Skip to main content

Flotilla letter

Yet another bunch of boats on a humanitarian mission have been illegally boarded and their passengers illegally abducted by the completely rogue state. And nations sit silent. Shameful. 

I whipped off this letter to the PM, the global affairs minister, the armed forces minister and the local MPs of the Canadians on board, CCd also to the leaders of the other political parties and my local MP.  

Dear government leaders including the MPs for the Canadians aboard the Conscience
As a Canadian, I simply cannot understand why our country is standing by and allowing a government who has demonstrated flagrant disregard for international law and wanton unconcern for human life to illegally abduct Canadian citizens without a peep of protest. 
You claimed, Mr Carney and Ms Anand, back in May and again in summer, that you were "prepared to take action" if Israel did not change its behaviour. Not only has it not changed, but it has doubled down on its illegal and inhuman activities. Where is your action?
The flotilla now presents you an opportunity to act. 
The Canadian government is responsible for the health, well being and safety of all Canadian citizens aboard the Freedom Flotilla vessels. We are holding you responsible for your failure to protect Canadian citizens on a humanitarian mission. Each moment of your inaction that passes deepens your complicity, for unlawful detainment and torture are sure to follow for these Canadian citizens. 
You must publicly condemn Israel's illegal interception of the flotilla.
You must demand the safe and immediate release of the Canadian citizens -- and of all the detained humanitarians. 
And with the momentum of the courage you found with this very specific and relevant way to interrupt the Israeli war machine, please continue rolling and finally do what you promised over a year ago and stop selling arms to Israel.
I do not consent to my tax dollars being used to fund the ISraeli government's destruction of Palestinian lives. 
Stop supporting genocide. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living stones in the holy land

I met Jesus in Israel-Palestine a few years ago. I found him not in the rocky, desert ground he trod, nor in the ancient stones of the towns and cities he visited; not in the subterranean grotto in the Church of the Nativity, nor in the mammoth Church of the Holy Sepulchre, encompassing the traditional site of his death and resurrection. No, I met him in the lives of Palestinians who incarnate his spirit, in humble, passionate people who are convinced that love is the only way. I met Jesus in people who spoke like this: “We need to be soaked in the love of Christ. Love is not a hug and a kiss. Love is to seek the life of the other that the cost of one’s own.” --Labib Madanat, coordinator of the Palestinian and Israeli Bible Societies “Love is not an opportunity to overlook justice. Love is an opportunity to pursue justice…. [But] we want to resist any form of evil with the heart and mind of Jesus Christ.… There is no love without justice. And there is no true justice without lov...
2 comments
Read more

Broken people...

After reflecting with one coworker on how often churches in all their forms really mess up and hurt a whole bunch of people in the process -- and how "we gotta do better" -- I stumbled into another conversation with a coworker which highlighted our brokenness, and I suddenly realized what was wrong with my take in the first. I wanted the church to be better at fixing our mistakes, or better yet, at not making them in the first place. But maybe this "fix-it" attitude is partly the reason we keep blowing it again and again! My friend recollected an experience when a church community was in a terrible place: compounded mistakes, hurts, and frustrations had blown up, spewing pain all over all parties. (I'm sure anyone with a long history in the church can think of one, if not several, such occasions in their past.) A new Christian who observed all these goings on responded in an unexpected way. Instead of "you people are a bunch of screw-ups! How could this pos...
5 comments
Read more

Stand up for Canadian Health Care (such as it is)

Canadian health care is far from perfect — it has never achieved all Tommy Douglas dreamed for it: from tip to toe (teeth are still missing, as are a lot of drugs) — but unleashing unfettered two-tier is the opposite of fixing it.  So I joined with the Canadian Medical Association in pleading for the Canadian government to grow a spine and stop unhinged Smith's attempt to violate our own rules within her province.  As someone on Bluesky observed, if Stephen Harper tried to do this, we'd be at the gate with pitchforks. Where is the outrage. Daddy Warbucks Carney’s latest just-barely satisfactory performance in trade negotiations should not blind us to his failure to prevent this from happening.  The letter to the health minister, CC my MP and the shadow ministers: The Canadian Medical Association says the Canadian government must stand up for Albertans and all Canadians to ensure Alberta's new legislation doesn’t create a new normal of health care haves and have-no...
Post a Comment
Read more