Two of the most infamous peddlers of hateful anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda have been announced as the keynote speakers at an upcoming immigration conference slated to take place in September, 2025 in Niagara Falls Ontario.
The North American Refugee Health Conference (NARHC) is a non-profit organization which was founded in 2009 with the stated aim of “serving the refugee community in North America and globally,” and its September 11-13 conference at Sheraton Fallsview Hotel features a highlight of two notable speakers: Francesca Albanese and Yipeng Ge, addressing the topic of “Beyond Health Advocacy, Towards Solidarity: Lessons from Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Work in Medicine and Public Health.”
The conference’s website at one time stated that it is “endorsed” by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, though it is not made clear what exactly has been endorsed, when, and in what capacity and it’s noteworthy that the website no longer features this so-called endorsement.
Francesca Albanese is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and is well-known for spreading anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, including claiming that Jews control the United States government. She has been rebuked for engaging in antisemitism, blamed Israel for Hamas’ massacres of October 7, 2023, and has widely downplayed to the point of erasure anti-Jewish hate crimes around the world, all while cynically using Holocaust imagery to describe Gaza, both factually wrong and morally obtuse.
Perhaps most shamefully, Albanese has spoken in an official capacity at a Hamas conference, where she addressed attendees by video, telling them “you have a right to resist this occupation.” Albanese’s antisemitism has been condemned by a variety of countries, including the United States, France and Germany.
Her fellow keynote speaker, Yipeng Ge, an Ottawa physician, has made extremist anti-Israel radicalism a key part of his identity over the last 18 months. In the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ massacres, Ge signed an open letter which accused Israel of genocide, avoided any mention of the Palestinian terrorist group’s hostage-taking of 250 innocents, and in fact didn’t mention Hamas at all.
He gained notoriety in the fall of 2023 after he was briefly suspended from a medical residency at the University of Ottawa for sharing a social media post with the phrase, “from the river(s) to the sea, Palestine will be free,” widely seen as calling for the destruction of Israel.
As the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ massacres approached, Ge appeared to fully embrace the mass murder of Israelis. In post after post on his personal X (Twitter) page, Ge shared posts openly glorifying and praising Hamas’ murder of Jews, including one chilling comment (from Aidan Simardone, an immigration lawyer, no less), which stated “history will absolve The Resistance.”
Another post shared by Ge featured a Palestinian standing atop an Israeli tank on October 7, 2023, with the caption “to exist, is to resist.” What “resist” meant for the Palestinian attackers on that day was the wholesale mass murder, kidnapping, torture and rape of countless Israeli civilians.
Incredibly, not only does Ge remain a practicing physician in Ontario, he has become a cause celebre among extremist anti-Israel agitators in Canada, and now will join Albanese at the 2025 NARHC.
Promotional materials for the conference announce that “attendees will have the opportunity to share insights and ideas, bridging knowledge between novices and seasoned experts alike, while gaining fresh perspectives from colleagues worldwide,” but there is little of value that either Albanese or Ge can provide to Canadians.
Given the abhorrent and unapologetic views repeatedly made by both Albanese and Ge, it is inconceivable that either would be given a platform to spew their bile. Yet the North American Refugee Health Conference appears happy to do exactly that.
