinvestment From Israel and Boycott

Disinvestment From Israel and Boycott

Main article: CUPE Ontario and disinvestment from Israel See also: Academic boycotts of Israel and Disinvestment from Israel

In May 2006, the Ontario wing of CUPE voted unanimously to pass a resolution to support the “international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until that state recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination.”

CUPE National responded to the Ontario resolution by stating that: "CUPE National respects the right of its chartered organizations to take a stand on all issues. As a national union we are governed by policy resolutions adopted at our national conventions. And as such, we will not be issuing a call to our local unions across Canada to boycott Israel."

The United Church of Canada's Toronto Conference has expressed support for CUPE's position as did the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians (now Independent Jewish Voices (Canada). Columnist Lysiane Gagnon in the Toronto Globe and Mail and the editors of the Canadian Jewish News took issue with some CUPE leaders comparisons between Israel's policies and South Africa's apartheid system.Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League labelled CUPE's action as "deplorable and offensive." The Ontario regional director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Steven Schulman, characterized the vote as "outrageous."

In January 2009, CUPE Ontario's University Workers Coordinating Committee proposed a resolution banning Israeli academics from speaking, teaching or researching at Ontario universities. CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan stated that "Israeli academics should not be on our campuses unless they explicitly condemn the university bombing and the assault on Gaza in general." Ryan argued that the resolution was a reasonable response to Israel's attack on the Islamic University, which he likened to the torching of books by Nazis during the Second World War. Ryan subsequently apologized for making the comparison.

The resolution was criticized by Leo Rudner of the Canadian Jewish Congress, who stated "I think it's ironic individuals who speak about freedom of speech jump to the opportunity to take that freedom away from other individuals."

Paul Davenport, President of the University of Western Ontario stated that his university will not participate in any boycott of Israeli academics.

CUPE's national president, Paul Moist, issued a statement declaring that the resolution "would violate the anti-discrimination standards set out in the CUPE Constitution and that "I will be using my influence in any debates on such a resolution to oppose its adoption." CUPE Ontario subsequently removed its call to boycott individual academics from its website with a statement that "this is not a call to boycott individual Israeli academics. Rather, the boycott call is aimed at academic institutions and the institutional connections that exist between universities here and those in Israel." Despite his initial statements, Ryan later stated that he agreed with Moist and that the original resolution calling for boycotts of all Israeli academics who did not condemn Israeli military tactics was wrong. He defended the new resolution which he stated "broadens and deepens" a 2006 resolution on Israel to support a campaign of economic boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel for its occupation of Gaza. Ryan also stated that CUPE will investigate whether its pension plans are investing in companies developing weapons in Israel.

On February 22, 2009, CUPE's university workers committee passed a version of the original resolution which called for members at Ontario universities to boycott working with Israeli institutions doing research that benefits that nation's military, but not individual academics. The resolution was intended to protest Israel's military action in the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict"

Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), claimed the resolution was discriminatory and anti-Semitic. B'nai Brith Canada called it "discriminatory and racist."

CUPE 3903 spokesperson Tyler Shipley said his local would be supporting the boycott, and that it would be "unconscionable for us not to take some sort of action."

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the resolution "intolerant" while his Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism claimed that CUPE was "singling out and targeting the Jewish democratic state of Israel for opprobrium." Opposition Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff wrote an op/ed piece which stated that his party "condemns the CUPE resolution in the strongest possible terms."