The Canadian government is subsidizing a full-time summer job for a “social events coordinator” with the Atlantic Canada Palestinian Society of Saint John through the Canada Summer Jobs program.
The organization is a chapter of the Atlantic Canada Palestinian Society, a non-profit Canadian-Palestinian organization that has shared a series of anti-Israel posts on social media and organized pro-Palestine protests and rallies across the region.
When asked by True North if the job, which offers $15.30 an hour for 35 hours of work per week, would involve organizing protests, the ACPS of Saint John did not respond.
The chapter’s parent organizations similarly did not answer a question from True North on whether the social events coordinator position helps organize protests or if it has a similar position.
“The Atlantic Canada Palestinian Society – Halifax does not currently have any CSJ positions available, nor have we applied for or received CSJ funding to hire individuals. It seems there may have been a misunderstanding or mix-up regarding this matter.”
Follow-up queries about the parent organization’s connection to the chapter went unanswered.
According to the Saint John chapter’s job posting, which was shared on Instagram, the social events coordinator will “organize and promote community events, coordinate volunteers, and support community initiatives.”
To qualify for the position the applicant must have a “passion for social justice and community advocacy.”
Justin Trudeau has opposed funding groups through the Canada Summer Jobs on the basis of differing politics before. In March 2018, he said his government wouldn’t fund groups focused on campaigning against abortion and LGBT rights.
The job posting has raised eyebrows from Canada’s Jewish community.
“There’s nothing wrong with charities whose work is designed to combat some of the humanitarian issues being faced by the Palestinian people. Those organizations are doing things completely in line with Canadian values,” Rich Robertson, the director of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada, told True North. “The issue is when groups…are engaging in acts, whether through the events they’re hosting or through their online dissemination that are contributing to incitement here in Canada, that’s when such groups become problematic.”
On Jan. 6, the Atlantic Canada Palestinian Society called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Two days later, the group shared a post that read “Intifada until victory, Communist Revolution.”
An intifada is an uprising. The second intifada, in the early 2000s, was characterized by dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks – many conducted by Hamas – on Israelis in public places frequented by civilians, such as buses, movie theatres, and hotels.
“Calls for a ceasefire in general that do not acknowledge the need for the removal of Hamas, a listed terrorist entity here in Canada, from power are problematic in and of themselves because they place sole responsibility for the conflict on the Israeli state as well,” Robertson said. “As well it is contradictory on the one hand, to be demanding a ceasefire while also continuing to advocate for violent resistance.”
The ACPS promotes videos of pro-Palestine protests that call Israel’s war against Hamas a genocide and chants such as “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free,” which is commonly understood to be a call for the destruction of Israel.
In another post, the organization says the chant is a call for equal rights for Arabs in Palestine and to suggest otherwise is “Islamophobic and racist.”
The organization also posted a clip from an interview with Israeli-American activist Miko Peled in which he calls Israel a “racist apartheid regime that needs to be dismantled.”
Under the articles of agreement for the Canada Summer Jobs program, organizations engaged in partisan political activities are ineligible for the government subsidy, and the job cannot involve partisan political activities.
A spokesperson for Employment and Social Development Canada, the department overseeing the program, would not comment on how or if it assessed the Atlantic Canada Palestinian Society of Saint John for compliance, or if the job involved protest organization.
“We can only speak for ESDC therefore, we won’t have any information on your question,” the spokesperson said.
