Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canada. Show all posts

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Wearing a Poppy Partly Glorifies the Atrocious Regimes That Caused WWI

Crescent International
For several days Canada’s airwaves have been vigorously discussing the anti-immigrant rant by a well-known hockey commentator Don Cherry.
He was upset because many recent immigrants do not wear a Remembrance Day poppy.
During Saturday's Hockey Night broadcast, Cherry, who has on previous occasions made other discriminatory statements said that "You people that come here, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple of bucks for poppies or something like that, these guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada."
As most Canadians reacted negatively to the above supremacist statement, the TV station fired Cherry.
However, the discussion around Cherry’s comments took a bizarre turn as opponents started challenging him only within the multicultural paradigm.
Cherry’s reference to the poppy wearing tradition should be challenged on a far deeper level than let us all sing kumbaya and get along.
Wearing the poppy symbolizes not simply support for ordinary soldiers. Those who fought in the First World War did so for a narrative framed by imperialist interests of regimes that did not care for ordinary people.
The soldiers were simply cannon fodder.
It represents support for a senseless war and glorifies war-mongering.
Cherry’s call to wear a poppy because all Canadians must blindly support any cause in which Canada participates, is intellectually dishonest and morally indefensible.
It is fanaticism.
A statement saying that "these guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada" is first and foremost a manifestation of great ignorance.
None of the autocratic monarchies in Europe were aiming to invade Canada and none of the regimes involved in the senseless war upheld the values most Canadians value today.
Anyone who has even elementary knowledge of the reasons behind WWI would understand that any form of glorification of it cannot be completely detached from the senseless cause of the war.
WWI was a war between power-hungry and racist regimes. One fact makes this very clear. As the Austro-Hungarian army mobilized in response to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Russians ordered their army to mobilize as well.
Once the Russian Czar realized that Russia was not going to achieve an easy victory and wanted to de-mobilize, he was advised not to do so. This would be more expensive than going through with the mobilization.
These regimes cared more for gold and silver than human lives. Wearing a poppy partly commemorates the atrocious regimes that caused WWI, which lay the seeds for WWII.
Wars are terrible and not all wars are fought for noble reasons regardless of how they are framed.
Canadian soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan. What did they achieve? Yet there are people in Canada that glorify their role as if they were there to help a noble cause. It was not.
Canadian troops were ordered into Afghanistan because a righ-twing racist prime minister (Stephen Harper) wanted to suck up to George W. Bush.
Apart from destroying Afghanistan, the invaders have achieved nothing. They were not meant to do so; their purpose was altogether different.
One final point is in order. If governments want to honor war veterans, the least they can do is to take care of their needs. Regrettably, on this score, Canada, like many other countries, has fallen far short.
Wearing poppy to portray respect for veterans is so much poppy cock!

Friday, October 25, 2019

Canadians rejected racists and bigots but gave Trudeau only a minority government

