ELECTION DAY GUIDE: WHERE PARTY'S STAND ON GAZA

 

Here is a handy chart that gives you an idea of where the top five federal parties stand with respect to Gaza and Israel's genocidal actions against the Palestinian people. In my riding, it looks like only the NDP candidate, Gabriela Trujillo, has signed on to the entire five-point platform:

 

👉Two-way arms embargo on Israel

👉Ending Canadian support for settlements

👉Combat anti-Palestinian racism and protect pro-Palestine speech

👉Recognizing the state of Palestine

👉Funding Gaza relief efforts, including UNRWA

 

I GUESS she’s got my vote. The NDP may be shifting from its strident support for Israel and that’s good. But Canadian politicians could be doing so much more to address and challenge Israel, including “third party” use of Canadian munitions (that are sold to the United States, then shipped/sold to Israel).

 

FUN FACT:

“A report co-authored by Independent Jewish Voices Canada revealed that between 2018 and 2022, over $1 billion in Canadian charitable donations—which are tax-deductible—were sent to recipients in Israel. Balsam says that a portion of those funds ended up in the hands of ‘some of the most right-wing fascist settler groups in the country.’” (CCPA)

 

Do Canadians want their tax dollars going to Jewish NGOs that subsidize genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza? By allowing registered charity status to non-profits like “Friends of the IDF-Canada” or “The Association for the Soldiers of Israel-Canada” these organizations and others like them are able to collect tax-deductible donations in Canada and send the money directly to the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). Canadian taxpayer money is indirectly sponsoring a foreign military that is carrying out genocide and ethnic cleansing. In voting in our federal elections, Canadians should choose candidates and the party most aligned with stopping Israel’s mass murder sprees in Occupied Palestine and Israeli military adventures in the Levant (including its bat-shit crazy desire for a war with Iran).

What’s more important than voting against a genocide in which Canada is directly and indirectly complicit—through its munitions ending up in Israel and by providing tax refunds to organizations and individuals contributing money in support of Israeli war crimes?

 

Cheers, Jake.

 

 

 

 

RANT: IF I'VE TOLD YOU ONCE, I'VE TOLD YOU ONCE.

 

 

I’VE MENTIONED EARLIER how we are witnessing a ratcheting up of censorship laws and attacks on the freedom of expression we'd always thought of as part-and-parcel of our societies, especially in America with its robust Constitution and its First Amendment protections of “free speech”. Covid Times have taught us that being able to speak one’s mind or publicly criticize, or even question, things like SARS-CoV-2's origins, or vaccine efficacy, or quarantines and social distancing is no longer a given. For example, making commentary or publishing social media posts arguing in favour of using ivermectin to treat the disease or discussing the potential harms mRNA-derived vaccines might cause was to reap the whirlwind of angry rebuttals from fellow posters. Governments and social media organizations would label posts or videos arguing for such treatments as “mis-information” that came with threats of “shadow-banning” or de-platforming anyone who had the temerity to express opinions contrary to the official line. Along with instances of enforced quarantines* and a throttling of speech across swaths of society, public protests also became more onerous. Recall what was done to the “Freedom Convoy" trucker protests of January 2022 in Ottawa when charges were laid against the group's organizers. This month, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber were found guilty of “mischief”, an offense that can come with a sentence of up to ten years. The pair had to abide the burden of three years of "lawfare", lawyers' bills and time away from work and family for their part in a legal, if noisy, demonstration against a government-mandated quarantine regime they considered excessive. The protestors assumed they had the Charter right of "freedom of expression". Until they didn't. Lich and Barber will be sentenced later this year. 

RECALL, also, how the protest was disrupted by then-Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who froze protestors' bank accounts, a handy tactic that is now part of the toolkit for every government dealing with dissenters, going forward. And our then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau performed the coup de grâsse by invoking the “Emergencies Act” (previously the “War Measures Act”) to clear the protestors' encampment outside Parliament, which was the equivalent of using a sledge-hammer to bang home a tack. 

Fines, jail time, frozen bank accounts, de-platforming. Is this the future we’re in for? We will be dealing with the aftermath of Covid-19, physically and as a society, for some time to come.¹

 

TODAY, we are seeing another assault on freedom of expression with charges of “antisemitism” being labelled against individuals and groups who are critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza. It should be noted that the definition of “antisemitism” itself had been extended in 2015 by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), an NGO that provides backgrounder information to governments, institutions and businesses about antisemitism, how it should be defined, and what can be done to combat it. The “core” definition of antisemitism in the IHRA guidelines does not specifically mention “Israel”, but examples of antisemitism it uses include: “targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as Jewish collectivity” or claiming the state of Israel is a “racist endeavor”. These examples have the knock-on effect of broadening the definition of the offense considerably. Governments around the world use the IRHA’s definitions in crafting their own antisemitism speech and protest laws, Canada included, resulting in criticisms of the Israeli state now becoming actionable offenses (in Canada) under our current "Hate Speech" laws. We’ve seen the introduction of antisemitism 'guidelines' at U.S. college campuses, and their effect muzzling pro-Palestinian protesters. There is a similar muting of protests on Canadian campuses. While these new laws and by-laws are said to protect Jewish Canadians from harm or hindrance, their real efficacy is in muting political speech.

 

TAKE THE EXAMPLE OF Montreal-based activist and author, Yves Engler, who was charged with harassment of a social media “influencer”, Dalhia Kurtz, who posts anti-Palestinian, Zionist diatribes on X, along with outright falsehoods about Gaza and its people. Yves took her to task by rebutting her claims, calling her a “genocide supporter” and a "fascist". An apparent snowflake who can dish it out but can't take it, Dahlia appealed to the Montreal Police, claiming Yves’ responses to her X-postings made her feel “unsafe”. Bollocks! Yves called out her racism and xenophobia and she can’t stand the truth. Long story longer, Yves went to the police station for questioning and was kept in custody for five days. At his subsequent bail hearing he was released pending his trial date. Couple more things: the arresting officer wanted Yves to agree he would have no further contact with Kurtz. He accepted this condition to avoid further jail time. BUT the officer also wanted Yves to not write about or publicize his case. Yves did not agree to this condition, calling it out for what it is: a blatant attack on his freedom of expression.

 

    Dahlia Kurtz: Fascist or flake? Or both?

THE JUDGE presiding over the activist’s bail hearing promptly waived the later condition. Yves’ still must face upcoming court dates, as I understand it, but at least he is free to talk and write about his experiences. A final note: In an odd twist, Yves’ received an additional charge from the Montreal Police claiming the activist was harassing them²  by writing about them! WTF?! Are they just a  bunch of snowflakes? With all the institutional support a police force has, including the force of arms, and it's they who are feeling harassed?! GMAB! It's no small matter to silence a journalist using "lawfare" and the power of the state. It's a threat that should be taken very seriously. 

IMHO, both cases should be tossed and it will be fun to watch them fold like a cheap suit.

 

“Now that I’ve had some time to reflect on my arrest, incarceration, experience with the legal system, and outpouring of support, another lesson has been learned. Every time Zionists employ police-state methods to shut down criticism of Israel more people understand what Palestinians face daily.” (Yves Engler)

 

Cheers, Jake.____________________________________

 

* Remember those returning disease cruise ships docking at Vancouver with people stuck on them for weeks before they could finally disembark? Or the “Covid camps” set up by the Australian government to quarantine returning air travelers suspected of having Covid-19 ("Coronavirus Disease) or who weren’t vaxxed-to-the-max? Fun times!

1. The two organizers, will be sentenced later this year. in February, another organizer, Pat King has been sentenced to three months of house arrest. The Crown is appealing his sentence, and he could face the maximum 10-year jail sentence (as could fellow organizers Lich and Barber) if his court ruling is overturned. And Ottawa community members who were impacted by the protests have “cleared another hurdle” in the legal process to file a $250M class action lawsuit against the “Freedom Convoy”! Dragging protestors through the courts and applying heavy fines (i.e., “lawfare”) is another way of tamping down on citizens’ rights to peacefully protest and to freely speak their minds.   

2. The police may have had a bit of egg on their face because Yves’ arrest did cause a bit of a media stir, among journalists especially, who blogged and posted and highlighted Yves’ case as a blatant attack on freedom of expression and governmental overreach. Or, they may have been surprised at the dozens of Yves’s supporters showing up at the precinct where he was being held. Perhaps the police wanted to convey to the public that they were people too, and were scared and intimidated by the big, bad journalist! [Yves looks like he weighs 130 pounds dripping wet. Ed]

 

 

 

 

RANT: THE MORAL QUESTION OF OUR TIME

 

WITH THE CANADIAN federal election just around the corner, I thought I’d better decide who I’m voting for. With five federal parties vying to be the next government, there are a lot of things to consider: from Donald Trump’s trade war and threats to make Canada the fifty-first state; to the health of our healthcare system; to the cost of living and the economy; the environment, global warming and “green energy” initiatives; pensions; the digital space; AI; the increasing restrictions on freedom of expression; new trading relationships outside the U.S. market; foreign policy and foreign interference in Canadian politics. That's a lot of topics and a lot to chew on.

 

SO, TO KEEP IT SIMPLE and not give myself a migraine, I thought of one topic that I’d like the skinny on. And that topic is Canada's stance on Gaza. Where do our politicians stand on what is arguably the first, great moral question of our brand new, bright and shiny, twenty-first century?

Gaza. It’s not a ‘war’ as many call it. The "Gazan" war. The "Israeli-Hamas" war. No. It’s a slaughter, a mass murder that has deservedly earned the label of genocide. It is collective punishment and ethnic cleansing of a population (Palestinians) by an occupying power (Israel) which are war crimes according to the Geneva Convention. The imbalance of power, with Israel having the full complement of a modern military versus Hamas fighters armed with hand-held weapons and a few, largely ineffectual, missiles, is patently obvious. So, a 'war' it is not.

 

    [See description below]

FOR OVER eighteen months Israel has bombarded the Palestinian enclave until it has made the Gaza Strip uninhabitable. Its farmlands and urban centres, its infrastructure, roads, schools, hospitals, places of worship have been systematically destroyed by Israel's IDF (Israeli Defense Force) in their declared goal of attritting Hamas forces. But the real goal is not to eradicate Hamas or to get back the hostages, rather it is to depopulate the Gaza Strip and ethnically cleanse all Palestinians from their lands. It's a big job! Crazy logistics! Where they will go is a good question. Egypt's Sinai? Jordon? Syria perhaps? There's even suggestions about Somaliland on the Horn of Africa as the landing pad for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who will leave Gaza (and eventually the West Bank and East Jerusalem) to save their lives and their families’ lives.

UNTIL MORE of the international community applies pressure--real pressure--on Israel to cease and desist its activities in Gaza, deaths through bombings, disease, and starvation will continue to mount.

And, while I see little hope for the Palestinians, it's still important that we make a principled stand against the genocide and ethnic cleansing*. Another state, South Africa, bent to international pressure in the 1980s and early 90s to end apartheid rule over the country's non-white population. And recall, last year, it was South Africa that brought a charge of genocide against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague. [The ruling is still pending. Ed.] South Africa learned its lesson. Is it even conceivable that Israel will learn its lesson, as well? I doubt it.

 

So, that’s a long way round to decide on who I’m voting for in the mid-April federal election. And so, here goes:

 

PIERRE POILIEVRE AND THE CONSERVATIVES: PP already blew it for me when he parroted Trump’s deportation plans whereby uppity international students at Canadian universities, who have expressed pro-Palestine sentiments on social media and/or participated in campus protests criticizing the Israeli government for its genocide in Gaza, would be summarily deported. Criticism of Israel is now judged to be anti-Semitic. And antisemitism is "hate speech" and can be an actionable offense under Canada's growing censorship laws. Poilievre claims that pro-Palestinian rallies are responsible for a rise in antisemitism. I suggest that if there indeed is an uptick in antisemitism it’s due to Israel’s wanton militarism in the Levant and its treatment of the Palestinian people that the world watches in horror each day. Labeling as antisemitic peaceful (for the most part) campus protests or social media posts that are critical of Israel is wrong-headed and an assault on the rights of Canadians to freely express their views, especially at institutions of higher learning where the free exchange of ideas is crucial to maintain a healthy academic environment. 

