Canada’s prestigious Carleton University has hired a convicted terrorist to teach a course on “social justice in action,” the Jerusalem Post reported on Monday. Hassan Diab, a Lebanese-Canadian, denies any involvement in an attack on a French synagogue 44 years ago, and Carleton University has stood by his version of events.
Diab, 70, was convicted and given a life sentence in absentia by a French court in 2023 for his role in an explosion at the Rue Copernic reform synagogue in Paris in 1980. A bomb planted in the side bag of a motorcycle went off outside the entrance, killing four people and leaving 46 wounded.
French authorities accuse Diab of planting the bomb while 320 worshipers had gathered to mark the end of a Jewish holiday. Israeli TV presenter Aliza Shagrir and three other bystanders were killed in the atrocity.
In 2014, Diab was extradited to France and spent two years in prison, but a judge allowed him to be released on house arrest. Diab escaped to Canada the same day, the Post reported. French authorities believe Diab was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), but he claims they confused him with another person.
Diab was first hired to teach a sociology course at Carleton University in 2009. Not long afterwards, his contract was terminated and he was replaced. However, Diab is now set to teach a course on “social justice in action,” the Post said.
Carleton University maintains that Diab was “unjustly accused” and that there is “much evidence that points away from his involvement.” The institution has held rallies demanding that the Canadian government protect Diab from “from further Injustice.”
B’nai Brith, a Jewish civil rights group, has said the university’s decision to ignore its formal request to terminate Diab’s position was “deeply disturbing.”
Following Diab’s conviction in 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government would “look carefully at next steps” and will “always be there to stand up for Canadians and their rights.”