The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) held its annual convention virtually this year, during which delegates from affiliated unions debate and vote on a range of topics. A resolution calling for a boycott of Israel was proposed but never brought to the convention floor since members gave it such a low priority.

Later that same day, a committee called the Canadian Council—comprised of the CLC executive and some representatives from affiliated unions—met and secretively adopted the anti-Israel resolution.

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) said in a press release on Monday that it has spoken with leaders of CLC-affiliated unions and union members who are “bewildered and upset to find out that an anti-Israel resolution was passed behind closed doors.” The CLC used “backdoor methods to ram through” a resolution in support of a boycott of Israel that have left many union representatives “shocked and angry,” said the FSWC.

A union member who was a delegate at last week’s convention told FSWC: “The CLC knew that the delegates did not consider it a priority to so much as debate this kind of inflammatory and divisive resolution. But it was adopted anyway. This leaves a lot of us with some very serious questions about the CLC and its commitment to hearing members’ voices.”

FSWC urged union members who are part of CLC affiliates to contact their leaders and speak out against “such blatantly one-sided efforts to poison the labour movement with hatred for the Jewish state and create a toxic environment for Jewish and pro-Israel members.”