Those Contemptibly Useful Idiots

"Even though CJPME [Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East] was founded as an organization for 'Canadians of all backgrounds', we are now viewed through a lens of identity politics by many."

"Even though CJPME has never claimed to be 'Palestinian' or to 'speak for Palestinians', many in the movement presume that non-Palestinians in leadership at CJPME are illegitimate."

"I've been ready to leave CJPME for some time, and these new winds indicated to me that the time had finally come."

"We never intended to start an organization, but when the local Palestinian community organization said that they could accept my wife as a member, but not me [as a non-Palestinian], we realized that we wanted to build an organization that welcomed ALL Canadians."

Thomas Woodley, founder and president CJPME

"CJPME is a diverse board and staff -- comprising people from all walks of life, both Palestinian and non-Palestinian."

"Our mission is to enable Canadians of all backgrounds to promote justice, development and peace in the Middle East, and here at home in Canada."

CJPME Board statement

"This organization, which is led by two white men presents itself as the largest Palestine solidarity group in 'Canada' while silencing & punishing dissenting Palestinian voices."

"My experience as a Board member exposed @CJPME & other 'non-profits' as highly oppressive groups behind their benevolent facade."

"Shame on the cowardice & complacency of CJPME board members."

Ghada Sasa, former CJPME board member

 

Evidently Ghada Sasa had been suspended soon after the October 7, 2023 atrocities for having argued that the Nova music festival concertgoers were slaughtered not by Palestinian terrorists but rather by Israeli forces. She denounced the group, calling out the president and vice president, Thomas Woodley and Michael Bueckert respectively, following her suspension.  She holds a social science doctorate from McMaster University.

In an interview with an Alberta talk show host, she commented that she "was reading a lot of the people who were killed were actually killed by Israel. Hamas was not trying to kill [Israelis]". CJPME responded in a statement: "Ms. Sasa has never been authorized to speak on behalf of the organization. In addition, some views that Ms. Sasa has expressed publicly are not aligned with the policies and positions of the organization". 

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, an anti-Israel group established in Canada that has attained a level of prominence, saw its president resigning with the explanation that ongoing opposition to his leadership among activists targeted  him "as a non-Palestinian", unsuitable to lead the group. When he felt compelled to resign the presidency, Thomas Woodley wrote his supporters that since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the anti-Israel activist movement has viewed CJPME as illegitimate, citing its non-Palestinian leadership.

It was the exclusionary views of the local activist community, commented Thomas Woodley, that led to his and his wife Grace Batchoun founding of the group in 2004 in Montreal against the backdrop of the Second Intifada. With Mr. Woodley's resignation, the CJPME board decided to name Michael Bueckert as interim president of CJPME and its Foundation, in refutation of Woodley's claim of discrimination as a 'non-Palestinian'. 

On the morning of October 7, one of CJPME's earliest public statements rationalized the invasion of southern Israel by Palestinian terrorists through blaming Israel: "After years of Israeli assaults on Gaza, an attack by Hamas on Israel has killed at least 40. Now Israeli airstrikes have already killed 160 as Gaza braces for bloodshed. Canada must call for a ceasefire and an end to root causes of violence: occupation, siege & apartheid."

Soon afterward, CJPME retweeted an image of a Hamas bulldozer destroying the Israeli border fence posted by Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti who wrote: "Gaza just broke out of prison".

CJPME followed that up by writing: "Israel's decades-long confinement of more than 2 million Palestinians inside the world's largest open-air prison is critical context for understanding today's escalation of violence". Through the months that ensued, violence flared across the region, Israel forced to counter other Iranian-backed proxies in Lebanon, and Yemen's Houthis attacking shipping in the Red Sea. 

 

CJPME  had no problems throwing its moral indignation at Israel's response to being attacked on all fronts. "The Houthis are targeting Israeli-related ships of those that are heading to Israel to show support for Palestine and for Israel to stop its bombardment campaign on Gaza", wrote the group. 

 

Wholeheartedly, passionately supporting the terrorist groups manipulated by the Islamic Republic of Iran whose foremost agenda is the destruction of the State of Israel before launching itself a far more ambitious, larger, wider net they feel is required in homage to fundamentalist Islamism to destroy others as well, for having forfeited the right to life by refusing to submit to Islam.

