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Veteran labour leader Fred Hahn has been ousted from the national executive board of the Canadian Union of Public Employees a year after he refused to quit for posting a video denounced as antisemitic.
Demands for Hahn’s resignation came from the CUPE board, which said it had “lost confidence” in him over the controversial video on his Facebook page at the height of the Israel-Hamas war. He later took it down, citing “deep regret.”
Hahn was defeated in elections at a Toronto convention and is no longer Ontario vice-president of the national union, although he remains president of CUPE Ontario, a separate but related organization he had led since 2010.
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He lost to Dawn Bellerose, a developmental services worker from the Sault Ste. Marie area who also serves as a third vice-president under Hahn at the union’s Ontario arm.
Hahn declined comment Friday, referring questions to the union’s communications department about his defeat and whether he will run for re-election as president of CUPE Ontario at its convention next May.
“At the 2025 national convention, members exercised their right to vote on a range of important issues and leadership positions” said a brief statement noting five other regional vice-presidents were replaced in last week’s voting.
The statement did not address Hahn’s plans for next May’s election and Bellerose did not reply to questions from the Star, including whether she is seeking to challenge Hahn for the presidency of CUPE Ontario, which represents 309,000 members.
CUPE national president Mark Hancock — who was re-elected at the convention earlier this month — and his executive board urged Hahn to step down in September 2024, maintaining the video he posted was “inappropriate” and in violation of the union’s equity policies.
Hahn refused to quit, saying, “I utterly reject the charge of antisemitism.” CUPE acknowledged there were no provisions in its constitution to remove an elected official.
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The digitally manipulated video Hahn posted in August 2024 showed 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.
It was criticized by a number of CUPE locals, who also called for a focus on labour issues facing the union and its members.
Hahn has been an outspoken critic of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in the wake of an Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas .
He took the video down a week after it was posted, stating “it is a terrible mistake, and antisemitic, to conflate abhorrent actions by the state of Israel with Jewish humanity or identity.”
CUPE Ontario has been the subject of a human rights complaint alleging systemic discrimination and promotion of antisemitism that isolates Jewish members.
Hahn has previously apologized for a statement celebrating Palestinian resistance the day after the Hamas attack. He acknowledged “the timing was wrong.”
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