Skip to main content

Words are not enough

Dear Mr Carney and Ms Anand

The nations of the Hague Group have plenty of black marks to their names regarding human rights abuses. Yet even they can recognize and condemn genocide when they see it. Even they declare "Either we act together to enforce international law or we risk its collapse.... Let this moment mark the beginning of a renewed commitment to internationalism and the principles that bind us as a global community.”

 I join with them to beg Canada to support the findings of the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice with more than words. We must take meaningful action to stop the genocide. 

 I join with Greenpeace to demand that Canada: support an immediate and permanent ceasefire; halt all arms sales and military cooperation with Israel; ensure the safe and unrestricted delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza; uphold international law and human rights; and actively work toward a just and lasting peace for both Palestinians and Israelis.

I join with thousands, millions of Canadians who are heartbroken at the loss of life and international inaction. We do not want our tax dollars in any way implicated with the Israeli military. 

You must do more than use words. 100s of thousands of people are dead. Words are not enough. You must use the tools within your power to signal to Israel that Canada categorically does not support vanity wars and states that act with impunity. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Keep Canada a country of welcome

We're supposed to be grateful that we got a Liberal government instead of a Conservative one that would scapegoat immigrants. However, even under Trudeau, Liberals had subtly started to send the disgustingly popular message that Canada's social ills can be traced to our newcomer population, when in fact, in both housing and education (favourite victims of the blame immigrant narrative), the real villain is the federal government's funding cut backs.  And now Carney is blaming immigrants for health care too. Now he's claiming we can't afford to pay for health care for immigrants (as though we can afford to waste human potential by allowing folks to languish in untreated illness for lack of funds!) So here's a letter to the PM and the immigration minister to protest the cuts to immigration. This time from MCC. Mine, of course, has my own flavour added.  Click here to send your own. I am writing to you to ask that you keep Canada as a country of welcome.  Stop bl...

What happened to the pledge?

To the 20 (re-elected) Liberal MPs who signed the Vote Palestine platform.  You signed the Vote Palestine platform.   The time to fulfill your pledge is now.  Gaza is facing mass starvation. This isn’t food scarcity. This is intentional blockage of food as a tool of genocide. Canada’s joint statement with 25 other nations called on all the parties to “uphold the obligations of international humanitarian law.”  But Israel has been flagrantly violating multiple obligations of international law almost daily since October 8, 2023 and certain on every day since Canada’s statement was released. There is no need to wait, to give Israel the benefit of the doubt to do the right thing.  “We are prepared to take further action”, the statement reads. So do it.  Canada must immediately impose a true arms embargo on Israel – a two-way arms embargo – and it must actually put it into force and close all loopholes.  Canada must immediately levy sancti...

Letter writing success

Last week, several sources linked to a letter appealing to venerable Canadian scientist and nature advocate David Suzuki to withdraw from a supposed climate prize due to its deep ties to an unbashedly colonlialist Israeli organization. The JNF's claim to fame is planting trees in Israel. Pine trees. Non-native trees. Trees that are susceptible to wildfires. Trees intentionally planted atop forcibly-emptied Palestinian villages to try to erase their memory.  The letters worked. Suzuki withdrew. I hadn't gotten around to writing before I got the news. So when a follow up letter to other participants in the prize hit my inbox, I rushed to put my own spin on the letter and sign it. Send your own here I urge you to join David Suzuki in withdrawing from the upcoming Climate Solutions Prize (CSP) festival. CSP was instigated by the racist Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada with support from the Israeli government. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet announced the launch of CSP...