CUPE president silences members who call her out for wearing keffiyeh

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Some members of a Toronto-area public sector union say it has become an unsafe space for Jews after their union president wore a keffiyeh during a video meeting and then muted fellow union members who raised objections to her “political” attire.

The news comes as the Ontario legislature is embroiled in a fractious debate about whether the keffiyeh — a traditional scarf often worn by Palestinians — is acceptable clothing to wear within Queen’s Park.

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On April 17, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 905 members held a video meeting to discuss remote-work policies; the union represents 6,000 municipal government and library workers across York Region and neighbouring New Tecumseth, Ont.

Members, some of whom are not Jewish, told National Post they were alarmed when they spotted union president Katherine Grzejszczak’s laptop adorned with a large Palestinian flag sticker facing the audience. The overt political display prompted at least one member to change their display picture to an Israeli flag with a statement supporting the Jewish State.

In videos of the meeting shared with National Post, Grzejszczak goes from wearing a black T-shirt to coming back on screen with a flowing red keffiyeh.

“I put up my hand, and I said I would like to speak to the fact that what you’re wearing is a political statement, and it makes me feel very uncomfortable,” one union member told National Post. “And then, before I really could get any words out, she mutes me.”

Grzejszczak told participants that “we’re not allowed to talk about anything political,” according to a video recording of the meeting.

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The union member then manually unmuted herself.

“By you putting on that scarf, you’re making it political,” she said.

Grzejszczak muted her once again.

When the person who was supposed to represent us all wears clothing that has roots linked with terrorism, we do not feel safe or represented

In an email to the Post, Grzejszczak defended her decision to wear the scarf, saying “part of Israel’s military occupation, apartheid and genocide … is the erasing of cultural symbols such as the keffiyeh.”

“Intimidating and harassing individuals for wearing traditional cultural clothing is a form of racism … we do not tolerate racism in union meetings,” she wrote.

The scarf has come to symbolize solidarity with Palestinians, but its ubiquity in anti-Israel protests since Hamas’s October 7 attacks has made it a divisive symbol for many of Israel’s supporters.

CUPE 905 members spoke to National Post on the condition of anonymity because they feared they would lose their jobs by speaking publicly. “We’re all very afraid of the repercussions,” the first source said.

Several colleagues confirmed the series of events and said Grzejszczak opened the next meeting the following day, April 18, by declaring that any discussion of her keffiyeh was prohibited. Later in the April 18 meeting, Grzejszczak introduced a motion for funding her candidacy for another union position. Her campaign, according to a copy of Grzejszczak’s pitch to members seen by National Post, centres on the concept of “resistance.”

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“Without resistance there is no union. A union is about caring for each other and struggling together for better,” it reads. “When you stand up to injustice I want to be there with you, because together we have the courage to never back down. I hope to serve as your Member At Large. And, let’s never forget — free Palestine!”

At the April 18 meeting, a different union member asked Grzejszczak to explain her message.

“Yes, I believe that Palestinians should be free from occupation, free from living under apartheid, and free from genocide and I will always stand for that. Being a union leader, when you are seeing people being massacred, that is a time when you need to open up your mouth and speak and say that is wrong — just like I stand with the rights of workers — I will always stand by the rights of oppressed people,” Grzejszczak said.

Several Jewish members expressed their opposition to this message, and Grzejszczak accused the concerned participants of not understanding their own misgivings.

“I do not agree that this is something that has to do with not representing our Jewish members. Frankly, tying a genocide to Jewish people is offensive; some of the folks that are fighting the hardest against what is happening in the State of Israel are Jewish folks … so I do not agree that this is somehow not about representing Jewish (people),” Grzejsczak said.

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Four CUPE 905 members said that since the October 7 atrocities committed by Hamas, Grzejszczak has yet to reference the hostages taken by the Palestinian terror group, attacks on Israeli civilians or spiking antisemitism in Canada.

“I don’t feel it’s a safe place for Jewish people,” the second source said.

Following Grzejszczak’s comments in the April 18 meeting, a female participant in the meeting wearing a black keffiyeh pledged her support for the president’s candidacy and elaborated, at length, upon the importance of Free Palestine and the history of the conflict.

The first source said that at that point she spoke up.

“I was silenced for this topic. She is being political. Why is she not being muted?” the source told the meeting.

In response, she was muted.

Other union members expressed frustration that a labour forum dedicated to public-sector workers in York Region was being commandeered for political purposes about a conflict thousands of miles away.

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“It’s so bad that you can’t even concentrate on labour because this is ongoing, all the time,” the second source said.

Sources told National Post they feel that if other groups had raised concerns about feeling safe, the union would have been more responsive, and that a double standard was applied to Jews.

“Our union president speaks of inclusive spaces, but without Jewish perspectives,” a third source said in an email. “When the person who was supposed to represent us all wears clothing that has roots linked with terrorism, we do not feel safe or represented. Her personal views should not represent our union views.”

Lisa McLeod, an Ontario MPP and supporter of the ban on the keffiyeh at Queen’s Park, said she was “not surprised union leaders would step over the line.

“What we did in the Ontario legislature was make sure that our Jewish members and our Jewish constituents feel safe and able to debate with merit rather than props,” McLeod told National Post. “I would suggest that, given the class action lawsuits that I’ve seen crop up across the province as a result of anti-Semitism in some of the unions, union leaders should be more cognizant of the harm that they may be doing to people’s mental health.”

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