Almost a year after Israel launched its campaign of genocide on Gaza, Israel is now propagating war across the Middle East.  Israel proclaims that it's only acting in self-defence, and many of our Canadian political leaders eat it up.  But Israel's decades of militarism, colonialism and occupation tell a different story, and 2023-24 will go down in the history books much as 1947-48, 1956, 1967, 1982, 2006, 2008-09.  It is long past time for Canada to rebuke Israel's war machine and end the sale of Canadian military goods and technology to Israel: millions of people in Palestine, Lebanon, Israel, Syria and Iran depend on it.

Over a thousand Palestinians with connections to Canada are stranded in Egypt, while thousands more may still be stuck in Gaza. All of them face devastating bureaucratic obstacles from Canada’s Gaza Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) program. In early 2024, Canada had pledged to help Palestinians escape Israeli violence and reunite with their families in Canada. Instead, our TRV program has utterly failed and has revealed deep flaws and anti-Palestinian racism in Canada’s visa system. This failure continues to prolong the suffering of Palestinian families and tarnishes Canada’s global reputation as a safe haven.

We are deeply alarmed to hear that Prime Minister’s Special Envoy Lyons is imminently preparing to publish a dangerous handbook to guide institutions in applying the extremist anti-Palestinian IHRA definition of antisemitism. IHRA strategically conflates antisemitism with nearly any criticism of Israel and Zionism, and is often used to suppress, censor, and persecute Palestinian perspectives. It is clear that this anti-Palestinian, pro-censorship handbook will be used to target anti-genocide protestors and put a deep chill on criticism of apartheid, genocide and Zionism. Stand with us against Trudeau’s censorship campaign!

We were shocked to learn that Canada is about to allow 50,000 “high explosive” mortars to be transferred to the Israeli military, even as it commits a genocide in Gaza. As part of the $20B arms package just approved by the United States Congress, the US will be purchasing $83.7M (CAD) worth of mortars, made in Quebec. Canada cannot allow this shipment of 50,000 explosives to go ahead. Just earlier this year, grassroots pressure led Parliament to vote to stop sending weapons to Israel. This shipment blatantly violates the will of Parliament and there is no question that these weapons will be used against civilians in Gaza. Canada has an obligation to intervene.

Last week, we were pleased to see that the University of Windsor reached an agreement with the student-led encampment (the Palestine Liberation Zone), committing to act on many of the students’ demands. UWindsor acted on divestment when other universities turned to the police or the courts to forcibly shut down encampments. Now, pro-Israel groups and federal officials are trying to overturn this victory, pressuring the university and making legal threats. We need to make sure that UWindsor administrators stand their ground and resist the attacks.

We are excited to learn that the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has just voted to include anti-Palestinian racism (APR) as part of its Combating Hate and Racism strategy! This means that the TDSB has committed to developing resources to inform students about APR, alongside other forms of discrimination including Islamophobia and antisemitism. This is a major victory resulting from the important advocacy from Toronto Palestinian and Jewish families. Acknowledging APR is critically important amid the skyrocketing incidents of violence and hate against Palestinians and their supporters. Unfortunately, pro-Israel organizations are opposed to any mention of APR and are strongly campaigning to have this decision reversed. We can’t allow political pressure from pro-Israel groups to erase Palestinian voices.

When Canada relaunched its federal Anti-Racism Strategy, it failed to mention the grave problem of anti-Palestinian racism. Making things worse, a Canadian public official tasked with countering racism has been spreading misinformation about pro-Palestine protests, harmfully and maliciously defaming Palestinian Canadians and their supporters. Far from fighting APR, the Canadian government is perpetuating it. Special Envoy Deborah Lyons was appointed by Justin Trudeau to fight antisemitism, but instead, she has been focused on attacking Palestinian Canadians and other critics of racist Israeli practices. This is unacceptable. She should be replaced with someone capable of fighting antisemitism without promoting anti-Palestinian racism.

Months after Parliament voted to stop sending arms to Israel, Canadians are still left in the dark about the arms trade. After approving a skyrocketing number of weapons exports in the first months of Israel’s genocidal war, Foreign Affairs Minister Joly refuses to provide the public information about these sales: how many weapons were sent to Israel, what were they, how were they used, and has Canada violated international law? Canadians deserve answers.

Student groups at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of Victoria (UVic) have joined the global movement of student encampments in solidarity with Palestine. Like student activists across Canada, the student groups have demanded that UBC and UVic divest from companies that arm Israel and are complicit in the oppression, occupation and genocide of Palestinians. The demands also call on UBC and UVic to boycott Israeli academic institutions and publicly condemn the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. So far, UBC and UVic have refused to engage with the student protestors or their demands, and this must change!

On April 29, the student groups Palestinian Students Association and Integrity not Spite for Falastin (INSAF) at the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) began their encampment in solidarity with Palestinians. Like the coalition groups at McGill University, the student groups made three important demands, including “complete divestment from any and all corporations involved directly and indirectly in the surveillance, occupation, and murder of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank.” Unfortunately, the Administration at uOttawa have made no efforts to take the demands of the student protestors seriously, expressing their manufactured concerns about health and safety. Despite meeting with the student protestors, their demands have gone unanswered and remain unacknowledged.