In Hindsight, Sometimes Not Giving a Shit Is the Wisest Option.

Caring runs aside passion which leads to conviction & such fuels spark-filled, friction-enducing teaching in a uni world where bums in seats & credentials are king. Care too much & they will hunt you.

I’ve been suspended from the University of Guelph (officially Guelph-Humber (GH), but Guelph-Humber is a collaboration of Guelph and Humber; students earn a Guelph degree, and they tend to take the Humber part off their resume - sorry, Humber, the truth hurts). Guelph is the senior parent and is completely responsible for the management of GH.

Since last November for the crime of hurting an antisemite and his group of fellow travellers’ feelings when I called Hamas Nazis and dared to say I stood with Israel, I have been defamed, attacked, banned, banished, ridiculed, threatened with huge fines, threatened by organizations for defamation based on something I didn’t write, had property stolen, the list is long. Yes, for calling a group designated as a terrorist org, I was also virtually called a pedophile, and the Vice Provost signed that claim. So, a big thumbs up from her.   

See the accompanying article on how the University of Guelph’s official free speech policy has been rubbished in their treatment of me. They might as well stick it in a ripped orange binder and bury it in a time capsule. It is pure disconnected optics, a deceitful effort to present them as something they have no intention of becoming, that is, practitioners and endorsers of free speech. 

I don’t think Guelph-Humber or Guelph management alone has even thought about my positive right to free speech; their thinking is very punitive. The Guelph-Humber VP (and human rights Claimant) is close with the activist accuser, and there is no question of “If you offend someone and allow it, isn’t that the essence of freedom of speech?” 

 I attempted to meet the union at the university, but they refused to meet in person or talk on the phone. Union CUPE President Fred Hahn, who thinks cartoons of Israeli divers turning into bombs that kill Palestinians are amusing and whom his members endorse almost as heartily as he endorses Hamas, with his Oct. 7 reaction being, “Let the uprising begin” is the leader of the group that is my sole and only option for legal counsel and support.

Complaints against unions fail statistically 99% of the time. They will be clear and immune from a bad faith judgement if they return one of your emails or wait till you are fired, doing nothing, and then grieve that.

If your union doesn’t like Israel or Jews, and you have anti-semitic management, and your case involves whether you have the human right to criticize Hamas, good luck to you. Those two beefy bodyguards you see that say they will support you? They will probably kill you.

The other union - OPSEU, is similar and recently adopted BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) measures. I am sure Israel is following the vote closely, or was it just symbolic to put those annoying Jews or Jew-loving members in their place? Still not as insane as that Anti-Palestinian Racism secondary training - will the UNHRA people teach it? Will there be a course on how to crash fences, will they play the game “Kill the Jews” in class, and will they assign Protocols of the Elders of Zion as reading?

Their assertion that they can separate their politics from their actions is not plausible, and I am experiencing their threadbare Jew support in my fight, a pure free speech issue, which, unfortunately for me, involves Israel. I am being squeezed between a fiercely anti-Semitic management and a lukewarm anti-Israel union that is, again, in Canada, my only permitted legal representation.

It is like getting on a plane and sitting between two 6’ 5” 400-pound landwhales who like to sprawl and eat those red Cheetos. 

Unions assure me that their politics do not affect their support of pro-Israel members. I can’t meet them on campus anyway, as Guelph/Humber threatens me with arrest and a $10,000 fine if I step foot on campus.

Neither the union nor management has answered my question about where they get the authority behind their dictates. This university is supposed to be a rule, not a “wing it” driven university; however, when you base law on the mere fact that words have left their mouth, it is beginning to sound a bit too 15th-century monarchical for me.  

But they have unlimited cash and a team of lawyers, and I will not test them.  Wow. From being the Norm on campus (anyone who watched the TV show Cheers) to being treated like a skunk that has found its home in the university and that all university forces are desperately trying to catch gives me whiplash.

A boss that took all my daughter’s fragile toys out of my office, my dad’s will and other personal items, said not a word to me, boxed them up and threw them in a closet months ago. A friendly student snitched on them and I had to threaten the police to get them back - but I am the bad guy according to the union and management. OPSEU takes the side of management about 60% of the time. They have filed one grievance that I forced them to by having to cut and paste from the rules on their own website and explain to them how it was my right to tell them what to do.

Strange how nobody agrees with OPSEU and Management on the write to handle and move my personal effects of 13 years without contacting me. Only those two; with friends like OPSEU, it makes life easy for management.

But I was raised right and have little concern with persons with broken moral compasses like these two sets. Stealing private materials without consultation was a disgusting violation of privacy and fundamentally indecent.

A fine for going on the campus where I am an employee, have worked 13 years, have never caused a disturbance other than when I brought my dogs, and have university teaching contracts for the fall makes little sense. The frustrating thing is to quote chapter and verse of their own policy on why this isn’t allowed, and their gutless counsel refuses to respond.

Indeed, asking questions of the union or management gets me about as far as when I ask my puppy why she destroyed a bag of guinea pig litter, giving our entrance that Xmas in July motif.  And management’s ears don’t go back like Malibu’s. She actually looks cute and shows some contritiion. Management growls at you and tears the bag open more.