Support GoFundMe to Shed Sunlight on Institutional Academic Anti-Semitism

(GoFundMe not started by me)

For those who have been following my fight against the University of Guelph-Humber, a kind member of the Jewish community has, entirely on her own initiative, started a GoFundMe campaign to help me continue seeking accountability and public awareness.

The goal is modest: to raise $25,000 to hire a professional public relations firm.

After more than two years of fighting, I have come to a difficult conclusion. The traditional avenues available to challenge what happened to me are rapidly narrowing.

A Superior Court action may ultimately be beyond my means. While I believe I have a strong defamation case, litigation against multiple publicly funded institutions could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and drag on for years. Even a successful outcome would require enduring years of additional litigation, financial risk, and psychological strain.

The Human Rights Tribunal presents its own challenges. My primary avenue now is the Ontario Labour Relations Board, where I continue to fight largely alone against institutions with enormous resources.

So far, I have been denied again a chance to speak, the Board has allowed the institutions to delay it for months, and the Board has refused to schedule a hearing.

While one might think that the Board would be sympathetic to David in this David-versus-Goliath battle, the opposite is true; they defer to lawyers, unions and institutions.

On the other side are the University of Guelph-Humber, Humber College, the University of Guelph, OPSEU, and CUPE. Together they have assembled a legal team that includes at least seven lawyers. By the time this is over, they may spend millions of dollars fighting me—in an era of declining enrollment, budget pressures, and staff cuts.

The obvious question is: why?

If this were merely about severance, they could have resolved this matter long ago for a small fraction of what they are spending.

Instead, they have chosen war.

My story began with a private conversation.

I stated that I stood with Israel and that Hamas are Nazis to a man living on another continent who had no affiliation whatsoever with the University of Guelph-Humber, Humber College, or the University of Guelph.

No student received the message.

No staff member received the message.

No university employee received the message.

Yet that private communication became the basis for a suspension, a campus ban, the destruction of my professional reputation, and ultimately the loss of my career.

What followed was not a fair process. It was, in my view, a predetermined one.

Perhaps the most shocking part occurred on the very day I was suspended.

Before I had received charges.

Before I had been given an opportunity to defend myself. (which never arrived and which I still seek.)

My union, OPSEU 562, informed me that calling Hamas Nazis was a hate crime and ultimately refused to represent me despite the thousands of dollars in dues I had paid over the years.

At the time, I had taught at the University of Guelph-Humber for 13 years.

I had an impeccable record.

I had written textbooks for my courses.

I routinely received outstanding student evaluations.

I was deeply committed to my students and my profession.

I worked hard. I minded my business. I stayed late. I did my job.

Yet on the very day I was suspended, senior management began circulating allegations carrying criminal implications throughout the workplace before I had even been informed of the allegations against me.

These allegations were never formally charged.

They were never proven.

They were allowed to circulate for nearly two years before the institution ultimately acknowledged that they were unfounded.

By then, the damage had already been done.

Anyone who understands defamation understands a simple truth: the retraction never catches up to the accusation.

The purpose of such allegations is not merely to persuade. It is to poison the atmosphere. It is to isolate the target. It is to ensure that colleagues, staff, and students view a person through a lens of suspicion before any evidence is ever examined.

It is easy to fire a man whose reputation you have already destroyed.

I believe that is exactly what happened to me.

What makes this even more troubling is the contrast in treatment.
While I was being investigated, suspended, and ultimately terminated after condemning Hamas and expressing support for Israel, others were permitted to engage in rhetoric about Jews and Israel that would have triggered immediate action had the political positions been reversed.

They praised Hamas, called zionists devil worshippers, subhuman, put Hitler moustaches on Jews, and posted maps with Israel removed. The university’s own social media called for Israel’s destruction.

That contrast speaks for itself.

Four weeks after suspension, banishment, defamation and gagging, I received a bizarre human rights complaint from a complete stranger - but unfortunately, this stranger was the new functional president of the university.

It was a ludicrous, incoherent rant alleging that the safety of the entire student body was at risk because I called Hamas Nazis. It echoed the “safety risk” defamation that began on day one and has been repeated in public tribunals by counsel for my accuser.

Unfortunately, the accuser, Melanie Spence Ariemma, was not merely the accuser; as the functional president, she was the judge, jury and executioner.

I never had a chance.

My union, OPSEU Local 562, did not defend me. They hate Israel and are not shy to say it.

Their own executives have been found to have expressed wistful dreams of wishing they were alive when Hitler lived, so they could participate in his genocidal nightmare.

(Of course they are not fired for this, but they support firing someone for calling Hamas Nazis, the irony is rich)

Before I even knew the allegations against me, union representatives were already characterizing me as having committed a hate-related offence because I had called Hamas Nazis.

After years of paying union dues, I found myself abandoned precisely when I needed representation the most.

That is why this fundraiser exists.

It will not restore my reputation or get my job back. When lies like that are said about me at an institution, it doesn’t matter whether they’re true; the allegations themselves make the professor unemployable.

The goal is:

Not to harass anyone.
Not to intimidate anyone.
Not to exaggerate anything.

The facts are serious enough on their own.

This fundraiser is about sunlight.

It is about hiring professional public relations assistance so that a story that powerful institutions would prefer to remain hidden can receive broader public attention.

It is about asking why publicly funded institutions are willing to spend extraordinary sums fighting a former professor rather than simply allowing the facts to be examined in public.
It is about asking why support for Israel became grounds for professional destruction.

It is about asking why those who condemn Hamas are treated more harshly than those who demonize Jews or advocate for the elimination of the Jewish state.

Most of all, it is about accountability.

The court of public opinion is often the only court available to ordinary people when institutions possess virtually unlimited resources, and taxpayers fund the lawyers on the other side.

I have managed to attract some attention through my Substack, independent media, Fox News, The Times of Israel, and other outlets. But professional assistance could help ensure that this story reaches a much larger audience.

My story is largely unknown. Canadian media like the CBC and the Globe and Mail will never cover a pro-Israel voice.

The best disinfectant, though, is sunlight.

If you contribute, you are helping fund public scrutiny, public accountability, and professional efforts to bring this story into the open.

You are helping challenge institutions that, in my view, have failed both academic freedom and basic fairness.

You are helping shine light where powerful organizations would prefer darkness.

And you are helping ensure that those who stand with Israel—or who simply refuse to remain silent in the face of antisemitism—know that they are not alone. For the majority of people who live a life untormented and affected by Jew hatred, the academic world may seem foreign, but it is the future, and the degree of normalized Jew hatred in the union movement and academia is real and frightening.

I am not a Jew, I am a Christian. The record of Christians toward Jews is appauling. I cannot change the world, but I can stand up against the monstrous evil that is anti-Semitism.

Thank you for your support. Join me. Please reshare this if you support it.

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