Canada's Carleton University lets convicted terrorist teach, fights his extradition: reports

Canada's Carleton University is facing international pressure to can a Lebanese lecturer convicted of terrorism in France, who allegedly uses his "Social Justice in Action" class to preach his innocence to students.

B'nai Brith Canada put the spotlight on the university Friday, saying it had "ignored B’nai Brith’s formal request to terminate his position, allowing Diab to remain in a position of authority over students." 

Letting him teach "not only presents a danger to the well-being of its students, but it is an insult to the memory of the innocent victims of his heinous crime and an affront to all Canadians who value law and order," the group wrote on X, asking supporters to sign a form letter to Carleton against Diab's employment.

Canada's National Post explained the background of the controversy Tuesday, which escalated over the weekend in Jewish and Israeli media. He has taught at Carleton since 2006.

A French court convicted the elderly Diab last year in absentia in connection with the 1980 bombing of the Rue Copernic synagogue in Paris, "the first deadly attack against French Jews since the Second World War" and "beginning of a new era of French antisemitic violence committed by Palestinian or Islamist terrorists," the Post said.

His course outline says it "puts central emphasis on miscarriages of justice in the context of Canadian extradition law, with close examination of a high-profile extradition case that highlights the pertinent issues," according to the Post, saying that "case" refers to Diab's own.

One victim's two sons denounced the university in the Jerusalem Post, saying the university's values don't appear to clash with "carrying out a murderous terrorist act against a Jewish target."

Diab's Department of Sociology and Anthropology demanded Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister of Justice Lametti "use their discretionary powers" to shield Diab from extradition after his conviction last year, later scrubbing the statement from its website.

It faulted the French legal system as a European outlier for not requiring a "burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt" and said the evidence against Diab had been "previously critiqued by the investigative judges as problematic," including a "discredited" handwriting analysis. It also said "much evidence" supports his innocence.

Before his conviction, the department even organized a rally in downtown Ottawa, claiming Diab was "not involved at all in that bombing that took place in 1980," the Post reported.