Her former employer denies she suffered any damages, was forced to quit or was defamed
Northern Health has denied wrongfully demoting a former employee for making pro-Palestinian statements outside of work.
The complaint letter points to three main actions taken by Blanding. First, that she wore a watermelon T-shirt to a choir rehearsal in Prince George; second, that she sang a song in a choir concert about violence inflicted against children during conflict; and third, that she made a personal social media post about the concert criticizing the “genocide in Palestine” and Israel’s use of force that, at the time, had “murder 33,000 civilians, over 14,000 of them children.
Data and analysis from UN experts align more closely with Blanding’s assertions in her social media posts than with the letter’s counter-statements, and, according to reporting by NPR, the watermelon symbol has been used to represent Palestinian resistance to occupation since the 1980s and is currently most commonly understood as a call to ceasefire.
The lawsuit alleges, “Northern Health executives stated that the context and accuracy of the letter were irrelevant to their decision. Northern Health’s priority was risk management, not doing the right thing. Northern Health did not follow its own guidelines concerning complaints from the public.” A “key area of responsibility” of the role “as explicitly set out in the IDEA contract and implied, included... not engaging in activities, even on her personal time, that she knew or ought to have known may be offensive to individuals, both members of the public and NHA staff,” Northern Health said in its response.
Therefore, the health authority says, it shouldn’t have to pay anything to Blanding. It denies she suffered any damages, was forced to quit or was defamed.
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