Crescent International

Following a nasty election campaign in which the Conservatives tried to apply Donald Trump’s dirty tricks to Canadian politics, the true North electorate proved much more savvy.
While the governing Liberals lost their majority in parliament, they won enough seats (157) last night to hold on to power and form a minority government.
The return of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to Ottawa ran through Ontario, the province with the largest number of seats.
At dissolution, the Liberals had 76 seats in Ontario; last night they won 77.
In Milton, the new suburb just west of Mississauga, delivered a stunning defeat to Conservative Party deputy leader, Lisa Raitt.
Liberal Adam van Koeverden, an Olympic gold medalist, easily defeated Ms. Raitt. The large Pakistani Canadian vote helped put the Liberal candidate in parliament.
In fact, both in Brampton and Mississauga, the Liberals swept all the seats, again thanks to the large Muslim and Pakistani Canadian vote.
In Brampton, the Sikh community also helped the Liberals win dispelling fears that the NDP would eat away into Liberal vote.
The Liberals’ strategy of scaring the electorate in Ontario into not voting for the NDP because it would allow the Conservatives to win, helped.
This was particularly true among Muslims. They voted out of fear, not conscience. That is not good politics.
In Quebec, the second largest province, the story was very different. The Bloc Quebecois took 32 seats, clawing into Liberal and NDP support where both lost several seats.
Most Canadians heaved a sigh of relief that the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), a more extreme version of the Conservatives, did not win a single seat. Its leader, Maxime Bernier also lost his seat in Quebec.
The Conservatives’ failure to garner much support despite increasing their seat total in parliament to 121, has also been welcomed.
Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer ran a nasty campaign. He made scandalous allegations against the Liberals and the NDP. He even recruited Matthew McBane who had worked on Trump’s campaign.
In the end, that proved insufficient to propel him into power, even in a minority situation.
While the NDP lost a lot of seats (from 42 to 24), most of them in Quebec, their 24-seat total still places them in a good position because of the Liberals’ minority.
With NDP support, the Liberals can stay in power for at least two to three years or longer. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is clear: he would not support the Conservative platform but is willing to work with the Liberals.
Obviously, there are certain issues that he would demand the Liberals fulfill.
Throughout the campaign, Jagmeet Singh proved himself an able debater as well as maintained a dignified stance.
He refused to indulge in the mudslinging that Conservative leader Scheer was so fond of.
Starting with a disadvantage at the start of the campaign—polls showed NDP support had dropped considerably since the last election—he worked hard and showed clarity during the televised debates.
The party that benefited the most from televised debates was the Bloc Quebecois whose leader, Yves Francois Blanchet, performed well.
As a consequence, he catapulted the party into a commanding position in Quebec with 32 seats, the only province where the party fielded candidates.
The result has also thrown into sharp focus the east-west divide. The Liberals did not win a single seat in Alberta and got only one seat in Saskatchewan.
Justin Trudeau will have to address western alienation but given that it is Conservative territory, he would be pulled by conflicting demands from the NDP and the western provinces.
Election results for 2019
Liberals : 157
PC: 121
Bloc: 32
NDP: 24
Green: 3
Others: 1 (Judy Wilson Reybould)
PPC: 0 (1)