Remember, if their voices are silenced, then both the speaker and the listener (that’s us) loses. Someone should tell Poilievre that thuggishness is not a winning character trait.

👉More dialogue. Less diatribe.

 

MARC CARNEY AND THE LIBERALS: Both major parties are generally sympatico when it comes to Israel. One difference is seen in Carney's election pledge of $100M in aid for Gaza. [Devil's in the details, of course. Ed.] He’s called for an immediate ceasefire. His rhetoric around pro-Palestinian protests is more muted that Poilievre, but make no mistake, he is pro-Israel. While Poilievre is more stridently in the Zionist camp, all in for arms trade with Israel and deporting international students for “wrong speech”, Carney focuses on the humanitarian aspects to the conflict. It will be interesting if Canada's UN voting record shifts under Carney to one more critical of Israel. We'll see.

 

The Maple online publication had a helpful guide of which politicians were sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians. It published a survey done by the grassroots advocacy group Vote Palestine which sent to every candidate across the country a five-point proposal:

👉Install a two-way arms embargo on Israel

👉End Canadian support for settlements [West Bank, East Jerusalem]

👉Combat anti-Palestinian racism and protect pro-Palestine speech 

👉Recognize the state of Palestine

👉Provide funding for Gaza relief efforts, including UNRWA.

 

THE SURVEY also contains a list of parties⁺ that support the platform: the Centrist Party of Canada; the Communist Party of Canada; Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada; the Young Greens of Canada; the Young New Democrats. Which saves me a whole lot of time hunting down party and candidate priorities.

 

IN THE RIDING WHERE I LIVE there are no candidates who have signed onto the Vote Palestine platform, and of the parties registered here, only the Communist Party of Canada addresses fully the manifesto’s demands. So, comrades, I guess I’m voting commie! 👍 

 

 

Cheers, Jake.____________________________________

 

[Picture is of a red-topped table stretching several hundred meters for displaced Palestinian families gathered amid the destruction in Rafah, Southern Gaza, on the first day of Ramadan to share iftar—the evening meal that breaks their daily fast.]

 

*Just a friendly reminder: the next time there's a major happening that will focus the news cycle for a few days—a Trump story or events in Ukraine or the South China Sea, whatever, note the uptick in Israeli bombing in Gaza and the greater number of Palestinian casualties (mostly women and children).  The IDF likes to camouflage their business behind current events when the media is focused elsewhere. (Not that the media, for the most part, is doing its job in calling a spade a genocide.) It’s one reason they want a bang-up war with Iran, with America doing most of the banging, of course. Cloaked under the fog of war, the ‘final solution’ to the Palestinian question can be carried out that much quicker.  

 

+ Thus far more than 240 candidates in the upcoming federal elections have signed onto the Vote Palestine's platform: 162 NDP, 65 Green, 14 Liberal, Block Québécois  0, Conservatives 0. 

 

MONTREAL ACTIVIST Yves Engler and former NDP candidate, Beisan Zubi on a recent "Talking Foreign Policy" podcast discuss the changing NDP stance on the Israel/Palestine conflict, noting Jaggmeet Singh's pointed questioning, during the recent French Leaders Debate, of Liberal PM Mark Carney on why he doesn't use the word "genocide" to describe what's happening in Gaza. Singh may have used this simply as a cudgel to score political points, but it may also represent a growing grassroots change, both inside the NDP as well as in the broader Canadian public, that's increasingly in favour of Palestinian rights and adopting a more critical appraisal  of Israel. 

Singh, who was clearly in the pro-Israel-no-matter-what camp when he became NDP leader in 2017 has been changing his tune recently, according to Zubi. He could be taking heed of the changing attitudes within NDP ranks. As the Vote Palestine survey suggests, the NDP are the most pro-Palestinian of our political parties, at least as far as the recent cohort of candidates is concerned. Let's see if the NDP party platform comes to reflect the changing attitudes of party members and the Canadian public.