"In the years after 9/11, people became dimly aware that Arabs were not the same as Pakistanis or Indians. It was a faltering start to coming to terms with the existence of Palestinians."

"Then came the solidarity: white people wearing keffiyehs, the Free Palestine badges, lovely posh ladies petitioning outside HSBC over the bank's investment in illegal West Bank settlements."

British artist Tanushka Marah: Why I'm no longer talking to white people about Palestine

Terrorist Pro-Hamas Supporting Groups in Canada

"[T]he plaintiffs plead that the Samidoun Defendants have committed offences including, but not limited to, providing or collecting property for terrorist activity, providing or collecting property for the benefit of persons facilitating or carrying out terrorist activity, participating in the activity of a terrorist group, leaving Canada to participate in the activity of a terrorist group, and facilitating terrorist activity."

Statement of Claim in Ontario Superior Court of Justice

 

"[Criteria enabling the federal government to list a terrorist entity is if the person or group in question has] knowingly acted on behalf of, at the direction of or in association with an entity that has knowingly carried out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity."

Canada's Criminal Code

"Samidoun is knowingly acting on behalf of, at the direction of or in association with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist group under the Criminal Code."

"This qualifies Samidoun for a terrorist listing."

"Why hasn't this happened?"

Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong

"These are resistance fighters."

"These are our heroes. These are those who are sacrificing so that we can live and speak and struggle and fight."

"These are the people whose blood is being shed to defend humanity and to defend the world."

Charlotte Kates, international coordinator for Samidoun

"The expiration of her conditions of release will allow her to continue to initiate hate and division against the local Jewish community."

"If we value respect, inclusion, and diversity the Crown must approve and lay the charges recommended by the Vancouver Police Department."

Ezra Shanken, CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver

 

Samidoun, a clearly terrorist-supporting group that has established itself in Vancouver with branches elsewhere across Canada, has declared itself a solidarity network for Palestinian prisoners. Its founder, Khaled Barakat, married to Charlotte Kates, Samidoun leader, also happens to be identified as a senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, itself a listed terrorist organization in Canada, the U.S., Israel, the U.K. and the European Union. Yet this group that has been at the forefront of organizing countless pro-Hamas demonstrations across Canada, enjoys charitable status in Canada.

And irrespective of its representation of a proscribed terrorist group listed as such in Canada, the federal Liberal government refuses to address the issue of allowing such a group to operate in Canada, despite the social upheaval it has been part of, in demonizing Israel and harassing Jewish Canadians. There are, in fact, Muslim Members of Parliament at the ministerial level that had signed a contract with Khaled Barakat to conduct instructive human rights sessions for various government departments, until it was revealed that the man had a background linked to terrorism.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has an established record of having pioneered the carrying out of assassinations, suicide bombings, hijackings and murders. Shortly following Germany expelling Kates and Barakat, they established Samidoun in Vancouver as the headquarters of its global operation. A number of Members of Parliament have called upon the federal government to designate Samidoun for what it is, a terrorist organization. Muslim MPs will resist that, and the Trudeau Liberals will not go out of their way to alienate the large and growing Muslim-Canadian demographic, since it's a poor vote-garnering technique.

At a Samidoun-organized commemoration of the glories of the October 7, 2023 slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, the savage mass rape of Israeli girls and women, their pitiless mutilation and torture, and the abduction of 250 Israeli children, elderly, women and girls on its one-year anniversary when protesters burned the Canadian flag while chanting 'death to Canada', 'death to the United States', and "we are Hezbollah and we are Hamas", declaring 'Death to Israel'. 

Samidoun was 'mourning' the death of Hamas's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, vowing its intention to continue its "...jihadist path [and] follow [Nasrallah's] methodology". While Justin Trudeau's government has failed to advance remedial action against the rancid antisemitism that Samidoun and other pro-Hamas groups in Canada relish exhibiting in the public arena, Canada's Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre vows that when he becomes prime minister he will quickly intervene to declare Samidoun an outlawed terrorist group.

