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A York Region paramedic says she was looking forward to working in the field again after a six-year union leave, but she was abruptly fired last month over a Facebook comment criticizing Israel’s military actions in the Middle East.
“I was about to be back on an ambulance at the end of July,” Katherine Grzejszczak said Thursday in her first public comments about the case.
“I was actually really excited and looking forward to going back out, to being a paramedic.”
Instead, the veteran paramedic said she was fired on June 20 after she criticized Israel’s bombing of Gaza and several countries, and accused the country of starving Palestinian children and killing health-care workers in a comment on a union social media post.
The Regional Municipality of York said last month that officials launched an investigation into an employee’s “concerning comments on social media” on June 19, which led to a dismissal.
“I think it’s extremely unfortunate that we are here,” said Grzejszczak, who served on the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario’s executive board.
“It’s not a good time, it has been an extremely emotionally difficult time for me.”
Grzejszczak told reporters that the comment she made was in line with her “professional obligations” as a health worker.
“I love my job as a paramedic because it is first and foremost about preserving life and alleviating suffering,” she said, adding that calling for an end to “a genocide is not a threat to public safety, it is public safety.”
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“I really hope that I’m soon reinstated so that I can continue using my life saving skills to serve the residents of York Region,” she said at a news conference, surrounded by supporters and union members.
Her dismissal has triggered concern among free speech advocates and lawyers who say it was a violation of Grzejszczak’s Charter rights.
“Whether one agrees or disagrees with the content of her Facebook post, she was exercising her Charter-protected right to freedom of expression,” Daniel Paré, a senior fellow at the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, said at the press conference.
He called on York Region to reinstate Grzejszczak, who has been a paramedic since 2010.
“She is to be judged on whether she meets her professional standards of care, not her political beliefs,” Paré said. “And let’s be clear, there has been no suggestion that Katherine’s political beliefs have ever resulted in any inappropriate treatment of any patient.”
Reached for comment Thursday, a spokesperson for the Regional Municipality of York forwarded the statement originally issued in June about an employee’s “concerning comments.”
Patrick Casey also said “there is no change from York Region since the matter was initially addressed.”
Krista Laing, the chair of CUPE Ontario Municipal Workers, said the entire process of firing Grzejszczak took less than 48 hours, and alleged there was no proper investigation.
She said the decision sets a precedent that should worry workers across the province, and CUPE will continue to fight for her reinstatement.
The Centre for Free Expression says it has seen an increase in the number of people being penalized for expressing their political views since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The latest war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which militants killed 1,200 people and took roughly 250 hostages.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said earlier this week that the war’s toll among Palestinians had surpassed 60,000. The ministry, which operates under the Hamas government, doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, but has said that more than half of the dead are women and children.
The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed the figures, saying it only targets militants and it blames civilian deaths on Hamas.
–With files from The Associated Press
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