Call for end of terror list supported by many in NDP

The NDP vetters are either comfortable with being anti-Palestinian or embarrassingly ignorant.

As a rationale for rejecting my leadership application, the NDP’s unelected three person vetting committee asserted I “repeatedly called to abolish Canada’s list of terrorist organizations, which would remove a key national condemnation of groups that have violated international human rights law.”

Yes, supporters of my campaign have handed out thousands of leaflets with a ten-point plan to end Canada’s complicity in Israel’s genocide that includes: “Abolish anti-Palestinian ‘terrorism list.’” We’ve also shared the 10 demands widely on social media, published a news release calling for the terrorism list to be abolished and I’ve raised that point in many talks.

Over 10 percent of Canada’s terror list is made up of organizations headquartered in a long-occupied land representing one-tenth of one percent of the world’s population. Representing much of Palestinian political life, eight of the oppressed nation’s organizations are listed. There are also at least two Canadian-based groups that have been added to the terror list for supporting Palestinians.

Fourteen months ago, the Liberals listed the grassroots Vancouver activist organization Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network. The specific example of my opposing the terror list the NDP vetters linked to in rejecting my candidacy was an article published immediately after Samidoun was listed headlined “Who will they add next to Canada’s ‘terror’ list?” It explained, “After Israel labeled Samidoun a terror organization in 2021 Zionist groups and the National Post began pushing Ottawa to follow suit. But the Liberals wavered under pushback from the BC Civil Liberties Association, Canadian Union of Postal Workers and dozens of other civil society organizations. After October 7 the Conservatives launched a full court press to list Samidoun that seems to have tipped the scales. Listing Samidoun is a direct attack against those opposing genocide.”

Currently, the Liberals are seeking to make it a crime to display Samidoun’s logo in front of a religious institution hosting an Israeli general. Bill C-9 reinforces the terror list in service of Zionism by criminalizing the display of listed “terror” groups’ symbols in certain contexts. I immediately denounced C-9 and now a groundswell of civil society groups, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Black Legal Action Centre, Independent Jewish Voices and Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council, are opposing the bill.

A similar dynamic is at play with our opposition to the terror list. My campaign’s call to abolish Canada’s terror list echoes the position of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG). According to its site, “The ICLMG is a national coalition of Canadian civil society organizations that was established in the aftermath of the rushed adoption of the Anti-terrorist Act of 2001. The coalition brings together 45 NGOs, unions, professional associations, faith groups, environmental organizations, human rights and civil liberties advocates, as well as groups representing immigrant and refugee communities in Canada.’” The ICLMG includes the Canadian Labour Congress, Amnesty International, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Cooperation Canada and United Steelworkers. Several of the unions have formal ties to the NDP.

The ICLMG was created in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attack in the US. The terror list grants the government powers to ban an organization without providing a standard legal burden of proof. In essence the government can list a group and poof it is illegal to assist it. It’s also near impossible for that organization to mount a defence against their listing, despite the severe consequences of the listing to those who are designated as terrorists.

Canada’s anti-terror laws violate due process and basic civil liberties.

The vetting committee’s intolerance for my campaign’s criticism ignores how the Criminal Code already imposes severe penalties for acts of violence against persons and property as well as threats of violence and conspiracies to commit violence. Therefore, abolishing the list would not deprive law enforcement authorities of the ability to prosecute and punish acts of terrorism.

The vetters also ignored the fact that Canada’s terrorist designations are highly politicized. For example, Israeli forces have killed vastly more civilians, and destroyed far more civilian infrastructure, than Palestinian militants on October 7, 2023. Yet Canada hasn’t designated Israel’s military or security services, or any Israeli involved in two years of genocide against Palestinians, as a ‘terrorist’ or a ‘terrorist entity’.

It’s unclear if the vetting committee understands that many organizations with ties to the NDP officially oppose the terror list. One way to interpret the NDP vetting committee’s ‘terror’ criticism is that it’s ok to oppose the terrorism list, but not if you do so because of its anti-Palestinian character.

Of course searching for logic in the reasons the vetters have cited for banning my campaign is probably a futile exercise.

 

Please email the NDP Federal Council to urge councillors to them to investigate the deeply flawed vetting decision and defend members’ right to decide.