335
Doctor Removed From Ontario Medical Association AGM for Refusing to Take Off Watermelon Pin
(pressprogress.ca)
this post was submitted on 24 May 2026
335 points (99.4% liked)
Canada
12012 readers
686 users here now
What's going on Canada?
Related Communities
π Meta
πΊοΈ Provinces / Territories
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Northwest Territories
- Nova Scotia
- Nunavut
- Ontario
- Prince Edward Island
- Quebec
- Saskatchewan
- Yukon
ποΈ Cities / Local Communities
- Anmore (BC)
- Burnaby (BC)
- Calgary (AB)
- Comox Valley (BC)
- Edmonton (AB)
- East Gwillimbury (ON)
- Greater Sudbury (ON)
- Guelph (ON)
- Halifax (NS)
- Hamilton (ON)
- Kingston (ON)
- Kootenays (BC)
- London (ON)
- Mississauga (ON)
- Montreal (QC)
- Nanaimo (BC)
- Niagara Falls (ON)
- Niagara-on-the-Lake (ON)
- Oceanside (BC)
- Ottawa (ON)
- Port Alberni (BC)
- Regina (SK)
- Sarnia (ON)
- Saskatoon (SK)
- Squamish (BC)
- Thunder Bay (ON)
- Toronto (ON)
- Vancouver (BC)
- Vancouver Island (BC)
- Victoria (BC)
- Waterloo (ON)
- Whistler (BC)
- Windsor (ON)
- Winnipeg (MB)
Sorted alphabetically by city name.
π Sports
Baseball
Basketball
Curling
Hockey
- Main: c/Hockey
- Calgary Flames
- Edmonton Oilers
- MontrΓ©al Canadiens
- Ottawa Senators
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Vancouver Canucks
- Winnipeg Jets
Soccer
- Main: /c/CanadaSoccer
- Toronto FC
π» Schools / Universities
- BC | UBC (U of British Columbia)
- BC | SFU (Simon Fraser U)
- BC | VIU (Vancouver Island U)
- BC | TWU (Trinity Western U)
- ON | UofT (U of Toronto)
- ON | UWO (U of Western Ontario)
- ON | UWaterloo (U of Waterloo)
- ON | UofG (U of Guelph)
- ON | OTU (Ontario Tech U)
- QC | McGill (McGill U)
Sorted by province, then by total full-time enrolment.
π΅ Finance, Shopping, Sales
- Personal Finance Canada
- Buy Canadian
- BAPCSalesCanada
- Canadian Investor
- Canadian Skincare
- Churning Canada
- Quebec Finance
- Canada Grown Business
π£οΈ Politics
- General:
- Federal Parties (alphabetical):
- By Province (alphabetical):
π Social / Culture
- 2 North American 4 You (Shitposting & Memes, North America focus)
- Ask a Canadian
- Bières Québec
- Canada Francais
- Canadian Gaming
- Eh Buddy Hoser (Shitposting & Memes, Canada focus)
- EhVideos (Canadian video media)
- First Nations
- First Nations Languages
- Indigenous
- Inuit
- Logiciels libres au QuΓ©bec
- Maple Music (music)
Rules
- Keep the original title when submitting an article. You can put your own commentary in the body of the post or in the comment section.
Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage: lemmy.ca
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I did not know that.
Is it common knowledge outside of political action circles?
I would say it's well known among activists, and outside that community, it's only a little known. It's probably about on the level of sunflowers being used as a symbol for support of Ukraine. It's nowhere near as well-known as Winnie the Pooh being used as a symbol of protest against Xi Jinping.
I've seen it in bios with Palestinian flags but never had it explained that the two were linked.
Seems like the Streisand Effect is at play here. I never would have noticed a watermelon as a political symbol if they hadn't reacted this, i would just think it's a bit of whimsy. Now tons of people are reading about it
Except the organization wasn't trying to stifle dissent. They were trying to avoid any poltics. How dare they. Politics is life.
As many said, it's common knowledge if you've been generally knowledgeable about the colonialism from the 80s and/or if you've been informed because of the current escalation of the genocide.
Israel has had a "military rule" (administratively, judicially, and physically) over a good chunk of Palestinian lands since 1967 (other than what was colonized already). Under military rule law, even the Palestinian flag could put a child in administrative detention (prison with abuse) for an indeterminate amount of time (months to years).
