The Case of the Student Representative at McGill University Who Twitted “Punch a Zionist Today”

Sunday, 12 February 2017

The McGill campus has sure changed since I graduated from its faculty of law back in 1976.

Here is the latest I read in the news published by B’nai Brith Canada:

Igor Sadikov, a member of the Legislative Council and Board of Directors of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), is facing calls for his resignation after advising followers to “punch a Zionist today” on Twitter.

Sadikov, a prominent supporter of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement at McGill, is also a former news editor of The McGill Daily, the campus newspaper that “maintains an editorial line of not publishing pieces which promote a Zionist worldview.”

In response to this egregious invitation of physical violence to Jewish and pro-Israel students, Amanda Hohmann, National Director of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights, stated the following:

First, “This is clear incitement to violence, which should not be tolerated on the part of any student, let alone a student politician…”

Second, "We expect that this tweet will be taken for the serious example of incitement that it is, and Sadikov will be censured appropriately;

Third, "Sadikov’s tweet only strengthens the case of those who have claimed an overwhelmingly anti-Israel atmosphere at The McGill Daily", and,

Fourth, “B’nai Brith will do everything in our power to ensure that publication’s discriminatory ban on Zionist content does not stand.”

In May of 2016, SSMU’s Judicial Board declared BDS to be unconstitutional because it engages in a prohibited form of discrimination. Sadikov is now pushing a set of changes that would dramatically reduce the authority of the Judicial Board.

(To be cont’d.)