Heather McPherson has some strange ways of demonstrating she is pro-Palestinian and a foe of Israel’s genocide, apartheid and ongoing ethnic cleansing.
Yesterday Heather McPherson introduced the NDP’s leading anti-Palestinian into the party’s gamed leadership race. She sent thousands an email from recently retired MP Randall Garrison.
One of the party’s most prominent Zionists in recent years, Garrisson shared a genocide justifying post from disgraced anti-Palestinian former BC cabinet minister Selina Robinson only two months ago.
Until May Garrison was vice-chair of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group. For most of a decade he was vice-chairof a group that promotes “greater friendship” and “cooperation” between the Canadian and Israeli parliaments. CIIG also organized events with other apartheid and genocide lobby organizations.
Garrison refused to heed two widely endorsed public letters calling on the NDP to withdraw from CIIG. Two hundred well-known musicians, academics, trade unionists and NDP members, including Roger Waters, Noam Chomsky, Maher Arar and Linda McQuaig, endorsed a 2018 letter making that demand and a follow up 2022 call to withdraw from CIIG was signed by 40 groups and 200 prominent musicians, authors and NDP members.
Garrison’s ties to anti-Palestinian lobbying groups went beyond his role as vice-chair of CIIG. Garrison participated in at least one Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) paid and organized trip to Israel. He also spoke at a CIJA and Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC) organized “Israeli Wine and Canadian Cheese party” to “celebrate the strength of the Canada-Israel relationship.”
Garrison was one of the NDP MPs who voted to suppress debate on the “Palestine Resolution” at the party’s 2018 convention. In 2017 Conservative Party Senator Linda Frum praised Garrison for helping establish an official Jewish Heritage Month, which Zionist groups immediately weaponized in their campaign to support a violent, European colonial outpost in the Middle East.
Garrison, Liberal MP Marco Mendicino and Conservative MP David Sweet co-sponsored an event with the staunchly anti-Palestinian Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC). Israel’s Ambassador Nimrod Barkan spoke at the event on Parliament Hill.
Garrison also spoke at events put on by CIJA and CJPAC. The guest of honor at one was Irwin Cotler.
McPherson also promotes Cotler who “spent his career defending Israeli human rights crimes.” On June 11 of this year McPherson did a public event with the leading apartheid and genocide apologist.
In recent years McPherson has done at least a half dozen events with Cotler. In November 2022 McPherson wrote, “this afternoon, Professor Irwin Cotler and I spoke about how we can work together to protect human rights in Canada and around the world. I am grateful to him for sharing his wisdom with me.”
How many would the lawless apartheid state have to kill in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Syria, etc. for Heather McPherson to stop promoting well known Israel supporters such as Irwin Cotler and Randall Garrison?
Please email the NDP’s Federal Council to demand they overturn the three-person vetting committee’s decision to reject Yves Engler’s candidacy.
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