To circumvent the oppressive rule, Palestinians took up the watermelon π which has the green, black, red, and white of the Palestinian flag.
I wouldn't have made that connection either.
I doubt I could recognize the flags of hundreds of countries, theirs included.
Yeah, of course! And other countries share those same colours on their flag - it's not about the colours, but knowing about the oppression that's important; and it's never too late or wrong to learn and share!
I have been well aware of the oppression, the bullshit that the Israeli "settlers" are doing and much more.
But I didn't know that the watermelon had been adopted as a symbol relevant to the issue.
Β
It's not realistic to expect that everyone can know every single detail of every situation.
I'm sure I know some details about certain situations that you haven't heard of, just the same as you probably know things that I have never been aware of.
None of that is any reason to threat others as hostile enemies simply due to lack of exposure to certain details (as some people in this thread seem to want to do).
I'm sorry, was I being hostile? I thought I was maintaining an informative tone.
Never heard of it before.
I'm actually kind of shocked how many people are saying they're unaware. Not judging, just surprised people haven't been exposed to it with everything going on over the last three years. Are you familiar with the yellow ribbon in association with Israel?
The yellow ribbon that's literally used in dozens of countries worldwide, sometimes with more than a single meaning per country?
I didn't ask about the yellow ribbon generally. I asked about it specifically in relation to Israel.
Not aware of that one, either.
Considering it's been a symbol for dozens of causes, I wouldn't be surprised if someone hasn't heard of one specific one
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_ribbon
I'm not aware until this story either. For me, this is my only social media. I imagine a lot of people on lemmy aren't really plugged into a lot of places where you might learn that. I've also never heard of the yellow ribbon.
I only know of the yellow ribbon from marching cadence
No.
Where have you been for the past three years?
I've been following it for years, and I've never once seen this mentioned.
I seriously do not believe you. You literally can't go to an event in support of Palestine without seeing these; I haven't once this entire time. Your "following" seems to just be a passing awareness.
You can believe me or not. But based on the many comments and downvotes, that speaks volumes.
Is that how you criticize yourself? No wonder.
I've been personally against what Israel has been doing with Palestine since long before Oct 7th. I don't personally know anyone that's Palestinian or even Jewish for that matter, living in a fairly rural area. It's possible I do have some acquaintances through professional services but simply don't know their heritage. Whatever the case I never knew anything about the "watermelon" thing until today. TIL
You've been "personally against" it but like, haven't seen any activist footage or social media posts ever? Where watermelons are plastered everywhere? Sorry dude, this is a sign for you that you should be paying more attention.
Looks like it's a "you" thing
I'm often alone when I criticize Canadians to Canadians, they're not a terribly self-reflective or accountable bunch.
Oh, I dunno, tuning out a tribal conflict that has been going on for 70 years and will never be resolved?
Damn, we really got the chuds out today.
Anyone with any knowledge of the middle east should be aware of it. The genocide has been going on for your entire lifetime. In fact there is no human alive today that was not alive during a period where zionists were not killing Palestinian children.
I grew up in a country that's officially anti Israel since forever, and even I don't know that. Just because it may be common knowledge in your circles doesn't make it so worldwide.
Downvoted for poor sentence work. Fix that mess and I'll give you an upvote.
I'm trying to figure out what, at minimum, is missing, other than a single comma.
Oh, it's not the punctuation so much as the, what, triple negative there in the last sentence.
let it slide
Mmmm, no, I don't think I will. Confusing politically-charged messages piss me off.
They haven't always not left me unaffected as well, in spite of, and in accordance with, all of the reasons to the contrary
I certainly didn't know that. I thought maybe they were a Saskatchewan Roughrider's Fan
or just a big fan of watermelon, it's refreshing.
I've always hated wearing ribbons & pins for this very reason. There's no central authority and it leaves too much up to interpretation.
I heard this once a few years ago, said "really?", and then promptly forgot about it until now, where this was briefly new news to me again. Is this like, a very regional specific thing, or am I just out of some very big loops?
Yes, provided you have been following the genocide. It's on par with the kufiyeh
Another word I had to look up.
I recognize the object, but didn't know it's name.
Β
Something being common knowledge for some people doesn't automatically mean it is for everyone.
This entire comment section is a purity test. As if there has never been any other major event or ongoing conflict to be aware of.