Dear Ms. Brown -
I understand that the ETFO will not intervene with respect to personal remarks of Mr. Barriffe when he does not purport to act in his official capacity as a union capacity.
This situation is markedly different. It is obvious that the communication below was written by Mr Barriffe in his official capacity.
This causes me to ask you a straight yes-or-no question:
Does the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario support Mr. Barriffe's calumnies that each of:
(a) the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA),
(b) the Canadian Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies, and
(c) B'nai Brith Canada
have:
Spied on our children, misrepresented their comments, and spread lies about them. (i.e., 3 allegations)
Spied on our staff and worked to publicly smear them. (i.e., 2 allegations)
Influenced policy without accountability, while actual educators, parents, and communities were ignored.
CIJA, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, and B’nai Brith have successfully positioned themselves as policy-setters in the TDSB, dictating harmful frameworks...
If the answer to this question is yes, is ETFO prepared to prove each of these calumnies with respect to each organization?
Please note that the first assertion has three components and the second has two components. So it's a total of 6 separate assertions against 3 organizations, being 18 scandalous and calumnious claims in all.
If the answer to this question is no, is ETFO prepared to invite Mr. Barriffe to either withdraw them and apologize, or remove him from his position of Vice President of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto?
I am taking the liberty of copying the heads of each of the organizations in question, for their information.
I am also taking the liberty of copying various members of the media, and Members of Provincial Parliament, as I believe there is a compelling public interest element to this matter.
Best regards,
R. Michael Teper
Vice President
Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation
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