Thank you. Good afternoon.

My name is Yipeng Ge. I'm a family doctor currently practising in primary care and refugee health in Ottawa.

I completed medical school at the University of Ottawa and was awarded the Anne C. Amberg Prize, a convocation award for the best combination of academic accomplishment and sensitivity to community health issues.

I completed my master's of public health and health and social behaviour with a certificate in public health leadership from Harvard University. Also, as a scholar and practitioner of anti-racism and health equity, I was on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research anti-racism advisory committee, and I helped develop anti-racism education for the University of Ottawa's department of family medicine.

During my time at Harvard University, which was when I first visited Palestine, I deepened my learning on settler colonialism and bearing witness to apartheid and occupation as determinants of Palestinian health, as this has been my area of study here on Turtle Island related to indigenous health in Canada.

I was a resident in public health and preventive medicine at the University of Ottawa's faculty of medicine. I sat on faculty council, the highest governing committee for the faculty, and I was on the board of directors for the Canadian Medical Association last year.

I learned intimately this past year that the boundaries of freedom of expression in Canada have been severely limited as it pertains to speech in support of health and human rights for Palestinians and Palestine. My experience of institutional anti-Palestinian racism and limitations on our freedom of speech parallels the stories of many who have chosen to speak out about human rights violations in Palestine.

Anti-Palestinian racism is a form of racism and discrimination adjacent to Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, but it is also distinct from both. It is a form of racism that seeks to silence, exclude, erase, stereotype and dehumanize Palestinians and their allies. This often results in severe sanctions and disciplinary actions that profoundly impact the lives of Palestinians and their allies, a practice that has been advised against by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. This is a freedom of expression issue.

Last year around this time, a family doctor and faculty member shared my social media posts and publicly mischaracterized them as anti-Semitic and inflammatory and sent them to the university and the Canadian Medical Association. He was someone who was neither a patient nor a direct colleague or supervisor of mine. My social media posts were from my personal accounts, and in no way was I trying to speak from any of my places of employment or affiliation. These posts were criticized as being inflammatory, racist and anti-Semitic simply because they advocated for Palestinians having the same human rights as everyone else, aligning with international law.

I met with senior leadership of the Canadian Medical Association, and my social media posts were criticized. I was pressured to put together a public apology and provide personal one-on-one apologies to certain people in high-ranking positions and who hold influence in the association. Soon after, I received a phone call from the university informing me of my immediate and indefinite suspension, citing a level-three breach of professionalism for my social media posts. A level-three professionalism breach means repeated instances of an individual's behaviour and conduct despite intervention, or a concern for the individual's clinical care or quality of care of services.

No prior conversations were held and no concerns were ever raised before regarding my social media posts or professionalism. Patient safety was raised as a concern. However, in my duties as a resident in public health, I was completing a rotation at the Public Health Agency of Canada without any individuals working under me whom I was responsible for supervising and also without direct patient contact. The university's professionalism subcommittee, which reviewed my case, recommended immediate reinstatement without any disciplinary action. They suggested an apology be issued by the university, which they never gave. I feel deeply harmed by the university, which caused emotional and psychological distress and permanently altered my career path in public health.

As I sat on faculty council this past year, I witnessed multiple cases of medical students' social media posts being discussed as professionalism concerns, and it was clear that a fair process was not being followed. It was shared during these meetings that there were no clear bylaws or processes, and their legal counsel was creating the processes as they went. There were statements shared in these meetings that were rooted in anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate without any accountability.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has informed me of multiple complaints against me of a similar nature related to social media posts and not related to my clinical competency and conduct within the clinical setting. This is taking away time and resources from me, my legal counsel and, ultimately, the college itself in managing legitimate cases related to professional competence and conduct.

My purpose today is to ask the standing committee for support in holding institutions to account for overstepping in their policing of people's right to free speech and to recognize the appalling normalization of anti-Palestinian racism in educational institutions and places of employment, such as the University of Ottawa and the Canadian Medical Association. This is a non-partisan issue. There are solutions that are already being proposed, including Conservative private member's Bill C-257, an act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act, protecting against discrimination based on political belief.

Last week, the Alberta premier, along with the justice minister, said that their government will review professional regulatory bodies such as the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which play the important role of regulating professional competence and conduct, and introduce legislation next year to limit how they can police their own members on their speech.

Thank you.