Carleton University has stopped Hassan Diab from returning to the classroom following at least one complaint from an outside organization.
B’nai Brith, the influential Jewish group, harshly criticized the university for hiring Diab, who is accused in France of killing four people in the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue.
The Toronto-based national office of B’nai Brith issued a statement condemning Carlton’s actions, while an Ottawa-based member of the group telephoned the university directly to complain.
“The university did the right thing,” B’nai Brith’s executive vice-president, Frank Dimant, said Tuesday of Carleton’s about-face.
Dimant said it was “inconceivable” that Diab, who’s awaiting a Jan. 4, 2010, extradition hearing under strict bail conditions — including wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet — would be allowed to be in direct contact with young people.
On Monday, a Carleton spokeswoman confirmed that Diab had been hired on contract to teach for a few weeks this summer after the instructor originally assigned to the introductory sociology class took “an unforeseen leave.”
However, late Tuesday afternoon, the university issued a statement that a full-time faculty member would “immediately replace the current instructor, Hassan Diab.” The move was being made in order to provide students “with a stable, productive academic environment that is conducive to learning,” it said.
A Carleton media-relations officer did not return calls or emails, and the university’s statement said “no further comment will be made regarding this issue.”
Diab, 55, was born in Lebanon, but obtained Canadian citizenship in 1993. He has led a fairly nomadic life, living in six different countries over 12 years. He has left behind a string of marriages, divorces and common-law relationships and has fathered two children over the past two decades.
In 2006, Diab married Rania Tfaily in a religious ceremony that was not legally binding. Tfaily is a professor in Carleton’s sociology and anthropology department, while Diab has taught at the University of Ottawa and, more recently, at Carleton.
Although the couple was not living together at the time of Diab’s arrest in November — he moved last summer to an apartment in Gatineau — Diab must live with Tfaily as one of his many bail conditions. (She has told the court that, although she doesn’t love him, she believes he is innocent.) Indeed, the court heard Monday that Tfaily, Diab’s court-appointed surety, would have been required to escort Diab to and from Carleton to teach his course.
During Diab’s bail hearings earlier this year, Peter Gose, chairman of Carleton’s department of sociology and anthropology, spoke positively about Diab’s character and reputation at the school.
Gose pointed out that Diab made no attempt to flee the country when the allegations against him first became public, and Gose said he was willing to post a $100,000 bond for his colleague.
In other developments, Diab and Tfaily have been granted standing at hearings to determine what items seized by police in Canada can be sent to French authorities. Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger’s decision Tuesday will allow Diab and Tfaily to argue that searches of Tfaily’s condominium and Carleton office were a “fishing expedition” and were conducted in violation of their Charter rights.
Maranger found that Diab had standing in relation to some of the items seized, which included a laptop computer and memory sticks, while Tfaily had standing in relation to two computers belonging to the university.
A sending hearing in relation to Tfaily’s possessions is scheduled for September, while a sending hearing in relation to Diab’s possessions isn’t expected to occur until after the receipt of what his defence counsel described as new evidence later this year.