In a still of a video posted online, protesters at a pro-Palestinian rally are seen burning a Canadian flag as some chant 'death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel.' (Jarryd Jäger/Western Standard)

"So, if burning a Canadian flag, if calling for the death of Canadians, if fomenting hate in this country and most of all being a front for an already-listed terrorist organization is not enough to put them on the [federal government's terrorist] list, then what the hell is it going to take for them to ban them?"

Quebec: Antisemitism Capital of Canada?

"One ... 'problematic panellist -- who regularly spews racist antisemitic and homophobic remarks -- is Houria Bouteldja, a former spokesperson for Indigenes de la Republique, a ... France-based organization with ties to groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood."

"She openly supports religious sexism and categorizes Jewish self-determination as European colonialism while denying antisemitism exists beyond Europe. She does not stop at targeting the Jewish community; having also made controversial statements against LGBTQ+ rights, describing the cause as 'Homonationalism'."

Ela Yudin, vice-president (Quebec) Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Yair Szlak, president, CE of Federation CJA 

 

"Another speaker at the conference, Columbia University professor Joseph Massad, described the terrorist attacks on October 7 as 'awesome'."

"The widely denounced professor is notorious for categorizing the barbaric terrorist attacks targeting civilians, including women and children, as a 'battle against their cruel colonizers'."

"He refers to Israelis within Israel proper, as 'settlers', while portraying terrorism against civilians as acts of 'resistance'."

Ela Yudin, vice-president (Quebec) Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Yair Szlak, president, CE of Federation CJA 

UQAM should not allow itself to be a venue for hate-mongers  The Suburban

 

Chants heard at anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian (pro-Hamas) rallies that take place in Quebec, calling to "blow up the heads of Zionists", coupled with shootings at schools, fire-bombings of Jewish community centres and synagogues, protests in front of Jewish-owned businesses, harassment and intimidation on university campuses have alarmed Jewish groups in the province who demand that governments at the provincial and local level take steps to counter these hateful displays of antisemitism.

Speakers with dismal and socially backward hostilities from a background of homophobic, antisemitic and racist sentiments expressed in public, among them violent criminals, terrorists and well known extremists who advocate for divisive and hateful ideological agitation are not shunned in academic circles in the province, but rather given platforms from which to spout their racist and anti-social psychopathic agendas; essentially giving these rancid disrupters of the social weal legitimacy.

 

In the past few days the Bandung du Nord conference was hosted at the Universite de Quebec a Montreal. An event that caused outrage in the francophone media, and where in Europe it has a notorious reputation. At a previous such conference that took place in Paris, one of the speakers expressed views that "slide towards antisemitism and Holocaust denial", according to media reports. That same speaker is associated with an advocate for the establishment of a Belgium Islamic state. 

 

Presumably if the meeting had taken place in Brussels, the call would have been for a French Islamic state; they're both well on their way to achieving just that.

The university (UQAM) failed to heed a broad public outcry and that of the Jewish community's objections and insisted on proceeding with the conference on its property. The university lays claim to reserving the right to have cancelled the event should it so wish, but its final decision to give a platform for the extremist gathering implicitly lends credibility to such hateful ideologies.

Omar Barghouti, founder of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement condemned by a motion passed by the Canadian House of Commons in 2016, appeared at the conference. This is a man dedicated to oppose the presence of a Jewish state anywhere within the Middle East, much less on Israel's own ancestral soil. The ancestral indigeneity of Judaism in the Middle East is entirely rejected by this man for whom the very idea of  two-state solution is anathema.

McGill University's Muslim Alumni Society is also hosting an event guaranteed to further anti-Israel sentiments. An event to be headlined by Sana Saeed, an Al-Jazeera personality with a notorious background of sentiments expressed in support of terrorism, including praise for the October 7, 2023 mass atrocity in southern Israel as "incredible", is scheduled to speak to an appreciative audience, inciting them to further demonization of Israel and Jews within Canada.

