The Public Service Alliance of Canada is one of the largest unions in the country with almost 240,000 workers, and promises its members that it “strives to enhance its members’ quality of life and has been at the front of a variety of significant and successful campaigns for workplace and human rights, including the struggle for equal pay, enhanced workplace health and safety and the rights of same sex spouses.”
Apparently falling within that mandate is to also spread vicious anti-Israel propaganda, as evidenced in an April 11 press release by the group entitled: “PSAC reiterates call for an immediate arms embargo on Israel,” which peddled dangerous and unfounded allegations against the Jewish State.
The press release began by claiming that “despite the January 19 ceasefire, the indiscriminate bombing of the civilian population of Gaza has resumed.” PSAC seems entirely unaware that the January 19 ceasefire ended on March 18, and did not continue precisely because – according to US negotiators – Hamas negotiated in bad faith.
Moreover, the accusation that Israel’s counter-terrorism operations are “indiscriminate” is simply ignorant. “Indiscriminate” means random, and Israel’s operations have been extraordinarily focused and precise, all the more remarkable given Hamas’ widespread use of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure for its terrorism.
Darkly, the PSAC statement continued by stating that it “urgently renews its call for the Government of Canada to impose an immediate arms embargo on Israel.” While Israel does not rely on weaponry shipped from Canada for its self-defence, the demand for an arms embargo on Israel, at its logical conclusion, calls for Israel to be stripped of its inalienable right to defend itself against genocidal terrorist groups like Hamas which seek the destruction of the Jewish State.
Despite PSAC’s concluding statement that it seeks the “safety for both Palestinians and Israelis,” the union made zero mention of Hamas or Palestinian terrorists, nor a word about the 59 hostages being kept by Hamas in Gaza, a silence so deafening that it makes a mockery of the group’s supposed concern about “both” peoples. Despite failing to advocate for the release of Israel’s hostages, PSAC peddled an egregious falsehood by claiming that Israel “abduct(s) Palestinian civilians” and therefore takes hostages.
No less egregiously, in its press release, PSAC wrote that “Canada has an obligation to prevent the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza – which extends to the rest of Palestinian territories.”
To anti-Israel activists, the word “genocide” has been robbed of all meaning. Genocide refers to the deliberate destruction of a people, which by no metric whatsoever can be used to describe Israel’s counter-terrorism operations in Gaza or elsewhere.
Hamas, conversely, is proudly and indisputably genocidal, promising to destroy the Jewish State through violence and, as evidenced in its decades of terrorism, most notably on October 7, 2023, the group has deliberately targeted innocent civilians to be murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped.
Importantly, in 2024, Jewish members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) took their union to Canada’s human rights tribunal, accusing their leadership of creating a “culture of discrimination and harassment” in the wake of the Oct. 7 Israel terror attacks and a creating a hostile environment for Jewish workers.
While PSAC claimed in an April 30 release that it: “…reaffirms its commitment to… oppose antisemitism and all forms of hate in our workplaces, our union, and our communities” and that it will “soon launch new training tools for union leaders focused on identifying, addressing, and preventing antisemitism in our workplaces and within PSAC, including resources to help all members recognize and oppose antisemitism, fostering safer and more supportive environments for everyone,” ultimately, these words seem like empty rhetoric.
While PSAC’s mandate is to fight for the well-being of its members, it has evidently decided – alongside other unions like CUPE and CAPE – to devote energies to spreading vile anti-Israel disinformation. It is critical that PSAC is held accountable for holding its 240,000 members hostage to its extremist anti-Israel agenda.