Thursday, October 03, 2019

Islamophobia and Canadian Elections

Fearmongering against Muslims a part of all “democratic” party platforms


Hayy Yaqzan
In mid-September, as Canada’s federal election campaign formally got underway, a cartoonist from Quebec going by the name of Ygreck published a cartoon that serves to remind Canadians one of the most disturbing election “issues” is, in fact, a particular minority community in Canada: Muslims.
The cartoon shows Prime Minister Justin Trudeau taking a selfie with a shark fin dressed as a Muslim woman in hijab. Under the water, the “shark,” labelled “Islam Radical” in French, has an evil grin on its face. The message is quite clear: “radical Islam” is getting away in Canada while Trudeau panders to the Muslim vote.
When the cartoon was released, the prime minister had a bigger problem to deal with — and it, too, had to do with Muslims. Over the course of a few days, several photos emerged in which a younger Trudeau from the 1990s and early-2000s is seen wearing brownface or blackface. Using makeup to darken one’s face for the purpose of entertainment is deeply offensive to those who have faced discrimination due to their non-white skin, including (but not limited to) Canadian Muslims of African or South Asian descent.
In one of the pictures, blackfaced Trudeau is dressed as Aladdin, the main character from the famous Arabian folktale first published in the Syrian writer Hanna Diyab’s version of One Thousand and One Nights some 400 years ago.
Trudeau quickly apologized for these insensitive blunders from his past. Interestingly, one of the first people to publicly “accept” his apology was his own government’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, a Ukrainian-Canadian who likely has never faced discrimination due to her race or religion. Other Liberal MPs and supporters of the Liberal Party chose to downplay the entire episode, some of them essentially telling Canadians to “focus on real issues” and “we’re not as racist as the other guys.”
The entire situation was a fitting reminder that despite the Liberals’ encouraging track record on counteracting Islamophobia — the kind of positions that get Justin Trudeau caricatured in cartoons or regularly accused of being a closeted Muslim — the ignorance that feeds into racism and Islamophobia can be lurking just beneath the surface, even among them.
The public’s focus on Trudeau in mid-September allowed two of the other major contenders in the elections to do some cleaning of their own ranks. On September 12, the Green Party’s candidate for the Simcoe North riding, Erik Schomann, resigned after a Facebook post emerged suggesting that he wanted to send a pig’s carcass to Muslims. Schomann said that what he did was “stupid” and he had to accept responsibility for it. He also said that he lived among Muslims for several years, particularly in Nigeria, and that he has “no gripe with Islam, certainly.”
And then Schomann turned the story around to make it sound as if he was the victim in this situation, saying he was “attacked rather brutally on social media” with people calling him “disgusting” and an “embarrassment.” And the timing of his post being exposed also led him to believe that someone was looking through his Facebook posts in a “calculated” move.
The Green Party, of course, does not officially tolerate Islamophobia. And yet, the local riding association in Simcoe North was “devastated” to lose Schomann and that “the consequences for this one post are out of proportion to the offense and are detrimental to our democracy.” It is not difficult to imagine that no Muslims, and probably no racialized minorities, were involved in drafting such an ignorant statement.
Also on September 12, Cameron Ogilvie, the Conservative candidate for Winnipeg North, stepped down after his derogatory posts about Muslims and others surfaced. Ogilvie reportedly deactivated his social media accounts earlier in the year when he was being screened before being approved as a candidate — clearly indicative of the fact that he was aware there may be content he has posted that would be too much even for the Conservatives.
After all, the Conservatives have a history of downplaying concerns about Islamophobia. After the masjid attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand earlier this year, the party’s leader Andrew Scheer initially refused to even mention that Muslims had been purposefully targeted. His current campaign manager is Hamish Marshall, a past director of Rebel Media, a notoriously Islamophobic outlet. Scheer has also shared the podium with the white supremacist “journalist” Faith Goldy, and has allowed one of Goldy’s “best friends,” Justina McCaffery, to be a Conservative candidate from Ottawa. The list could go on.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) has not been faced with any Islamophobia in its ranks as of this writing. However, they have not entirely steered clear of the “Muslim” issue in this election. Earlier this year, the NDP felt compelled to drop Rana Zaman, their candidate for the Dartmouth-Cole Harbour riding in the Halifax area. The reason for this was a series of tweets by Zaman from June 2018, in which she expressed her support for the Palestinian people.
“If Israel is so advanced then why can’t they avoid shooting defenceless paramedics and journalists, unless they’re killing innocent people deliberately,” she wrote. “Israel’s injustice and arrogance can no longer be defended and people are wise to Israel’s tired old rhetoric.” The last straw for the NDP was Zaman’s tweet comparing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Nazis’ treatment of Jews. Zaman’s candidacy was cancelled and she issued an apology, to the delight of B’nai B’rith Canada. Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) was the only group that spoke in her support, saying the NDP is “betraying its progressive roots by allowing itself to be manipulated by the Israel lobby and throwing a progressive woman of colour under the bus.”
Finally, there is the recently formed People’s Party of Canada, a small but loudmouthed offshoot of the Conservatives. In mid-September, the far-right party’s leader Maxime Bernier received an invitation from the CBC to take part in its political leaders debate. This sent the message that the CBC was bestowing some legitimacy onto a party that has strong links to racism, white supremacy, and Islamophobia. At the party’s very first conference last year, the keynote speaker claimed that Muslims were “infesting” the Liberal Party. It only takes a quick glance through Bernier’s daily barrage of tweets to realize that this party has a serious Islamophobia problem.
These attitudes do not emerge in political circles from a vacuum. A 2017 poll, conducted soon after the Quebec City masjid shooting, showed that nearly half of Canadians had a negative view of Islam. Four in five Canadians also said that Muslims face discrimination in Canada. There are many similar statistics demonstrating that even in a country known for its inclusivity, ignorance is often simmering just beneath the surface.
Keeping all this in mind, for Canadian Muslims and, in fact, all conscientious Canadians, it is imperative to put local candidates on the spot this October and demand that they say plainly where they and their party stand on rising Islamophobia in Canada, and what plan they have to actively dismantle it if they are elected.

Thursday, September 05, 2019

Sikh-Canadian politician goes viral for powerful response to an Islamophobic attack directed at him

JESSICA AYA HARN

Canadian politician Gurratan Singh, who represents the district of Brampton East in Ontario, has gone viral after a video of him calmly responding to an anti-Muslim attack directed at him surfaced on Sunday at the MuslimFest in Mississauga.
Responding to the Islamophobic and racist attack, Singh has been widely praised for his calm and powerful response. In the video, which first surfaced on Twitter, Singh can be heard calmly telling the man who attacked him, “I condemn your racism. This has no place in Canada.”
Gurratan Singh later took to Twitter, stating:
I will never respond to an Islamophobe by stating, ‘I am not a Muslim’. Instead, I will always stand with my Muslim brothers and sisters and say hate is wrong.”
The Islamophobic man who instigated the verbal abuse has been identified as Stephen Garvey, the leader of a small federal political party called National Citizens Alliance (NCA), famous for their anti-immigration policies.
While Garvey verbally abused Singh, the NCA apparently live-streamed the attack to Facebook, stating that “the National Citizens Alliance’s agenda is Canadian first, and opposition to political correctness and third world migrant populism”.

Singh has also since posted a video to Twitter, in which he condemns hate in all its forms and encourages the power of love and courage. He explains that this incident is “bigger than one person and one single event”, and instead is about the “rise of Islamophobia, racism, and hate”.
Thanks for all your love & support, I am truly humbled

But this is bigger than one person & one single event

It's about the rise of Islamophobia, racism & hate

And how Canada & the world could use a lot more of @theJagmeetSingh's love & courage in confronting it

❤&💪🏾

499 people are talking about this

Although Singh’s powerful response to an Islamophobic attack like this remains incredibly inspiring, it also remains deeply worrying that the rise in right-wing extremism has taken an open front to harassing those who support multi-cultural societies. Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, racism, and hatred towards minorities are taking a dangerous turn towards open practice at both the state and ground level, and it is up to citizens like us, supported by politicians like Singh, to call out all forms of hatred wherever present.

Monday, July 01, 2019

CIJA: Closer Look at the Zionist Lobby in Canada

Army of Zio-lobbyists shield Israel from censure

Dmitri Lascaris

In December 2016, when NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was a member of Ontario’s legislature, he admirably opposed an anti-BDS motion promoted by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA). Despite his opposition, however, Mr. Singh felt it necessary to pay homage to CIJA before explaining his reasons for voting against the motion, “Before I begin, I also want to acknowledge CIJA’s tremendous work. They are a paramount [sic] of professionalism in the way they conduct themselves and the way they advocate their position and I want to acknowledge that as well.”
For those of us who in this country advocate for Palestinian rights, such spectacles of deference to CIJA come as no surprise. For years, CIJA has skillfully deployed its massive lobbying resources to cultivate relationships with politicians across the political spectrum.
The Hill Times has repeatedly recognized CIJA’s CEO Shimon Fogel as one of the top 100 lobbyists in Canada, while Embassy Magazine has ranked him among the 50 most important people influencing Canadian foreign policy. Fogel is by no means the only lobbyist in the employ of CIJA. According to CIJA’s filings with the Office of Canada’s Lobbying Commissioner, CIJA employs no less than 15 registered lobbyists:
1. Dan-Michael Abecassis – Director of Public Relations (Quebec), no public offices held;
2. Alyssa Blank – political researcher, no public offices held (NPO);
3. David Cooper – Vice President, Government Relations, no public offices held;
4. Shimon Fogel – CEO, no public offices held;
5. Matthew Goodwin – Associate Director, University & Provincial Government Relations, no public
offices held;
6. Allyson Grant – Director of Government Relations and Ottawa Public Affairs, no public offices held;
7. Ryan Hartman – Community Security (has held public office);
8. Sophie Helpard – Associate Director of Government Relations (ON), no public offices held;
9. Richard Marceau – Vice President of External Affairs & Gen Counsel (has held public office);
10. Steve McDonald – Director of Policy & Strategic Communication, no public offices held;
11 Martin Sampson – Vice President of Communications & Marketing, no public offices held;
12. Jonathan Schneiderman – Vice President of Development & Public Affairs (has held public office);
13. Noah Shack – Vice President for GTA, no public offices held;
14. Nico Slobinsky – Director of Pacific Region, no public offices held;
15. Eta Yudin – Vice President for Quebec, no public offices held.
Just what are all these paid lobbyists up to? To explore the subject, I examined the reports CIJA filed with the Office of Canada’s Lobbying Commissioner during the past 12 months. The results of my research were rather revealing, but that research also raised troubling questions about the nature and extent of CIJA’s advocacy. CIJA’s filings show that, within the past 12 months, its lobbying activities have far surpassed those of other major lobbying organizations in Canada. The table below shows the Monthly Communications Reports filed from May 24, 2018 to May 23, 2019:
CIJA 172
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers 121
Canadian Chamber of Commerce 105
Canadian Bankers Association 54
Moreover, within the past 12 months, CIJA lobbied, on at least one occasion, a total of 46 different Members of Parliament (MPs). Those MPs included Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (who was pictured meeting with CIJA officials in July 2018), six other Ministers in the Liberal cabinet and the leaders of the Conservative Party and the NDP.
The table below identifies the Ministers and opposition party leaders whom CIJA lobbied within the past 12 months. The column on the right shows the number of reportable communications that CIJA had during the past 12 months with each of those officials:
Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister 2
Jim Carr, Minister of International Trade 2
Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Canadian Heritage 2
Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs 1
Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport 1
Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration 1
David Lametti, Minister of Justice 1
The table below identifies the MPs other than Ministers and opposition party leaders whom CIJA lobbied at least twice during the past 12 months. Again, the column on the right shows the number of reportable communications that CIJA had during that period with each of those MPs:
Michael Levitt (Liberal) 14
Marco Mendicino (Liberal) 12
Anthony Housefather (Liberal) 8
Murray Rankin (NDP) 6
Guy Caron (NDP) 3
Peter Kent (Conservative) 3
Tracey Ramsey (NDP) 2
Candice Bergen (Conservative) 2
Marc Miller (Liberal) 2
Ali Ehsassi (Liberal) 2
Randal Garrison (NDP) 2
Greg Fergus (Liberal) 2
Based on the figures above, it appears that CIJA’s go-to MP during the past year was the Liberal Party’s Michael Levitt. He is Chair of the Canada-Israel Inter-Parliamentary Group and of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. In those capacities, Levitt can and does play a key role in promoting Israel’s agenda within the Canadian government.
To give but one example, Israel and Saudi Arabia have been fomenting a war between the United States and Iran. Due in no small part to Israeli-Saudi warmongering, the US and Iran now stand at the precipice of a potentially catastrophic conflict. In early-May 2019, at this particularly dangerous time in US-Iran relations, Levitt played a starring role in “Iran Accountability Week.” During that week, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development heard “riveting testimony on the brutal Iranian regime’s complete disregard for human rights, and the subjugation of women and minorities.” According to Levitt, the Iranian leaders who “thrive and profit from corruption and impunity” must be held accountable.
