The misuse of a medical school valedictory speech

Opinion

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This article was published 04/06/2024 (481 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I am writing to shed light on the shameful display of ignorance and insensitivity by the graduation class valedictory speech at the Max Rady College of Medicine on May 16.

At the University of Manitoba, considering the sizable First Nations population of Manitoba and long history of First Nations victimization, reconciliation with the Indigenous Canadian community is taken very seriously.

The valedictorian in one sentence blended the plight of the Indigenous in Canada in their ongoing conflict with settler colonialism with the plight of Palestinians who are suffering from “Israel’s deliberate targeting of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure” in the current Gaza war. He used the phrase “Israel’s genocidal war.”

The Jews in the audience, their families, and like-minded non-Jews sat in stunned silence, enabling the cheers from the valedictorian’s supporters to sound louder.

How did our medical school’s curriculum fail to educate our students on having as many facts as possible before reaching conclusions and on having sensitivity to “know your audience” and understand that while a university is a place for an open exchange of contrasting views, a medical school graduation ceremony is a joyous time for all in attendance to feel welcome and celebratory?

There were so many things wrong with this speech and what ensued afterward when the valedictorian, knowing that many were hurt and appalled by the speech, doubled down in a later social media post celebrating his boldness.

Conflating the suffering of the First Nations with Israel pursuing a “genocide” on the people of Gaza tarnishes the plight of the First Nations people of Canada because it conflates it with a lie; this lie has been systematically brought into current public discourse and spread across social media entrapping some of our community’s former friends.

Let me highlight a few facts that underscore what makes the valedictorian speech hateful, based on lies.

The Jews are the Indigenous peoples of what is the current State of Israel. There is irrefutable archaeological and written evidence of their presence in the land of Israel dating back millenia.

Israel, as a Jewish state was sanctioned by the United Nations in 1948, meant to partition the land with the Arabs who also lived there. This led to an immediate declaration of war on Israel by surrounding Arab states.

While Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, there has been an inability to make peace with the Palestinians. Israeli governments in 2000 and 2008 offered deals to create a two-state solution with return of 97 per cent of lands to the Palestinians. Where would the Palestinians be today had they been accepted?

The ensuing years brought repeated bombing from Hamas toward Israeli citizens, not just military installations, and Hamas took the billions of aid dollars and created an underground tunnel infrastructure to wage war on Israel, rather than developing a sustainable standard of living.

Hamas embedded itself within the citizen population and under hospitals, so as to put their citizens at risk. On Oct. 7, Hamas used sickening barbarism to attack Israel citizens.

If Israel wanted to commit genocide on Arabs living in their neighbourhood, they would not have signed a peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan. With the strength of their army they could have, years ago, wiped out the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza. Gazans are facing a horrific tragedy that most Jews lament, but how did it reach this point? What facts brought us to this horrific war?

Antisemitism during the Spanish Inquisition was based on religious hatred. During the Holocaust it was based on racial hatred, and today it is based on land.

Israel is the only Jewish state on Earth for the 14 million Jews across the globe. Its existence is vital to our existence. If I, as a Jew, claim that being anti-Zionist is antisemitic, then it is for me. No victimized peoples should be dictated to, as to what constitutes their victimization.

This brings us back to the valedictorian. It concerns me that a physician would make a judgment on a complex conflict without facts. He must have missed the problem-solving tutorials. Further, physicians must have sensitivity and not be divisive.

Many lessons can be taken from this wanton disregard for facts and unprofessional behaviour of the valedictorian’s speech.

The valedictorian and his supporters need to learn what is an appropriate forum for controversial discussion. How did they get to graduation without this learning?

All universities across Canada must learn from this valedictory speech. Our medical school curricula need to include education on injustices perpetrated on all minorities. Fora should be held where both sides of a contentious issue can voice their opinions in an organized and unaggressive way. University leaders need to “read the cues” and get ahead of chaos by ensuring there are platforms for dialogue.

This would also protect would-be valedictorians from feeling a need to grandstand and leave medical school valedictory speeches to focus on medicine.

Charles N. Bernstein, MD, FRCPC, is distinguished professor of medicine at the Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba.