The Ontario Medical Association is facing backlash online after family doctor Yipeng Ge posted about being removed from its annual general meeting because he sported a watermelon pin.

According to an audio recording of the May 7 incident that Ge shared with PressProgress, two members of OMA’s executive team — who Ge said identified themselves as Sandy Zidaric and Adam Farber — escorted him out of the event at the Rogers Centre in Ottawa and told him he could not re-enter the room unless he took the watermelon pin off.

“It’s a political symbol, and I think because of that, we have a rule for our meetings so that these aren’t worn,” Farber is heard saying in the recording. “And anyone who’s wearing other political symbols, we would ask them to remove that as well.”

Since the 1980s, the watermelon has been an emblem of Palestinian solidarity, emerging from an era in which public displays of the Palestinian flag (which shares similar colours) were expressly banned in Israel.

Ge asked if he’d be able to wear a Canadian flag.

“I don’t believe that’s the same thing as a watermelon,” said Farber, who serves as the OMA’s legal advisor and executive vice-president of economics, policy and research. The OMA is the principal advocacy organization for Ontario’s doctors, into which all of the province’s practicing physicians pay dues.

“I think, really, what we both want to do is we want to make sure that everybody feels comfortable and safe, and attends the meeting, absolutely,” said Zidaric, the organization’s executive vice-president of people and culture. “So I’m sure that that’s what you want as well.”

“Can you explain to me why wearing a watermelon pin would make certain people feel uncomfortable or unsafe?” Ge asked.

“I don’t think we need to,” said Farber. “I think it’s pretty clear what the purpose of the symbol is and what it represents, and it’s clearly a political symbol that’s being worn.”

The rule Farber and Zidaric refer to throughout the nearly 15-minute conversation is one sentence in an email sent to attendees ahead of the event.

It read, “To support the orderly conduct of the meeting, demonstrations and the display of signage, clothing, or accessories with messaging are not permitted.” There was no explicit reference to political symbols.

Ge asked whether wearing a Pride flag would be disallowed if it made a homophobic person uncomfortable.

“I don’t know if that’s the point of the discussion,” Farber said.

Neither Farber nor Zidaric directly responded to questions from PressProgress, but in a statement, a spokesperson for the OMA wrote the following:

“We are aware of concerns raised regarding an interaction involving an attendee at the Ontario Medical Association’s Annual General Meeting. The OMA is a non-partisan organization focused on representing and advocating for Ontario’s physicians and the patients they serve. While we understand that global events can evoke profound personal convictions and deeply held feelings among our diverse membership, the OMA will continue to remain steadfast in its policy of neutrality on geopolitical matters to ensure our focus remains on medical advocacy.”

On the recording, neither Farber nor Zidaric bring up a second pin Ge was wearing on his lapel: a red ribbon with a small Palestinian flag embedded at the top.

“The red ribbon is for the AIDS campaign, but it’s also been used recently to demand the release of all Palestinian political prisoners or hostages,” Ge told PressProgress in an interview, describing the Red Ribbons Campaign.

Ge was not slated to be a speaker at the event, and the executive-team members did not identify any complaints from attendees about his attire.

Yet they refused to let him back in the conference room unless he took the watermelon pin off, and offered to instead seat him alone in a different room where he could attend the meeting remotely.

Ge has been a vocal advocate for Palestinians undergoing Israel’s genocide since 2023, and is one of many physicians and medical students across Canada who have faced professional repercussions as a result.

In his encounter with the OMA executives, in an interview with PressProgress and in his social media posts, Ge emphasized the reason he refused to take off the pin: to show solidarity with Palestinian healthcare workers who have been killed or captured by Israeli forces over the course of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Since Ge posted about the incident on his social media accounts, healthcare workers, medical students and members of the public have been tagging the OMA in comments on Instagram, X and LinkedIn demanding a response.

Among those supporting Ge is Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, a South African physician and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, who commented under the post on Instagram, ”Sorry my friend. You and your pin are mighty. Viva.”

At least one doctor who attended the meeting responded positively online to the organization’s decision to remove Ge from the premises.

“Kudos to two staff from @OntariosDoctors for upholding the code of conduct and removing a member from last night’s Annual General Meeting,” Toronto-based internal medicine physician Dr. Hal Berman wrote on X. “A reminder that racism must never be tolerated and OMA meetings are not for personal agendas.”

Berman finished second in a recent election for the OMA presidency, telling the National Post that his loss was unfair because the organization had added a note to his campaign profile describing his social media posts as having “used language frequently characterized by a confrontational and combative tone.”

Since his advocacy for Palestine began in 2023, Ge has heard from a number of other healthcare workers and medical students across Canada who faced backlash in their workplaces for wearing symbols of support for Palestine.

“One that I think about was a medical resident in Quebec who wore a watermelon pin, and because of that, they were told, ‘If you’re going to wear this pin, you’re not allowed to be in the clinic and see the patients that are under my care,’ and so they were kicked out,” Ge said.

He cited another incident in Ottawa where a nurse was sent home by their manager for wearing a pin with a watermelon that had the words “Ottawa HCP,” representing “Ottawa Healthcare Workers for Palestine,” embedded in it.

“I know so many people in the medical profession that do stand against genocide and stand in support with Palestinians,” Ge said.

“We just have to be much louder, be much more organized and really push back in a loud way, because these institutions have gotten away with so much for so long behind closed doors.”

Clarification: A sentence has been added to offer background on why watermelons are associated with Palestinian solidarity.