While sociologist and Lebanese-Canadian citizen Hassan Diab’s fall employment at Carleton University received widespread backlash from students and outside organizations, Diab told the Charlatan he was “grateful for all the unwavering support from… the larger community.”
Some student groups published statements condemning the controversy of Diab’s employment, while other students, including Jewish students, said his position at the school made them feel unsafe.
Diab has been teaching on and off at Carleton since 2006. His third-year course, “Social Justice in Action,” drew on his personal extradition case that has been ongoing for more than a decade. In 2014, Diab was extradited from Canada to France, as French authorities believed him to be responsible for a 1980 bombing attack at a Paris synagogue.
Carleton’s media relations department said in an emailed statement to the Charlatan on Jan. 17 that Diab is not currently employed at the university for the winter term.
“He is not in the employment of Carleton. Other than current employment status, the university does not disclose personal employment information due to privacy considerations.”
After it was announced Diab would not return for the winter semester, some outside organizations, including B’nai Brith Canada, presented his unemployment as a result of their pressures placed on the university.
However, Diab’s absence in the winter semester is not abnormal. Diab told the Charlatan in a Feb. 3 email statement that while he used to teach in both semesters following his release from France in 2018, over the past years, he has “opted to teach in the Fall only.”
“Not teaching this Winter semester [2025] has nothing to do with anyone’s pressure, but to the schedule of my teaching,” Diab’s statement read, adding that course schedules were determined in May 2024.
In 2007, Diab learned he was a suspect of bombing a Paris synagogue. He was extradited from Canada to France in 2014, where he remained in Fleury-Mérogis Prison in Paris for more than three years. He returned to Canada in 2018 after the case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence, including unreliable handwriting analysis.
Diab was then found guilty in absentia in 2023 by a French court, despite evidence which found Diab was in Lebanon writing exams when the bombing took place, according to an Amnesty International report.
Diab has maintained his innocence throughout the entire case.
“[I] will continue to fight the false allegations that have been imposed on me, a Canadian citizen who is law-abiding, peaceful, compassionate, and who abhors violence,” he wrote in a Nov. 13, 2014 statement, following the Supreme Court of Canada’s dismissal of his appeal.
Diab and his supporters continue to advocate for his innocence.
Concerns surrounding Diab’s employment
In his email statement, Diab said that the hate and misinformation emerging in the fall 2024 semester was stronger, despite his presence at the university in previous years.
“This time was somehow different due to the concerted efforts by some powerful groups who tried to spread hate and intimidate officials to remove me from my teaching job at Carleton,” Diab said.
Some student and national organizations, including the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and B’nai Brith Canada, had been calling on the university to dismiss Diab for months, citing safety concerns for Jewish students.
Judy Zelikovitz, vice-president of University and Local Partner services for CIJA, said in a Jan. 24 email statement to the Charlatan that Diab’s employment at the university was “indefensible.”
“It is disgraceful that, despite knowledge of his guilt, Carleton found it appropriate to put its campus community at risk,” she said in the statement.
Zelikovitz said allowing Diab to teach provided “a platform for harmful ideas” and “marginalized” Jewish students.
One Jewish student at Carleton, who chose to remain anonymous for safety reasons, said she was concerned about Diab’s employment. She acknowledged he maintains his innocence, but that did not ease her worries.
“No student, regardless of their identity or background, should have to attend classes at an institution that employs someone convicted of targeting an identity group with violence,” she said.
She emphasized her opinions are not based on geopolitics, and instead prioritizing a safe and comfortable environment for all students on campus.
While the student appreciated the advocacy of organizations calling for Diab’s firing, she does not feel it is the job of organizations or students to determine the merit of his conviction.
It is not confirmed if Diab will return to the university in the future. Despite the “ease” the Jewish student said she feels now that he is not employed, she is not completely opposed to the possibility of his return.
“If his conviction gets overturned in France, I think that it would be OK for him to come back and teach,” she said.
Diab said he “always enjoys” teaching the sociology course at Carleton. He said he believes it is important for students to have the “opportunity to learn first-hand about the sociological analysis of a real-life experience.”
Joint statement condemning ‘misinformation and hate’
On Nov. 27, 2024, CUHRS and IJV Carleton released a joint statement condemning the “ongoing slander, misinformation and hate campaign” toward Diab.
“The [CUHRS and IJV] put out this statement in full support of professor Hassan Diab, who has been subjected to baseless allegations and a targeted hate campaign,” the statement reads.
Nir Hagigi, Carleton IJV’s president, said releasing the statement with CUHRS combats what he believes to be “misinformation and hate” shared about Diab’s case.
“The groups that are leading this hate campaign are pretending to speak on behalf of Jewish voices,” Hagigi said.
CIJA and B’nai Brith Canada have called for Diab to be fired from Carleton, as well as Rebel News, which brought a truck with a digital screen to Carleton’s campus last November.
The truck broadcasted images of Diab with messages including, “Carleton University hired a convicted synagogue bomber to teach our kids.”
Sienna Scullion, the vice-president of research of Carleton’s human rights society, said Rebel News’s actions are ultimately what led the associations to release a statement in solidarity.
“I do hope [the statement] impacts students positively towards [Diab] and what’s happened,” she said.
“[Diab’s] consistent and strong targeting creates a cloud of misinformation, causing conflated, incorrect and often racist information,” Billo said.
She thinks the statement will spark more support for Diab and “makes the issue accessible, [which can] inspire further change and justice.”
Further attention
In the past year, Diab’s employment at Carleton has gained international attention. On Nov. 14, 2024, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, took to X (formerly Twitter) to share his opinion.
“A man convicted in a French court for killing 4 people in a Paris synagogue bombing is living freely in Canada, even working as a professor,” the post reads.
The post was reposted by American billionaire and X CEO Elon Musk on Jan. 2. “A mass murderer is living free as a professor in Canada?” Musk’s post reads.
Hagigi said releasing a statement on behalf of IJV is important to show Carleton that the Jewish organization does not support the hate Diab is receiving on social media and on campus.
“We are built on a foundation of community, of support and of love,” he said. “And of course, on the basis of truth and honesty.”
For CUHRS, Scullion said the statement demonstrates that the human rights society aims “for human rights, but also for truth.”
The Hassan Diab Support Committee added that a “distortion of facts” continues to cause injustice to Diab and his family.
“This makes us even more determined to fight back against the falsehoods and distortion that are contributing to an ongoing miscarriage of justice,” the statement reads.
Diab said he holds gratitude for those who have supported him over the years.
“I am grateful for all the unwavering support from many people at Carleton, Ottawa, and the larger community,” he said.
Featured photo from files.
