Supporters of a private Toronto school that publicly promotes racism against Palestinians, flies an Israeli flag and then complains of “anti-Semitism” when pro-Palestinian graffiti is scrawled on its walls should give their heads a shake. The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center and B’nai Brith labeled messages scrawled on Leo... Continue Reading →
NDP members must push for pro-Palestinian positions
When will NDP members push back against the party leadership’s all-too friendly relations with Canada’s leading Israel lobby group? Recently, former NDP Premier of Nova Scotia Darrell Dexter joined the board of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) while four years ago NDP foreign critic Paul Dewar and MP Robert Chisholm attended a CIJA sponsored Young... Continue Reading →
CIJA, B’nai B’rith smear Palestine activist instead of racists, anti-Semite
Part two on the smear campaign against Dimitri Lascaris. Like British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn Canadian lawyer Dimitri Lascaris is the victim of a “Big Lie” slander campaign. Defenders of the most aggressive ongoing European settler colonialism have once again smeared a “proud, anti-racist advocate for human rights.” In this article I offer some important... Continue Reading →
It is long past time to confront anti-Palestinianism in NDP
To effect change people need to know what and who they are up against. By nakedly suppressing debate on the Palestine Resolution at its recent convention the NDP leadership did internationalist minded party members the favour of clarifying that. They demonstrated the need to directly confront anti-Palestinianism within the party. Over the next year NDPers... Continue Reading →
Hey Montréal police, respect our right to protest
The Montréal police have a problem with democracy that the new progressive city council should address. Last Thursday I was arrested for shouting “shame; free Palestine” at the large annual pro-Israel demonstration. Three officers on bikes blocked me from walking on the sidewalk of Boulevard René Lévesque and yelling “shame, free Palestine” at people with... Continue Reading →
Ontario anti-racism committee members tied to racist JNF
Independent Jewish Voices and the United Jewish People’s Order’s exclusion from an Anti-Racism Directorate committee has rightly been criticized. But, the Ontario government’s more appalling decision to appoint individuals tied to an explicitly racist organization has been ignored. Two years ago the Liberals put forward a plan titled “A Better Way Forward: Ontario’s 3-Year Anti-Racism... Continue Reading →
Palestine debate symbolizes weakness of NDP internal democracy.
The NDP leadership’s suppression of debate on the Palestine Resolutionexposed the hollow nature of its democracy. It also highlighted party insiders’ extreme deference to the dominant media. As I detail here, the party machinery employed a variety of manoeuvres to avoid debating a Palestine Resolution unanimously endorsed by the NDP youth convention, many outside groups... Continue Reading →
Is raising money for a right wing government really charity?
Is it a charity or political fundraiser for a right-wing foreign government? People need to take a look at Canada's Jewish Federations. Together the United Jewish Appeal/Combined Jewish Appeal of Toronto, Montréal, Winnipeg, Windsor, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, London, Ottawa, Vancouver and Atlantic Canada raise over $100 million annually. The largest in the network, UJA Toronto's... Continue Reading →
Convention provokes rage against NDP machine
They came, mostly young people, to fight for justice. They came to support the rule of international law, to help solve a longstanding injustice through non-violent means; they came to tell an oppressed people you have not been forgotten; they came to do what is right for a left wing political party; they came to... Continue Reading →
Montreal Gazette’s anti-Palestinian bias
Shame on the Montréal Gazette. Shame on Dan Delmar. Even when McGill’s uber-Israeli nationalist administration dismisses allegations of “anti-Semitism” the paper and its writer uses them to smear freedom promoting students. In October Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee activist Noah Lew cried “anti-Semitism” after he wasn’t voted on to the Board of Directors of the Students’ Society... Continue Reading →
NDP could break elite consensus against Palestinian rights
The anti-Palestinian consensus among Canada’s three main political parties is crumbling and NDP members could bury it this weekend. After taking an all-expense paid trip to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s conference in Washington and participating in a Jewish National Fund event in Israel 14 months ago, the NDP’s foreign critic has begun challenging... Continue Reading →
Be it resolved that the NDP support Palestinian rights
At next week’s New Democratic Party convention in Ottawa Palestinian rights are set to be a major flashpoint. The NDP Socialist Caucus has submitted a resolution calling on the party to “actively campaign in support of the demand of Palestinian unions, civil society and unions across Canada and around the world which call for Boycott,... Continue Reading →
McGill University ignores its real racism problem
While accusations of student anti-Semitism at McGill draw international headlines, the university administration's open association with the Jewish National Fund has been ignored. In the latest iteration of a multi-year smear campaign against Palestine solidarity activists at the university, Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee activist Noah Lew cried "anti-Semitism" after he wasn't voted on to the Board... Continue Reading →
Canada must stop subsidizing this racist, colonial, institution
Imagine if there were an organization called the White National Fund that raised tens of millions of dollars each year from Canadians to buy land in the US to be held exclusively for people of European descent. WNF land couldn’t be leased or sold to anyone who they didn’t consider “white”. Would it be acceptable... Continue Reading →
B’nai Brith’s shamefully attacks Niki Ashton
B'nai Brith claim to speak for Jews in general, but in reality defend Israel no matter what that country does. The group's recent attack against NDP leadership candidate Niki Ashton was a brazen attempt to use the decimation of European Jewry to protect Israel from criticism and follows a formula used so often most now see its... Continue Reading →
Who do you trust when it comes to NDP leadership candidates?
Like bears attracted to spawning salmon, politicians seek out power. The former needs to build stores of fat to survive the winter, while the latter must attract the resources and support necessary for successful electoral campaigns. Given the survival imperative, neither bear nor politician should be criticized too harshly for what comes naturally. But, the... Continue Reading →
‘Free trade’ has come to mean powerful interests get whatever they want
"Free trade" has become a euphemism for "whatever power wants," no matter how tangentially tied to transfering goods across international borders. In an extreme example, Ottawa recently said its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Israel trumps Canada’s Food and Drugs Act since accurately labelling two wines might undermine a half-century long, illegal, military occupation. Of little connection... Continue Reading →
Kinsella’s silence on JNF racism speaks loudly
What do you call someone who says they head an antiracist organization, but claims to be ignorant of an explicitly racist institution they’ve publicly defended? I have no idea, but I do know Warren Kinsella confirmed the central point of my recent article titled “The Left’s racism problem concerning Israel”. In a series of threatening... Continue Reading →
Trudeau confuses anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism
Canada’s Prime Minister would like us to believe that the ideology that shaped Israel is designed to fight anti-Jewish prejudice. But, even when anti-Semitism was a significant political force in Canada, Zionism largely represented a chauvinistic, colonialist way of thinking. On Israel Independence Day earlier this month Justin Trudeau delivered a speech by video to... Continue Reading →
Media ignores Canada’s role in suppressing Palestinian protests
The Canadian media has mostly ignored recent Palestinian efforts to non-violently disrupt a half-century old occupation. They've barely reported on a prisoners' hunger strike and associated solidarity protests, let alone Canada's effort to suppress popular protests in the West Bank. Around 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have been on hunger strike since April 17. In the... Continue Reading →
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