Months after playing host to an anti-Israel encampment on its campus, UQAM was the site of a conference featuring terrorism supporters and glorifying murderers. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf/MONTREAL GAZETTE

Spewing Hateful Lies

"Israel's deliberate targeting of hospitals and other civilian infrastructure has led to more than 35,000 deaths and widespread famine and disease."

"I ask that you join me in calling for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Palestine."

"Advocacy is literally in our job description."

"It is never too late to join the right side of history."

"[Graduates should] stand in solidarity [with Indigenous people in Canada and the Palestinians and oppose] settler colonialism both at home and abroad [speak out against] injustice [and] violence."

Dr. Gem Newman, graduating class valedictorian speech 

Dr. Gem Newman delivered a controversial valedictorian speech to his graduating class. Photo by X.com

"[I am] disappointed that the address was delivered in a way that didn't represent all students and that was disrespectful to some audience members who were there to celebrate and be celebrated."

"Both speech and counter-speech are equally protected [but there are limits on freedom of expression]."

"A convocation address is different than a classroom setting, different than an opinion piece in a newspaper."

"Statements made in this address were divisive and inflammatory."

Peter Nickerson, dean, medical school, University of Manitoba medical school

 

"[The university allowed Newman] to spew these hateful lies to a captive audience. Those words are not political opinion. They are hate speech and they are lies."

"[The university should remove the video of the graduation speech and] condemn, in no uncertain terms [Newman's remarks]." 

"Denounce antisemitism in all forms it takes, even in its latest iteration as espoused by your valedictorian."

Ernest Rady, philanthropist American billionaire

A video on the University of Manitoba's YouTube channel that included a medical graduate's valedictory speech last week has since been taken down after criticism of the valedictorian's call for a ceasefire in Gaza. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)

 

Born in Winnipeg of a Jewish refugee from Russia, Maxwell Rady, who studied at the university, Ernest Rady bestowed a gift of $30 million to the University of Manitoba in memory of his father, in 2016. The University of Manitoba's medical school is called the Max Rady School of Medicine, Yet it was among this year's graduating medical students that a valedictorian speech was used to spout antisemitic tropes, causing the philanthropist to write to the school's administration to express condemnation of an event that left him "hurt and appalled".

 

The speech, he said, "dishonoured the memory of my father" and "disrespected and disparaged Jews as a whole", and he was entirely correct, generosity of monetary gift aside. The figure cited by the newly graduated Dr. Gem Newman of deaths in Gaza was supplied by the ministry of health in Gaza, an arm of the Hamas terrorist government, which needless to say lumps together the deaths of Hamas terrorists with the civilian population unfortunate enough to be caught up in a conflict that Hamas deliberately precipitated.

 

In its determined efforts to destroy the war machinery of Hamas, Israel is focused on breaking its ability to threaten and attack Israel and its citizens. Which means destroying the weaponry amassed by the terrorist group, along with its operatives, and signally, the network of tunnels built by the group which function as protection from targeting when Israel responds to deadly rockets shot from the enclave over the border into Israel. 

Clips of the offending speech, posted online refer to the conflict as 'genocidal' on the part of Israel, when in actual fact, Hamas has declared its firm intention of eradicating Israel, and with it every Jew living there. The dean of the medical school, Dr. Peter Nickerson, responded with outrage, noting Newman had expressed his personal views but that "both speech and counterspeech are protected" limits exist on freedom of expression.

Originally prepared to speak at the Lavender Graduation for LGBTQ students at the faculty, the Queer and Trans Graduate Student group rescinded the invitation to Dean Nickerson, claiming the ceremony was meant to be a "safe and affirming space", while Dr. Nickerson's condemnation of Newman "does not support that goal." They might try that one on in Gaza; travel to the Strip and see what kind of reception they'd be greeted with, there.

Dr. Peter Nickerson, dean of the University of Manitoba's Max Rady College of Medicine, is seen reciting the physician's pledge for graduates at the May 16 convocation. He says Rady was 'far from the first person' to ask for video of Newman's speech to be taken down. (Radio-Canada)

"Your statement has also left us concerned that, at some point, our very existence as 2SLGBTQIA+ people may be deemed too political or 'inflammatory and divisive'."

