The president of CUPE Ontario is under fire from some of the union’s Jewish members for reposting a social media post on Facebook.
Fred Hahn shared a video Sunday of a diver at the Paris Games. It shows the athlete with a prominent Star of David on their arm jumping off the diving board before turning into a bomb that drops on innocent civilians. The narrator in the video calls the diver an ‘Olympic champion.’
“I was horrified at the end. I started to cry at the time, even just thinking about it makes me want to cry because this is his view of Jewish people,” said Carrie Silverberg, a Local 1734 executive member who lives in the GTA.
Hahn is also CUPE’s national vice president, representing 750,000 members across Canada.
“It feels like a personal attack against me and my entire community,” Silverberg explained.
“To see the president of my union, where I pay union dues for this organization to supposedly support me, promote what’s in my best interest, make my work environment better, to do this? How is this doing anything for employment?”
CUPE Ontario said in an email Wednesday, “Fred Hahn declines to provide comment to CTV about a post made on his personal Facebook account.”
Silverberg is one of 30 CUPE members who filed a human rights complaint against the union in November, alleging it engaged in systemic discrimination and promoted antisemitism that isolates Jewish members.
“It is simply a divisive, ugly, vile video that goes against the values of the Olympics,” said Richard Marceau with The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Ottawa.
“I think it’s up to CUPE to say to Fred Hahn, enough is enough. This hatred, this vileness, this toxicity is unacceptable from any member of CUPE leadership, and he should be penalized for this.”
Marceau said he expects a union president to respect every member, and the post of the diver makes things worse for Jewish people in Canada at a time when antisemitism is at sky-high levels.
Other Jewish Ontario CUPE members told CTV News Toronto that sharing the post impacts the workplace.
“It’s become such an unsafe environment. They focus so much on geopolitical events and issues when they should be focusing on labour-related issues that impact the employees of Ontario. That’s where the focus should be,” said Lauren Frankel.
“When people see this, they take that as something valid, as information that’s true, and what he’s doing is he’s portraying Jewish people as the villains,” said Paula Haras. “It’s very isolating, it’s very scary.”
CTV News Toronto also contacted CUPE’s national executive for comment, but has yet to receive a reply.