WINDSOR, Ontario, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A leader of Canada's Jewish community said he was dismayed at protesters who compared the president of Ontario's university employee union with Adolf Hitler.
CUPE Ontario head Syd Ryan was the target of the venom of pro-Israel activists during a protest outside the Windsor hotel where union delegates debated Ryan's proposal that Ontario universities ban collaboration with Israel academics unless they first condemned Israel's military campaign in Gaza.
The Windsor Star said Monday some signs depicted Ryan dressed in a Nazi uniform and decried him as another Hitler.
The Star said Bernie Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress, disowned the comparison, adding that comparing Ryan to Hitler and that doing so "tends to have people understand less the absolute horror of what Nazism is."
The Star said about 120 pro-Israel protesters were countered by a 60-member cadre of pro-Palestinian demonstrators on Sunday. The newspaper said there were plenty of angry words and a few shoving matches before police moved into separate the two sides.
