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Toronto (May 24, 2024) – In a post shared on social media this week, an Ottawa-based staffer at the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), one of Canada's largest unions, denied widespread rape committed by Hamas, while earlier posts show him glorifying Hamas terrorism and the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel.

Responding to a post on X on the sexual violence women in Israel suffered on Oct. 7, on the same day that disturbing footage of female IDF soldiers captured by Hamas soldiers was released, Hassan Husseini, a national negotiator at PSAC, said the post spreads "already debunked claims of rape during the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7."

In a post shared on Oct. 7, shortly after the Hamas terrorist onslaught in Israel, Husseini stated, "Palestinian resistance mov’t has demonstrated 2day that Israeli settler colonialism & occupation will not last. Unity of the resistance forces & solidarity is needed now more than ever as a new stage in the war of liberation has begun."

In another post on Oct. 10, he called on a Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member to "stop your collaboration and security coordination with the Zionist occupiers and join the armed struggle to free Palestine."

While PSAC claims to work "to achieve a compassionate and inclusive society free of sexism, racism, homophobia and all other forms of discrimination," 14 of its Jewish members filed complaints with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, accusing leadership of creating a "culture of discrimination and harassment" following the Oct. 7 Hamas atrocities.

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) is outraged by PSAC's tolerance of antisemitism in the union and its failure to hold accountable those who incite hatred and violence against the Jewish community and celebrate the barbaric mass murder of civilians in Israel.

"The fact that a staff member of a major public sector union is engaging in rape denial and the glorification of terrorist violence against Jews is absolutely unacceptable," said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, FSWC Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy. "How can any woman or Jewish worker under the PSAC umbrella possibly feel safe and represented when such vile sentiments are expressed by the organization's employees. PSAC must clarify whether it stands by this staffer's statements, and if it doesn't, there must be serious consequences for his actions."

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