Individuals expressing support for Palestine in Canada face job firing

Ottawa (Quds News) – Individuals expressing their solidarity with the Palestinian people during the ongoing Israeli genocide campaign are being fired from their jobs and facing persecution, the country’s public broadcaster reported on Friday.
This trend is not unique to Canada and is observed in other countries, including the US and Europe, affecting various sectors like services, education, healthcare, law, and media.
Jackie Esmonde, a labor lawyer at Cavalluzzo Law in Toronto, disclosed that she has encountered numerous cases in the past month and a half, with around eight to ten currently under active consideration. These instances do not primarily involve hate speech or support for terrorism.
“They’re not always cases that we take on, but we do have in the range of eight to 10 cases that we’re actively working on at the moment.”
The University of Ottawa suspended Dr. Yipeng Ge in November for a social media post expressing, “From the River to the sea, Palestine will be free,” interpreting it as advocating the “ethnic cleansing of Jewish people from Israel.”
Other individuals have faced job suspensions for using terms like “genocide” and “apartheid” to characterize Israel’s atrocities.
A group of 650 lawyers, law students, and professors across Canada published an open letter in November, highlighting a “chilling effect” on freedom of expression since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7.
Lawyers interviewed by CBC noted no awareness of consequences for social media posts supporting Israel. Employees at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies also reported being instructed to report students critical of Israel.