An article in the Toronto Star, published on November 25, 2023, written by Shrree Pardakar and titled “Health Workers Feel a ‘Culture of Silencing'” provides further evidence of the Canadian persecution of those who defend Palestinians, this time in the medical field. I will simply type the article over a series of days in parts.
Freedom and rights. Life and death. As Israel leaves Gaza in blood-soaked dust and imperils the right to life there, the freedom to denounce it is becoming increasingly repressed in Canada.
Under these circumstances, it’s not surprising that several Ontario doctors who are facing repercussions for supporting Palestinian rights were nervous speaking to me. Some said they feared reprisals, others said they did not want to exacerbate delicate work relationships.
Yipgeng Ge, a doctor indefinitely suspended from his University of Ottawa residency after social media posts critical of Israel, did not want to comment, saying, “Out of respect for the University of Ottawa process, I will not be making comments at this time.”
A Toronto physician who is a friend of Ge and describes him as a “outstanding physician” and “consummate professional” does not want to be identified because [he] says he “worries about being punished for supporting Yipeng.”
Even as we criticize Israeli policies, it’s also trut that there is genuine antiseminism and antisemtic tropes in the sprawling conversations about the Middle East today.
Those should be called out with integrity. There are hate crimes being enacted against the Jewish community even as it is reeling from the Hamas massacres of Oct. 7.
Ge, however, is a staunch advocate for health equity, social justice and a public health graduate from Harvard with work experience with the WHO and in the West Bank, according to his friend. “He saw first hand how Palestinians lived.”
Ge enrolled in 2020 in the University of Ottawa’s five-year residency program, where he is training in public health and preventative medicine.
An associate professor at the university wrote a blog this month calling Ge’s social media posts anti-semitic. Among them he took issue with a photo of a protest poster on a pole that equated Zionism with genocide, claimed that Ge was indulging in “blood libel” by sharing “conspiracy theories” about Israel bombing hospitals.
Another was an image of a poster with the contested protest chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” While protesters say that it is a common call for Palestinian liberation, those opposed to it see it as a call for genocide.
Many of these posts seem to have been removed.
The university confirmed Ge’s suspension and said it was based on complaints of an alleged breach of conduct.
The Abolitionary 