TORONTO — It was the non-apology apology, as far as Jewish advocacy organizations were concerned.

Sid Ryan, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario president

Efforts by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario president Sid Ryan to make amends for his comparison of Israel in Gaza to the Nazis in Europe left Canadian Jewish Congress “frustrated.”

“Ryan’s apology for his anti-Semitic comparison of Jews and Israelis to Nazis would be far more welcome if he weren’t persisting in his outrageous call for an academic boycott of Israelis,” said Rabbi Reuven Bulka, co-president of Congress. “As a result, he continues to bring shame to CUPEOntario.”

B’nai Brith Canada dismissed the union leader’s apology as a “public relations ploy.

“Sid Ryan’s apology would only be meaningful if he chose to remove from consideration the proposed resolution to boycott Israeli academics,” said Frank Dimant, B’nai Brith Canada’s executive vice-president. “He fails to recognize the inherent contradiction of apologizing for his offensive remarks on the one hand, but refusing to accept on the other hand that the very same bias against Israel and its Jewish citizens is at the core of the proposed boycott resolution.”

Ryan, an outspoken critic of Israel, lashed out at the Jewish state last week when he proposed “a ban on Israeli academics doing speaking, teaching or research work at Ontario universities as a protest against the Dec. 29, 2008 bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza… We are ready to say Israeli academics should not be on our campuses unless they explicitly condemn the university bombing and the assault in Gaza in general.”

The resolution was originally proposed by CUPE Ontario’s university workers committee.

Ryan later made the connection to the Nazis that infuriated Jews: “Attacking an institution of learning is just beyond the pale. They deliberately targeted an institution of learning. That’s what the Nazis did.”

Ryan’s apology was published on CUPENational’s website. It stated: “I was wrong to say what I did. It was never my intention to hurt or cause offense to anyone. I was attempting to draw attention to the terrible bombing of learning institutions. I got caught up in the emotion, and the comparison I used was hurtful and completely beyond the pale.”

The bombing referred to by Ryan took place as Israeli ground troops entered Gaza to halt Hamas rocket attacks on Israel. Israeli sources say their soldiers came under fire from the university and they responded with mortar rounds. Palestinians say many civilians were killed. Israel Defence Forces spokespeople suggested secondary explosions caused by stored munitions and booby traps likely contributed to the death toll.

Ryan did not return calls from The CJN and a CUPENational spokesperson directed all inquiries to the union’s Ontario wing. While CUPENational did not take a position on the proposed boycott, its national president, Paul Moist, wrote to Prime Minster Stephen Harper last week criticizing his government’s position on the conflict.

“On behalf of the 570,000 members of CUPE, I am writing to demand that the Canadian government condemn the military assault on the people of Gaza that the State of Israel commenced on Dec. 26. CUPE condemns all acts of violence in the Middle East, including the Hamas rockets being launched into Israel and the Israeli offensive mentioned above. To date, your government has stated publicly your support for the Israeli people to protect themselves from attack. This is a woefully inadequate and frankly shameful response on behalf of Canadians.”

The letter went on to demand that “the Canadian government, as a member nation of the UN, condemn the serious violations of humanitarian and international law by the State of Israel” and push for an immediate ceasefire.

Congress CEO Bernie Farber called Ryan’s singling out of Jewish Israeli academics discriminatory against Jews. “Is he referring to Israeli Christians, Israeli Arabs or Druze?” Farber asked. “When Hamas was lobbing rockets into Israel, where was the call from Sid Ryan that academics from Gaza be boycotted.”

“The proposed CUPE Ontario boycott based solely on Israeli citizenship is a clear violation of this principle [against discrimination] and flies in the face of free academic debate and tolerance for differing cultures and opinion,” said Avi Benlolo, president of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Meanwhile, the University of Western Ontario announced it would not participate in a boycott of Israeli academics. Western president Paul Davenport told the London Free Press, “I’m very dismayed at the suggestion by CUPE that universities should boycott faculty from Israel. We believe in academic freedom… It is simply unwise to try to eliminate interactions among academics.”

Following the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, the British University and College Union called for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions of higher learning. Although the proposal was eventually withdrawn after the union received legal advice against it, Canadian universities rejected the proposal.

“We specifically object to the scapegoating of any country’s academics by those whose quarrel is with the policies of that country’s government,” University of Toronto president David Naylor stated at the time. Ryerson and York universities and the University of Toronto were also among many Canadian schools that rejected a boycott.