CUPE Local Partners with Hate Groups on Campus

Media Release

Inspiring and empowering Canadians to raisetheir voices for freedom, democracy & human rights

MEDIA RELEASE
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Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies: CUPELocal Partners with Hate Groups on Campus

February 28, 2017 – Toronto: Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) condemns the CanadianUnion of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3902 for promoting hate propagandathrough its participation in the upcoming Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) campaign inMarch at the University of Toronto. This follows the receipt of an email from aUniversity of Toronto student and postings on social media highlighting CUPE’sleadership role in IAW.

“Themarginalization of Jewish students and the hostile atmosphere fostered duringIAW is antithetical to every lofty principle to which our institutions ofhigher learning should aspire – and yet it has been allowed to continue itsbully tactics year after year, unimpeded,” said FSWC President and CEO AviBenlolo. “However, despite the repulsive message delivered by swastikasscrawled on classroom desks, in bathrooms and on dormitory walls, and by theanti-Jewish hatred fostered by student groups and by CUPE at the University ofToronto during IAW, the Jewish community is not afraid, and FSWC will continueto lead the fight against hatred and a resurgence of antisemiticdiscrimination.”

FSWC is ready andwilling to consult with and lend all necessary resources to students andfaculty alike to help counter hate propaganda on campus.

Media Contact
StaceyL. Starkman
Director of Communications & External Relations
416.864.9735 x 32 / sstarkman@fswc.ca
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Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) is a leading Canadian non-profithuman rights foundation directly representing over 30,000 members. FSWC iscommitted to countering racism and antisemitism and to promoting theprinciples of tolerance, social justice and Canadian democratic values throughadvocacy and educational programs including workshops, Freedom Day, theSpirit of Hope Benefit, Tools for Tolerance and the widely acclaimed new Tour forHumanity. FSWC is affiliated with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, aninternational Jewish human rights organization headquartered in LosAngeles, which has won two Academy Awards, has built two Museumsof Tolerance (with a third being built in Jerusalem) and is an NGO at theUnited Nations, UNESCO, OAS, OSCE, the Council of Europe and the LatinAmerican Parliament. Visit us at www.fswc.ca