🇨🇦 University of Ottawa Doctor Yipeng Ge Previously Suspended for Twitter Posts Claims Reinstatement but Chooses Not to Return

Last Updated on July 20, 2024

Dr. Yipeng Ge, a resident physician at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of medicine, revealed that he has been reinstated after facing suspension in November 2023 due to pro-Palestinian social media posts. Despite the university’s decision to reinstate him, Ge told CBC that he has no intentions of returning to the institution.

The 29-year-old physician received sanctions from the university last November following complaints about his series of pro-Palestinian posts, which included references to “apartheid” and “settler colonialism.” At the time of his suspension, Dr. Ge was a fourth-year public health and preventive medicine resident, completing a residency at the Public Health Agency of Canada, with a research focus on Indigenous health, anti-racism, and decolonization.

Expressing his feelings of being “incredibly harmed” by the entire process, Ge conveyed his dismay, stating, “I’ve given almost eight years of my life to this institution. And for them to do something like this without any kind of conversation beforehand, I find [it] just incredibly appalling and egregious.”

University spokesperson Jesse Robichaud declined to confirm Ge’s reinstatement or comment on the “confidential” deliberations by the faculty’s postgraduate professionalism subcommittee.

Four days prior, the University of Ottawa’s school of epidemiology and public health shared a photo of Ge on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, expressing excitement about welcoming back their “outstanding learner and colleague.”

In November, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, labeled some of Ge’s posts as “antisemitic” on his Substack page. One post featured a photo of a handwritten message on an Ottawa telephone pole with slogans, including “Zionism = Genocide of Palestinians.” Ge clarified that he shared the photo but did not create the poster himself.

Ge argued against what he perceives as disproportionate and heavy-handed discipline for advocating health and human rights for Palestine, pointing out the efforts to discredit and silence individuals expressing such views.

Having resigned from the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) board of directors in December due to a similar backlash, Ge highlighted the rising consequences faced by individuals expressing pro-Palestinian views, in line with a United Nations statement from November 2023.

Reflecting on his experiences, including accompanying graduate students to the West Bank, Ge stated that he found it “incredibly eye-opening” to witness the conditions faced by people living through what he describes as a system of apartheid and different classes of citizenship. Considering his options, Ge is contemplating transferring to another university, emphasizing his inability to continue within the current institution due to the lack of insight, remorse, and acknowledgment of mistakes by faculty leadership.