Calls rise for board of PARIM to be removed after antisemitic comments revealed

Article content

A member of Winnipeg’s Jewish community is calling for the removal of the Professional Association of Residents and Interns of Manitoba (PARIM) board of directors.

Article content

The Winnipeg Sun on July 17 received screenshots of a July 16 internal conversation from PARIM where officials from the 2023-2024 academic year use derogatory language against Canadian Jewish activist Brooke Goldstein.

“Because why does the founder of the #EndJewHatred look like the vampire spokesperson?,” wrote a PARIM official in a group chat with colleagues. “OMG. CUZ MAYBE SHE A VAMPIRE. ‘SLURP SLURP’ goes the blood. She’s out to get all our blood.”

Winnipeg Jewish community member Avrom Charach is disgusted by the comments. Jewish people no longer feel safe visiting doctors in Manitoba, he said.

“This confirms that at least internally, some or all of the members of the PARIM board just hate Jews,” said Charach. “It does appear to be right out of a Nazi playbook. This is pure hatred of a defined minority group being the Jews – exactly what they (PARIM) say they don’t stand for. How many purely antisemitic doctors are there in this province?”

Article content

Article content

PARIM on its website says that racism, intolerance and discrimination in all forms are unacceptable. The union says it is dedicated to advocating for safe working and learning environments for medical residents.

“Racism and discrimination exist not only in our communities, but also systemically within our institutions and workplaces,” says PARIM.

“We all have a duty to acknowledge the ongoing harms caused by these inequities, not only to our patients but also to our current and future colleagues. We must do better, not only in our words but also in our actions.”

The derogatory comments from PARIM officials are the latest instalment in a months-long scandal that began with a controversial graduation speech in May from newly minted University of Manitoba physician Dr. Gem Newman.

Article content

During his speech, Newman referred to the Israel-Hamas war as “genocidal.” He urged the audience to “stand in solidarity” with Palestine and Canadian Indigenous people. He asked the audience to oppose “settler colonialism both at home and abroad.”

Newman didn’t mention the Hamas mandate to destroy Israel by killing all Jews. He didn’t mention the Holocaust where millions of Jews were murdered. He didn’t mention the Indigeneity of Jews to Israel.

Following the speech, Dr. Matthew Bzura, president of PARIM, called out Newman on social media. Bzura subsequently told the Winnipeg Sun that he was strong-armed by PARIM officials, who demanded his resignation and threatened to take more action if he did not. Bzura, who says he now fears for his safety, stepped down.

Article content

In his social media statement, Bzura said Newman’s speech was “inappropriate, divisive, and absent of nuanced contextual history as was his decision to use our collective home at the University of Manitoba as a political apparatus to incite ethnoreligious vilification and advance a prejudiced narrative.”

According to an Antisemitism Policy Trust report on antisemitic imagery and caricatures, referring to Jews as vampires is hateful.

“This antisemitic portrayal of the Jew as a vampire is interconnected with the anti-Jewish concept of the blood eater and the blood libel,” says the report. “Vampires are a creature to be feared and to avoid, who prey on the innocent in order to corrupt them and their souls. By depicting the Jew in this way, the onlooker learns to fear the Jew.”

Article content

Jew-hatred is systemic and ingrained, says End Jew Hatred on its website.

“All non-Jews have received anti-Jewish conditioning by virtue of the world they grew up in,” says the organization.

“It’s been excused using foreign politics and anti-capitalist rhetoric. It takes the form of ethnic, religious and cultural discrimination.”

Dr. Charles Bernstein, a professor of medicine and gastroenterologist at the University of Manitoba told the Winnipeg Sun he is concerned about PARIM, noting there should be an investigation into what happened to Bzura and the vampire comments.

“These people are not that young,” said Bernstein of the PARIM board of directors. “They are probably in their late 20s to 30s. They are graduate medical doctors.”

Article content

The derogatory comments and the alleged poor treatment of Bzura stoke Bernstein’s worst fear in the situation.

“There is an antisemitic element on the PARIM board that may have driven these actions, rather than anything Matthew Bzura had really done,” said Bernstein.

Jewish people are becoming afraid to access medical care because they can’t identify antisemitic doctors, said Bernstein in agreement with Charach, adding there could emerge an inequality of care in the medical system if antisemitism persists.

“I’ve had a number of Muslim colleagues reach out and be very supportive and of course they are very horrified by the antisemitism that’s evident in our university and currently in our health system,” he said.

A spokesperson for The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba said in a statement, “CPSM condemns all forms of racism.”

A spokesperson from PARIM sent the following statement to the Winnipeg Sun.

“We are not able to confirm the authenticity of the comments, but we do know that they did not come from any PARIM board member. We also know the group chat has been shut down.”

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca

Article content