It doesn’t matter how many crimes Israel commits, Zionist authoritarianism marches on. The bid to shut down my NDP leadership campaign, the barring of Kneecap from Canada and the Carney government’s new “hate” legislation highlight the staying power of Zionist authoritarianism two years into a live streamed holocaust.
From the moment I announced my bid to lead the NDP, Zionists have been calling for me to be barred from the race. Thursday Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lilley once again called on the NDP to exclude me from the race for opposing Mark Carney’s plan to follow the UK in criminalizing symbols of “terror” organizations such the grassroots Vancouver group Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network. Lilley posted, “NDP leadership candidate Yves Engler is upset the government wants to ban the symbols of banned terrorist groups. Really @NDP you should make it clear that this man has no place in your party.”
Lilley’s call follows a campaign by Meir Weinstein and other Zionists to pressure a Toronto Anglican Church to cancel the booking for my campaign event. In “Toronto church cancels Yves Engler’s speaking event following Zionist pressure”, Fernando Arce details genocide lobbyists campaign to shut down an NDP leadership event.
Not content with disrupting the democracy of a major political party’s leadership race, Weinstein then demanded the police break-up the meeting. He called on the police to enforce Toronto’s unconstitutional “bubble bylaw” against those coming out to hear from an NDP leadership candidate.
Despite the church cancelling last minute and a handful of disrupters led by Weinstein, about 150 supporters rallied on the church’s steps Thursday night to hear Rabbi David Mivisair, former Canadian Union of Postal Workers president Mike Palecek, organizer Sara Rasikh and myself. The event was electrifying. There’s almost certainly never been more police on hand for an NDP leadership launch.
As the police were preparing for Thursday night’s event in Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) abruptly “postponed” the three-week-old room booking for my Friday night talk with retired WLU professor and author of Analyzing the Israel Effect in Canada: A Critical Autoethnography, Peter Eglin, and WLU Balsillie School for International Affairs PhD candidate Tamara Lorincz. The event topic is “Canada and the Genocide in Gaza. What rules based order?” Irrespective of the university administration’s bid to suppress it, the event went ahead with 50 attending an event that took over a public area next to that was booked. Zionist authoritarianism must be vociferously resisted.
Friday the federal government announced that they were barring Irish rap group Kneecap from entering Canada for its opposition to genocide. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and other Jewish supremacist organizations have been campaigning for this measure for weeks.
The same day they banned Kneecap the Mark Carney government announced a more authoritarian anti-Palestinian policy. They announced a new “hate” law, which would criminalize wearing or holding symbols of listed “terror” organizations to intentionally intimidate. According to initial media reports, it would be illegal to wave a Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network flag outside a synagogue hosting an Israeli politician or military official.
Authoritarian Zionism must be challenged and condemned. Hopefully, Kneecap sues and solidarity concerts are organized to replace their gigs scheduled for Toronto and Vancouver. We need to campaign against Carney’s new “hate” law. My NDP leadership campaign has been successfully fighting through many attacks and using them educate and to build an activist oriented political campaign that can confront power.
The way Canadian authorities have punished those opposing Israel’s genocide but done almost nothing to put pressure on the state committing the crime to stop reveals how rotten our intertwined economic and political system has become. The way our governments can’t see beyond providing tax incentives to “developers” to deal with the housing emergency reveals another major flaw in our intertwined economic and political system. The way Canadian government and business leaders have jumped on the Donald Trump militarism bandwagon reveals where capitalism is trying to take us.
Sensible Canadians should and will resist. We are trying to use this leadership campaign as a tool to build that resistance.
To assist, donate or learn more about my bid to lead the NDP check out yvesforndpleader.ca
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