Meanwhile, the committee Levitt chairs has invited no Palestinians to speak of the daily humiliation and oppression they endure at the hands of Israel’s military, nor has it heard “riveting testimony” from any of the countless Yemenis whose lives have been devastated by the Saudi regime to which Justin Trudeau’s government sells deadly weapons.
As for corruption and impunity, well, there is plenty of that to be found within the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Levitt and CIJA support so enthusiastically. But I digress.
An analysis of CIJA’s filings with the Office of Canada’s Lobbying Commissioner also reveals that CIJA overwhelmingly focuses its activities on the party in power. Sixty-eight percent of CIJA’s communications with MPs during the past 12 months were with Liberals, whereas a mere 13% of those communications were with Conservatives.
Interestingly, CIJA communicated more often with NDP MPs than with Conservative MPs: during the past 12 months, 19% of CIJA’s reportable communications were with members of the NDP caucus. During the past 12 months, CIJA did not disclose any reportable communications with MPs from the Bloc Quebecois or the Green Party.
Also notable is the attention CIJA pays to Senator Linda Frum. During the past 12 months, CIJA lobbied Frum far more than it lobbied all other Senators combined (ISG stands for Independent Senators Group):
Linda Frum (Conservative) 14
Peter Boehm (ISG) (Com. FA &Int Trade) 1
Fabian Manning (Conservative) 1
Michael McDonald (Conservative) 1
Mohammed Ravalia (ISG) 1
David Richards (unaffiliated) 1
David Wells (Conservative) 1
Frum is a veritable fountain of Israeli propaganda. During the month of May alone, Frum posted no less than 26 pro-Israel comments on her Twitter feed. In several of those tweets, she falsely accused the anti-racist BDS Movement of being anti-Semitic. In another of those tweets, Frum praised the dogs used by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Frum seems blissfully unaware that, last year, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem issued a report in which it condemned the IDF for setting dogs on elderly Palestinians and teenagers in their own homes.
CIJA’s federal lobbying activities are by no means confined to Members of the Parliament and Senate. During the past 12 months, CIJA reported over 90 communications with 50 other government officials. The table below identifies the federal government officials with whom CIJA had at least three reportable communications during the past 12 months:
Dahlia Stein
Director of Operations, Global Affairs Can. 22
Jamie Innis
Chief of Staff, House of Commons 6
MehalanGaroonanedhi
Policy Advisor &Parl Sec Min of Heritage 5
Jonathan Guavan
Staff, House of Commons 4
Gerald Butt
Principal Secretary to PM (PMO) 3
IzabelCzuzoj-Shulman
Parliamentary Affairs Advisor 3
Russell Milon
Dir. of Parl Affairs, Global Affairs Canada 3
Julian Ovens
Chief of Staff, Global Affairs Canada 3
During the past 12 months, CIJA reported communications with four officials within the Prime Minister’s Office, including three communications with Gerald Butts, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister who resigned earlier this year.
What is most striking, however, is CIJA’s focus on Dahlia Stein, the Director of Operations of Global Affairs Canada. Ms. Stein was one of 12 officials from Global Affairs Canada with whom CIJA had reportable communications during the past 12 months. During that period, CIJA had more reportable communications by far with Ms. Stein than with any other government official, including Levitt and Frum.
Moreover, no registered lobbyist has lobbied Ms. Stein nearly as much as CIJA has. During the past 12 months, Ms. Stein was lobbied on 34 separate occasions. Nearly two-thirds of reportable communications with Ms. Stein during that period emanated from CIJA. The registered lobby organization that had the second-highest number of reportable communications with Ms. Stein was Match International Centre, with a mere four communications. Match International Centre is an NGO that seeks “the empowerment of women and the practical enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms through civil, political, economic, social and cultural justice.”
Why is CIJA so focused on Ms. Stein? All that we can glean from CIJA’s reports is that its 22 reportable communications with Ms. Stein during the past 12 months related to “international relations.” Due to the paucity of information contained within CIJA’s reports, I called Ms. Stein to inquire about the substance of her many communications with CIJA. I have left her a voicemail and await her response (I don’t expect one). In the interim, I invite CIJA to make fulsome disclosure to the public of its communications with Ms. Stein.
Finally, we should bear in mind that this analysis is confined to CIJA’s lobbying of federal government officials. Its lobbying activities extend, however, to provincial and municipal officials around the country. In light of CIJA’s vast and opaque lobbying operations, it should surprise no one that our government is hopelessly biased in favour of Israel.
Dmitri Lascaris is a Canadian Lawyer specializing in Human Rights Law. He has successfully represented al-Quds Committee against Zionist attempts to prevent the Annual Quds Day rally from being held in Toronto.