Canada

A Canadian legal association under fire for cancelling a Syrian Canadian entrepreneur's upcoming speech over his stance on Gaza says it will cancel the event altogether.

The move comes after mounting calls for the organization to cancel its upcoming event in June, where Tareq Hadhad was set to speak, with many members ending their memberships over what they saw as an encroachment on diverse thought and freedom of speech. Past TAS president Marie Henein, Danielle Robitaille, Arleen Huggins and Megan Savard were among those who withdrew from the organization in the wake of the move.

At least two high-ranking members of the organization also resigned from the group's executive and board of directors over the decision: Sheree Conlon, who was set to be the group's incoming president, and Sheila Gibb, its treasurer.

Both said Hadhad was unfairly being held to a standard that others were not after complaints were filed to TAS over his characterization online of Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide, without apparent condemnation of Hamas or postings on hostages taken after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel.