A Memo to Bnai Brith
August 2nd, 2009 | Tikkun Daily
This article requires some context. In the summer of 2009 a letter was circulated by Bnai Brith Canada with respect to the employment of Dr Hassan Diab at Carleton University. Dr Diab was hired on a temporary contract to replace a professor who took sick. Bnai Brith’s letter was partly responsible for Carleton’s termination of Dr Diab’s temporary contract.
Memo to: Bnai Brith Canada
Re: Canada is a democracy
The Jewish Court for Social Justice, by unanimous decision, rejects the opinion of B’nai Brith Canada with respect to the matter of Dr Hassan Diab’s employment at Carleton University.
We remind B’nai Brith that Canada is a common law democracy and that an accused is presumed innocent, most especially in these circumstances, inasmuch as Dr Diab has not been accused of a crime in Canada.
B’nai Brith Canada (BBC), in a press release issued on July 27, asserts:
“We find it deplorable that university officials believe that there is nothing wrong with employing Diab. The safety and security of the community as a whole, and of the Carleton University campus in particular, are of great concern to us.”
The Court most assuredly agrees with BBC as regards public security. The Court, however, does not agree with another assertion made by BBC, namely that “The conditions of Diab’s bail do not even allow him to leave his home alone or to own a cell phone…”
The bail conditions under which Dr Diab continues to comply since they were issued in March are matters of public record. The Court fails to understand how BBC can correctly assert that Dr Diab is not permitted to leave home alone and then (incorrectly) suggest that he is a security risk if he is under the escort of at least one surety.
The Court wishes to comment on one final assertion made by BBC: “The last place in the world where this man belongs is in a university classroom, in front of impressionable students.”
One would think that this is the very best place for Dr Diab to be, inasmuch as any controversial remarks he made would likely be immediately reported, by students if not by his escort, who under the terms of the surety has a duty to report any breach of conditions.
Of the three most likely sureties to escort Dr Diab, two are sociologists. He is, furthermore, allowed employment under the terms of his bail conditions.
We would be less sanguine about Dr Diab teaching graduate seminars, because the bodies of knowledge involved are more discrete and rarefied.
Teaching graduate students is, we think, much more subversive than teaching undergraduates: the information delivered to graduate students is much harder for the judicial system to assess.
The Court respects the understandable and admirable caution exercised by Carleton University with respect to Dr Diab’s temporary teaching assignment.
We recommend that Dr Diab be reinstated to his temporary teaching assignment. We would support the placement of auditors in Dr Diab’s classroom so as to assure he is teaching his Introductory Sociology course in accordance with the known canons of undergraduate sociology.
We feel certain that B’nai Brith Canada could make such arrangements, including the arrangement of a suitable stipend for the auditors.
