Canadian college dubbed ‘beyond scandalous’ for employing convicted synagogue bomber

The charges were reinstated in 2021 and upheld by France’s highest court of appeal, leading to his 2023 conviction while he remained in Canada.

The case was highlighted by Elon Musk on January 21 when he wrote on X that the “mass murderer” is “living free as a professor in Canada.”

Some 21 million accounts viewed the post.

A review of the Carleton University’s website found that Diab, 71, taught Sociology 3170A, named “Social Justice in Action” in the Fall 2024 term.

Among the things that the course addressed, according to a syllabus, were “miscarriages of justice” and “critically” examining “Canada’s Extradition Law and its shortcomings.”

One of the course readings was a fundraising website dealing with Diab’s own case.

The course plan added: “This is a unique class as its instructor was a former ‘forced participant observer’ in detention centers in Canada and France.” 

“Students are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity by participating in class debates and discussions to acquire firsthand knowledge of the behind-the-bars world as experienced for years by a sociologist.”

The university’s sociology and anthropology department even hosted a rally to support Diab on Nov. 13, 2022, “demanding that the Canadian government protect professor Hassan Diab from further injustice, stop the baseless prosecution he is facing and refuse any future request for Hassan’s extradition.”

It is not clear if Diab is scheduled to teach a course again in the coming academic year, with university listing him as a “contract instructor” in the autumn but not this winter.

A French court convicted Diab, then 69, in absentia and sentenced him to life in 2023 for the Oct. 3, 1980 synagogue bombing in Paris that killed four and wounded dozens on Simchat Torah.

A BBC report of the tragedy stated: “The Rue Copernic attack was the first to target Jews in France since World War II and became a template for many other similar attacks linked to militants in the Middle East in the years that followed.”

Mike Fegelman, editor-in-chief of Honest Reporting Canada and a Carleton alumnus, told JNS that “it is beyond scandalous that a convicted terrorist would be allowed to reside in Canada, let alone be in a position of authority, teaching at Carleton University, my alma mater.”

“The news media must speak loudly and clearly and demand that Diab is not only fired from Carleton but is promptly deported from Canada.”

Iddo Moed, the Israeli ambassador to Canada, wrote in the National Post in November that though the news that Diab was teaching social justice at a college “would be difficult to accept at any time, it is especially unsettling in the wake of the horrors of October 7, 2023—the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust that also took place on the festival of Simchat Torah.”

He went on: “Employing a convicted terrorist anywhere, especially at a university in Canada’s national capital, is emblematic of a broader trend that has become notable since October 7.”

“While threats to other racial, cultural or religious demographics are quickly rejected and condemned, Canadian Jews of all ages are increasingly reporting that violence and intimidation directed towards them is overlooked or even rationalized by some as being justified.”

For his part, Diab has strenuously denied any involvement in the bombing, claiming that he was in Lebanon (where he is a dual citizen) at the time.

Friends of his in Beirut have also provided witness testimony in support of his account.

The JC has contacted Carleton University for comment.