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Fred Hahn
Fred Hahn has promoted incitement and expressed support for terrorists, including Hamas after they murdered 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023. Hahn has also honored a domestic terrorist, equated Israel with Nazi Germany, spread hatred of Israel and engaged in anti-Israel activism.
Hahn spoke [slide 6] in support of the pro-Hamas encampment at the University of Toronto (UofT) in May 2024 at a protest next to the encampment. He also showed support for the encampment by signing on to a statement put out by UofT community members in May 2024 [row 62, first photo]. The May 20, 2024 statement was part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
To show support for the statement, Hahn submitted a “support selfie,” which showed him with a raised fist and holding a sign that said: “Disclose & Divest.”
In May 2024, Hahn was elected to a new term as president of CUPE Ontario, a position he had held since 2010. CUPE Ontario describes itself as “the political wing of the Canadian Union of Public Employees [CUPE]—Canada’s largest union.”
As of August 2024, Hahn was also listed online as a general vice-president on CUPE’s National Executive Board and a vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour.
As of December 4, 2023, Hahn’s LinkedIn profile said he graduated from UofT with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and women’s studies in 2001.
As of the same date, Hahn’s LinkedIn said he was located in Toronto, Ontario.
Fred Hahn’s Support for the Pro-Hamas Encampment at the University of Toronto (UofT)
On May 11, 2021, Hahn tweeted: “Write Canadian government: #SaveSheikhJarrah - protect Palestinian families and stop Israeli ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem!...”
In May 2021, calls to “save” Sheikh Jarrah, a Jerusalem neighborhood at the center of a property dispute, led to violence against Israelis and were one of the leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza into Israel that month.
On May 15, 2021, Hahn tweeted: “Language matters.....the way mainstream media have been using language distorts the gravity and scale of what is happening to Palestinian people #FreePalaestine #savepalestinians #SaveSheikhJarrah…”
On October 8, 2023, the day after an unprecedented massacre of 1,200 Israeli Jews by Hamas terrorists, Hahn tweeted: “...#Resistance is fruitful and no matter what some might say, #Resistance brings progress, and for that, I'm thankful.”
Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.
On December 27, 2023, Hahn posted on Facebook a graphic with text that read: “...Between 1947-1987 over 50,000 civilians were killed by the Israeli occupation force. Hamas was the result of 40 years of brutal invasion and genocide. Today the Israelis are blaming Hamas to justify their genocide. It’s not about hamas it never was.”
“Israeli Occupation Forces,” or “IOF,” is a derogatory name for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used by anti-Israel activists to demonize Israel’s army.
On January 2, 2024, Hahn shared on Facebook an anti-Israel poem by Ghassan Kanafani, which read: “All your [Israeli] armies / All your fighters / All your tanks / And all your soldiers / Against the [Palestinian] boy / Holding a stone / Standing there / All alone…”
Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.
Although romanticized as a form of “popular resistance,” rock throwing remains a deadly form of violence.
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.
Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” As of November 10, 2023, approximately 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.
A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 7] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
On February 9, 2021, Hahn posted on Facebook a photo of Assata Shakur and wrote: “Celebrating Black History is also Celebrating Resistance !”
Assata Shakur was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper and wounding another in 1973 while a member of the separatist Black Liberation Army (BLA). She escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba in 1984, where she resides today. She is listed on the FBI Most Wanted Terror List under her legal name, Joanne Deborah Chesimard.
On December 23, 2023, Hahn shared on Facebook a graphic with text that said: “...APARTHEID WASN’T ACCEPTABLE IN NAZI GERMANY. APARTHEID ISN’T ACCEPTABLE IN ZIONIST ISRAEL. CEASE FIRE NOW.”
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.
On August 11, 2024, Hahn posted on Facebook a video from another user that portrayed an Israeli Olympic diver, with a Star of David on his shoulder, standing on a diving board. The diver executed a series of flips before turning into a bomb and dropping on a building. The video showed people running away into a rubble-strewn street and it was meant to evoke Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
On February 16, 2024, Hahn posted on Facebook: “...they [Canadian government] approve even more military arms to Isreal than at any time in recent history..... world governments could end this genocide [in Gaza] - today - but it would take a true understanding of justice and real political will....” Hahn’s post included a link to another post that said: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.
On February 15, 2024, Hahn posted on Facebook: “While our attention is understandably focused on Gaza, the Apartheid State of Israel is advancing its illegal campaign in the West Bank -- intimidating and arresting Palestinian Residence -- arming ‘settlers’ -- stealing more and more homes by force and displacing people to build more and more illegal settlements -- This violation of International Law is shameless and brazen -- and yet we here barely a word about it.”
On February 7, 2024, Hahn posted on Facebook, accusing Israel of making “false claims” about Hamas terrorists “beheading babies.”
Hamas terrorists murdered Israeli Jewish babies during its October 7, 2023, terror attacks. Some of the babies were beheaded and some were murdered in front of their parents.
Denial of the Hamas war crimes of October 7, 2023, among anti-Israel activists has been likened to Holocaust denial among neo-Nazis.
