CUPE executive Hahn mulls re-election after row over video
Embattled union leader Fred Hahn says he has not decided whether to seek re-election at CUPE after its national executive board “lost confidence” in him and sought his resignation over a Facebook video post denounced as antisemitic.
“We’ll cross those bridges when we come to them,” Hahn told reporters Tuesday.
His comments came 10 days after the CUPE hierarchy conceded it could not oust Hahn as an elected national vice-president over concerns the video violated the union’s equality policy and accused him of fuelling “conflict” for refusing to resign.
The former social worker and outspoken critic of Israeli attacks on Gaza expressed dismay at lingering controversy over the video, which depicted a Jewish athlete with a Star of David arm tattoo leaping off a diving board at the Paris Olympics and turning into a bomb that explodes.
The Aug. 11 video post — which Hahn took down seven days later at the urging of CUPE national president Mike Hancock — raised concerns that its content conflates Judaism with military strikes by Israel in Gaza that have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians. The Israeli offensive was launched in the wake of the surprise attack by Hamas last Oct. 7 in which some 1,200 people in Israel were killed and more than 200 hostages were taken.
“It’s remarkable that while tens of thousands of people have lost their lives, while we have workers on strike trying to just get some fairness … we want to still talk about what I happened to post on Facebook,” he said.
“This thing that happened a couple of weeks ago, that has gotten tons of attention and so much ink spilt, and so much of your time and attention as media people is … I hope now old news,” he replied when asked if he felt the need to apologize for the video.
“People don’t participate in the Olympics on Team Christian or Team Muslim or Team Jewish, they participate from their states. I recognize that people saw that video in a way that it was not intended to be seen, and I took it down,” he said.
“What I’ve heard from our members who are Palestinian is a great deal of pain,” he added.
Hahn was appearing at a news conference in the legislature’s media studio with New Democrat MPPs Terence Kernaghan (London North Centre) and Jamie West (Sudbury), where they urged Premier Doug Ford’s government to pass “anti-scab” legislation that would ban employers from using replacement workers during strikes.
Aside from serving as a national vice-president of CUPE — a union that for years has been highly critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians — Hahn is the elected president of the union’s Ontario division. The next election for national vice-presidents is October 2025, to be held in Toronto, and for the CUPE Ontario president is in May 2026.
The Ontario arm’s executive board recently passed motions in favour of Hahn continuing as both a national vice-president and as provincial president, while calling for more training and a “greater awareness around the issues of antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism.”
As a result of the video post and the subsequent accusation from CUPE national’s executive board that it violated the union’s equality policy, Hahn has received both support and criticism from some CUPE locals, members and outside groups depending on their points of view. Hancock, CUPE’s national president, said he considered the video “antisemitic. I felt it was inappropriate.”
The equality policy states the union “should neither condone nor tolerate behaviour that undermines the dignity or self-esteem of any individual or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.”
Hahn rejected suggestions he has become a lightning rod or a distraction for the union.
“I don’t think that’s true at all,” he said.
CUPE Ontario is the subject of a human rights complaint filed last November alleging systemic discrimination and promotion of antisemitism that isolates Jewish members.