I wonder if there have been any reports of unusual seismic activity in Canada today. If there have, they would likely be the consequence of the Trudeau government's massive boot-quaking in the face of a bully.
While 22 of the 28 EU countries, including the UK, France and Germany, voted for a UN resolution rejecting the Trump government's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Canada abstained.
Likely, they were intimidated by the muscle-flexing bullying of Nikki Haley, whose rhetoric was reminiscent of, and faithful to, tinpot dictatorships far and wide:
UPDATE: In this morning's Star, Tim Harper has this to say about Canada's abstention:
Canada ... was the only G7 nation beside the United States that did not vote to condemn the move by Trump.
In Canada’s case, an abstention does send a message, because the Trudeau government, like the Stephen Harper government before it, has slavishly backed the U.S. in voting against UN resolutions perceived to be anti-Israel.
But overwhelmingly the message sent by an abstention was that Ottawa didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to take a stand, wished that this would just go away.
Under normal circumstances, a court of last resort would be welcomed in the pursuit of justice, but it is apparently an entirely different story when it involves holding Israel to account
To hear our political leaders tell it – the sorry lot of them – Israel is right to yet again invade Gaza. The Palestinians have it coming. It’s all the doing of Hamas.
It’s a convenient and cowardly political posture. Harper probably believes it. Trudeau and Mulcair? Expedience, sheer craven expedience.
Nathan Thrall, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, has an op-ed in The New York Times, entitled, “How the West Chose War in Gaza. Gaza and Israel: the Road to War, Paved by the West.” The Palestinians, he writes, were on the road to forming a “consensus government” until Israel, with the tacit backing of the west, derailed it.
In the new political Canada we choose the good guys and, by default, the bad guys. The good guys (usually the powerful side) can do no wrong, the bad guys deserve whatever they get.
And when the good guys do bad things, we just look the other way. Harper, Trudeau, Mulcair – if you think one of them is fit to run this country, you’ve got a damned poor regard for this country.
MoS, the Disaffected Lib
UPDATE: Of course Canada’s political weasels will proclaim that Israel is only rampaging through Gaza to get at Hamas. That’s why the Israelis have destroyed Gaza’s water and sewage plants.
The eight-day assault has caused massive damage to infrastructure and destroyed at least 560 homes, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) said. “Within days, the entire population of the Strip may be desperately short of water,” Jacques de Maio, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Israel and the occupied territories, said in a statement. If hostilities continue, just as temperatures soar in the region, “the question is not if but when an already beleaguered population will face an acute water crisis”, he said. “Water is becoming contaminated and sewage is overflowing, bringing a serious risk of disease,” de Maio added.
In Oceania and throughout the West, there are things citizens are not supposed to remember. After all, if we don't remember them, did they really happen?
Click here for a refresher course in the use of chemical weapons from some players we should be well-familiar with.
I have purposely stayed out of the blogosphere discussion of the latest atrocities between Israel and Gaza, atrocities that both sides must bear responsibility for. I have done so simply because I don't feel I have anything new or startling to add to the discussion.
However, I have always been troubled by the reflexive and unwavering support accorded to Israel, no matter what actions it takes in response to attacks, even those involving 'collective punishment," something explicitly forbidden under the Geneva Conventions. No matter what, both the Harper regime and the U.S. President repeat that tired refrain about Israel's right to defend itself (as if that were ever in question). As politicians and commentators well know, to offer any overt criticism is to risk being labelled anti-Semitic.
However, it occurs to me amidst this politically-motivated hysteria that Canada has its own version of a sacred state beyond criticism. That would be the province of Alberta.
Being the repository of Conservative support, it is hardly surprising that Mr. Harper seeks political advantage while denouncing any criticism of his adopted province. To hear him speak would be to believe the sun rises and sets there, it is the sole key to Canada's economic future, and that anyone who proffers criticism is essentially an enemy of Canada unfit to hold political office.
Recall, for example, the outrage that was provoked when Thomas Mulcair raised the spectre of Dutch disease with the headlong extraction of tarsand oil in the holy province. The Harper regime's response was as swift as it was predictable.
And now Justin Trudeau, whose leadership potential I have grave doubts about, is being targeted by the right-wing for a comment he made two years ago. Dredged up by the always reliable champion of all things Canadian, Sun Media reports that he once said in a French-language interview the following:
“Canada isn’t doing well right now because it’s Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda.
Predictably, the Conservative propaganda machine was galvanized by such temerity:
“This is the worst kind of divisiveness, the worst kind of arrogance of the Liberal Party and it brings back for many Westerners the kind of arrogance of the national energy program which of course devastated the Western economy,” Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told reporters.
And so this silly dance goes on and on, affronting and alienating more and more from the political process. The only question is whether Canadians will continue to allow their thinking to be done for them by such patently dishonest and manipulative tactics.
P.S. If you want to see all the tut-tutting going on over Trudeau's remark at that national bastion of Harper appeasement, the CBC, check out the At Issue Panel on last night's National:
Describing them as "a social irritant and a threat to the Jewish character of the state," Israel is set to deport 60,000 African migrant workers, or, as they are being labelled, 'infiltrators,' all of whom were technically working illegally.
Despite its collective historical experience with racial profiling, the state apparently sees no tragic irony in this measure.
Never one to allow either his ethnicity or his political beliefs to overshadow his intellect, Rick Salutin in today's Star has an article of interest to anyone who feels uncomfortable with Stephen Harper's unconditional support of Israel. As well, for those who believe criticism of the Jewish state should not necessarily be equated with anti-Semitism, Mr. Salutin offers some welcome insights.
I was listening to CBC's The Current this morning. Interviewed by guest host David Michael Lamb, Palestinian doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish acquitted himself with great dignity on the subject of justice and reconciliation. Two years ago, the doctor lost three of his daughters when Israel conducted a military operation against the Palestinian enclave in Gaza. All Abuelaish has ever asked for is an apology from the Government of Israel, something they claim they cannot make because the innocent civilians were killed during a military operation.
Once more we are confronted with the situation of an intractable government claiming to be working in the best interests of the people when, in reality, it is obstructing the noble efforts of a man who, despite his grievous losses, has resolved to embrace love and forgiveness over revenge as he attempts to bridge the chasm that exists between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
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