On February 2, 2024, Hahn shared on Facebook a graphic with multiple anti-Israel signs, including the ones that read: “IF YOU STAND WITH ISRAEL THEN YOU STAND WITH THE OPPRESSOR,” “ZIONISM IS WHITE SUPREMACY,” “STOP ETHNIC CLEANSING IN THE WEST BANK” and “END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL SAY NO TO GENOCIDE.”
On December 17, 2023, Hahn posted on Facebook: “The cultural infrastructure -- the intellectual infrastructure -- the public foundation that supports the future -- is being systematically targeted and destroyed by the state of Israel --- and yet we are somehow still debating if they have the right ‘to defend themselves…’”
On August 11, 2022, Hahn tweeted: “‘CUPE Ontario and its International Solidarity Committee strongly condemns the Israeli authorities for their ongoing attack on the Palestinian people in Gaza.’...#GazaUnderAttack…”
In August 2022, the terror organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) threatened attacks on Israeli civilians. Israel preemptively launched Operation Breaking Dawn (OBD). Both PIJ’s northern and southern senior commanders in Gaza, Tayseer al-Jabari and Khaled Mansour, were killed in targeted Israeli airstrikes. PIJ responded by launching more than 1,000 rockets toward Israeli cities.
On April 10, 2021, Hahn tweeted: “There is no question that like so many other forms of discrimination, antisemitism is a poison in our society - but the antidote to this cannot be any method that attempts to restrict those speaking the truth about the unlawful treatment of Palestinian people - it is #Apartheid.”
On April 5, 2021, Hahn posted on Facebook, accusing Israel of practicing “Apartheid” against Palestinian people.
On February 13, 2024, Hahn posted on Facebook: “...taking action matters - proud to attend this rally & march as Rafah is now targeted - we must continue to use our voices - with the thousands of others doing so - we cannot stop until there is a ceasefire [between Israel and Hamas] - a full arms embargo with Isreal - a restoration of funding to UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] - an end to apartheid and freedom for the people of Palestine.”
On December 17, 2023, Hahn posted on Facebook: “Labour showed up today in #T4P #CeaseFireNow protests…proud to speak on behalf of CUPE Ontario CUPE SCFP - this coalition is broad and diverse and when people come together we are an unstoppable force! We must keep up the pressure for a #PermanentCeaseFireNOW.”
On November 19, 2023, Hahn tweeted: “More than 300 organizations are part of this coalition - more than 280,000 people have signed a parliamentary petition calling for a #CeasefireNOW…#PeaceForGAZA.”
On November 12, 2023, Hahn featured as a speaker at an anti-Israel rally organized by Ceasefire Now in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ceasefire Now is reportedly “an ‘ad hoc coalition’ of humanitarian, civil society, faith, and labour organizations.”
At the rally, Hahn called for [00:00:20] an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as well as [00:01:00] ending military aid to Israel and [00:01:07] lifting the blockade of Gaza.
The United Nations approved [pp. 39–41] the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza in 2011 as a security measure to stop Hamas from acquiring sophisticated rockets. Multiple flotillas have attempted to breach the blockade, with at least one initiating a violent confrontation with Israeli forces.
Following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli military discovered that Hamas went around the blockade by smuggling weaponry through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt.
In the same speech, Hahn called [00:05:11] Israel’s military response to Hamas’s massacre “a terrible, uh, genocide that is unfolding before our eyes.”
Hahn then said [00:05:59]: “We must be clear that the State of Israel is an apartheid state.” He later led [00:08:28] the crowd in chanting: “Free, free Palestine!”
On November 2, 2023, Hahn shared on Facebook an anti-Israel petition titled: “#ItsAGenocide” and wrote: “please consider clicking below -- reading the info and sending a message to our Prime Minister.”
On November 19, 2018, Hahn posted on Facebook, promoting a BDS resolution, and wrote: “Solidarity from all of your Comrades at CUPE Ontario whose members endorsed a similar resolution in 2006.”
On June 27, 2015, Hahn tweeted: “#PrideIsPolitical #DykeMarch @PrideToronto #BDS #Solidarity.”
Hahn spoke [slide 6] in support of the pro-Hamas encampment at the University of Toronto (UofT) in May 2024. He spoke at a protest held next to the encampment.
On May 2, 2024, UofT Occupy for Palestine (Occupy UofT) activists “stormed down” fencing around UofT’s Kings College Circle and set up a pro-Hamas and pro-BDS encampment called the “People’s Circle for Palestine.” Protesters chanted [00:02:59] for “intifada” and celebrated “resistance” [00:02:45]. Both terms are calls for terrorism. Activists chanted [00:01:28; 00:02:21] for Israel’s destruction multiple times.
After the October 7, 2023 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis, the inverted red triangle - 🔻- became a Hamas symbol. It appeared on large signs at the encampment and was featured in other encampment-related activism. Openly pro-Hamas marches began elsewhere in the city and ended at the encampment. In one incident, pro-Hamas activists punched a Jewish man, stole his Israeli flag and shouted anti-Semitic slurs.
Protesters occupied [00:00:17] the area from May to July 2024, despite UofT warning they were trespassing. On July 3, 2024, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued an injunction at UofT’s request, requiring the encampment to be cleared. Occupy UofT dismantled the encampment and wrote a statement that ended: “Long live the intifada.”
