Restaurant staff losing their jobs for cheering on a pro-Palestinian protest. A Palestinian Canadian journalist fired for her social media posts calling for a #freepalestine. Medical residents flagged to potential hiring committees for their support of Palestinians.

These are just some of the many instances across Canada in which employees and students have faced firings, suspensions or calls for them to not be hired based on their publicly stated political stance on the Israel-Hamas war. It’s a trend that has been reported not just in Canada but also in the U.S. and Europe, and across various industries, including media, law, health care and the service sector.

According to three Ontario-based lawyers who spoke to CBC News, some employers and institutions have been quick to take action against employees or students, creating an environment in which many are afraid they will lose their jobs or face consequences to their education if they express a political stance in favour of one side — Palestinians — during this war.

“I can tell you personally, in the last month and a half, I’ve probably spoken with someone at least once a day [about this],” said Jackie Esmonde, a labour lawyer at Toronto-based firm Cavalluzzo Law. "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.

“I’m not seeing people making what I would consider hate speech or discriminatory speech.”

  • BlameThePeacock
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    7 months ago

    There’s different levels of support for Palestinians. Some are reasonable, and others are not.

    Calling for Israel to reduce it’s impact on civilians is reasonable. I saw a protest yesterday at my local mall where people were laying on the floor covering themselves in sheets to protest the killings. That’s pretty reasonable in my opinion.

    Unfortunately though, the majority of (almost 3 in 4) Palestinian civilians in Gaza support Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians on Oct 7th that killed over 800 innocent people. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/poll-shows-palestinians-back-oct-7-attack-israel-support-hamas-rises-2023-12-14/

    Being generically “pro-Palestinian” though is essentially saying you’re okay with what they support, but not Israel’s response. I find that to be unreasonable.

    • Silverseren@kbin.socialOP
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      7 months ago

      The 271 medical students discussed in one part of the article just signed a letter calling for Israel to stop bombing hospitals.

      And that led multiple pro-Israel lobbying groups to try and get the students banned from the medical field.

      • Madison_rogue@kbin.social
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        6 months ago

        And that led multiple pro-Israel lobbying groups to try and get the students banned from the medical field.

        A reasonable response; the language of the innocent. /s

      • BlameThePeacock
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        6 months ago

        And I find that unreasonable.

        Luckily, pro-Israel lobbying groups can call for whatever the fuck they want, they aren’t the ones that make the decisions on this.

        They can share whatever lists they want, the program directors are almost certain to straight up ignore them. It even says that in the fucking screenshot.

    • BlameThePeacock
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      7 months ago

      3 in 4 Palestinians in Gaza support the Oct 7 attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians. So… yea. I consider that pretty bad.

      Do they deserve to die for this? No. Violence should be minimized regardless, but it’s not entirely avoidable if you need to stop them doing it again.