Canadian Anti-War Activists

Canadian peace activists, the news article tells its readers, were out in force at a recent conference in Cairo, set up for the purpose of forging closer links between the international anti-war movement and Islamic 'resistance' groups. Several of which 'resistant' groups are on Canada's list of outlawed terrorists. So, which is it? Resistors - or terrorists. Perspective is everything, isn't it? Perception always seems to trump reality, or is it that reality is really perception. You have your reality, I have mine.

So there it is, in black and white, in my daily newspaper - make that two daily newspapers. It appears in each, hard to miss, right? Twenty Canadians attended the Cairo Conference held between March 29 and April 1, the largest Canadian contingent so far in the conference's still-fledgling 5-year history. Who knows, by next year perhaps it'll be 40 attendees, all eager to meet in the name of anti-war activism and peace. The following year more yet, until Canadian delegates put all other international anti-war activists to shame.

That's Canada for you, eager to do our share and more for peace. In total, fifteen hundred delegates showed up, representing the Middle East, Europe, South Korea and the United States. Many of the Canadian delegates were there representing a Canadian umbrella group, the Canadian Peace Alliance, which boasts 150 affiliate groups. And who were those particular delegates representative of? Kind of a mixed bag. Or maybe not.

The Toronto coalition to Stop the War (sounds good), the Canadian Arab Federation, The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, Artists Against War, the Venezuela We Are With You Coalition, the Toronto-Haiti Action Committee, the Toronto-Egypt Solidarity Campaign, and (best of all) Not In Our Name - Jews Against Israel's Wars. The mind boggles. All these high-minded, sober, well-intentioned and even-minded groups.

Also at the conference were Hamas, Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Jamaat al-Islamiya, best known for the murder of 70 tourists in Luxor, Egypt in 1997, and all of whom are listed by Canada as terrorist groups. Freedom fighters? That, evidently, is how they're viewed by conference attendees. Applauded for their role in the struggle against human-rights oppressors. You're an oppressor of human rights if you defend yourself; a freedom fighter if you murder in the name of your cause.

The conference was sponsored by the officially banned (in Egypt) Muslim Brotherhood, and Egyptian opposition parties for the express purpose of forging "an international alliance against imperialism and Zionism". And this is what passes for an anti-war alliance, a movement for peace. The Egyptian prime minister who courageously made peace with Israel, Anwar Al-Sadat, was assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood.

A story in the New York-based leftist publication Monthly Review suggested that the conference "revealed increased cohesion" between Islamic, nationalist and socialist forces in the Middle East and anti-war groups in Canada, Europe, Korea and Venezuela. Oh yes, indeed. Rendering aid and comfort to self-avowed "avengers" of the Palestinian cause by offering dialogue and understanding is a peculiar way to go about seeking peace. It does, however, effectively encourage further acts of terrorism. Is that all right, as long as they're directed against Jews?

"For us it's just a question of dialogue and clarity, of being able to meet with people who have experienced war over the course of the last few years", claimed Peace Alliance co-ordinator Sid Lacombe, who attended the conference. Clarity would be achieved by dialoguing with terrorists. Getting their point of view would assist in understanding the conflict. As people who have 'experienced war'.

The people who have 'experienced war' are not those who wage terror. Clarity sought for the purpose of interviewing those who have suffered through war conditions might have been sought elsewhere; from Palestinians whose leaders have taken them down the path of war, from Israelis who have fought in self-defence. From a population still suffering the daily onslaughts of rockets aimed at border settlements in Israel.

But as Mr. Lacombe would have it, the conference is important for Canadian groups wishing to acquire first-hand knowledge of what's happening in the Middle East. By consorting with implacable jihadists? This is even-handed, humanitarian access to a balanced view of the situation? Oh yes, another Canadian delegate interviewed for the news item was Ali Mallah, a vice-president of the Canadian Arab Federation.

And just coincidentally, a member of the international solidarity committee of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Solidarity forever.