LGBTQ student letter to Dean Nickerson

The Infamous Marouf Back in Business Glorifying Jihad

 

"Knowing that there is a huge gap left in news programming in English that is supportive of resistance and the right to liberation ... we decided to bring together our communities here to start a project, a community television station."

"It's not established in Canada. It's not based in Canada. There's no connection there."

Laith Marouf, principal, Community Media Advocacy Centre

"The largest Jewish White Supremacist accounts in Apartheid Canada are mounting a disinformation campaign against our Community Television station."

"[Free Palestine Television [FPTV] is unaffiliated with any political party or groups, including Al-Tajammu which hosted our studios for a brief time and we have since moved as we expanded."

FPTV statement

Laith Marouf in 2010 Photo by Peter McCabe / THE GAZETTE

The very man whom the Trudeau government hired to head its anti-racism program as a consultant who would fulfill his contract with the federal government's Heritage department by holding study groups to identify racism and teach how best to fight against it effectively, began each of his lectures by slandering Israel as an occupying force in Palestine, demeaning and desecrating the territory with its presence, persecuting Palestinians, forcefully controlling them; his version of  addressing racism.

This is a man with a traceable record. Any input of his name and the name of his consultancy would have revealed the many racist, antisemitic, anti-Black, anti-Francophone slanders he regularly posted on social media. When it was revealed by a journalistic investigation that this blatant antisemite was employed by a government agency to further its program on anti-racism in the media, a storm of controversy ensued. The ministers of two involved government departments claim they were blindsided.

Eventually an 'investigation' took place and the contract was retracted, while recovery of funds paid out to the man was initiated, all  under public scrutiny. Jewish groups, for one, were not impressed. It was pointed out that the most cursory of online searches would have revealed the nature of experience the man had with racism, since he was a significant proponent of racism personally, casting himself as an expert in fighting it.

 

 

Soon after the Hamas slaughter of Israeli Civilians on October 7 the launch of Free Palestine Television took place. It featured footage of the Hamas attacks on Israelis, on soldiers, along with manoeuvres from Hamas-linked militias such as the Mujahideen Brigades and the Al-Qassam Brigades operating out of Gaza and the West Bank. Speeches with live translation to English from Hezbollah chief Nasrallah were published, along with press releases from various terror groups such as Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a group of Iran-linked militias.

Marouf's history of social media posts about Jews, Francophones and Blacks exemplified his credentials as a racist. One of his posts read: "You know all those loud mouthed bags of human feces; a.k.a. the Jewish White Supremacists...when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they come from, they will return to being low voiced b-----s of their Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters." Although the government heads who hired this hateful man claimed to have known nothing about his inclinations, it was revealed his social media posts were known, and nothing was done.

Until newspapers reveled what became a scandal in summer of 2022. Canadian Heritage since has pledged that changes have taken place; it vets funding requests for community and anti-racism projects differently now. Such embarrassing and Liberal-government-harmful revelations are to be avoided, when and if at all possible in the future. That one of the ministers involved is himself Muslim does explain to a degree the lack of concern over vivid antisemitism given free rein in government programs.

As for recovering the funds through a collections agency, the Canada Revenue Agency and the courts, no success has been realized. Marouf has changed his place of residence from Canada to Beirut, Lebanon. From whence has become a regular on social media programs with his personal opinions on Palestinian politics, Israel and allied geopolitical issues. A state-owned Russian broadcaster has seen fit to  have him appear on Sputnik News and programs by the Russian propaganda network Russia Today. The FPTV station is based out of Lebanon, staffed by students, professors and members of the community.

Wed Jan 3 @ 8am PST / 11am EST / 6pm Beirut, FPTV will be broadcasting today a live English interpretation of Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s speech at 6pm Quds time, FPTV

 

The FPTV website identifies its launch "with the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Flood", the name given to the October 7 massacre in Israel. A Friday report by the Middle East Forum think tank claimed FPTV was linked to the Lebanon-based group Al-Tajammu, "an international pro-Iranian platform to leverage the resistance axis against the U.S., Israel and their allies", according to Michael Barak, a researcher at the Institute for Counter Terrorism at Reichmann University in Israel.

Free Palestine TV, according to the Middle East Forum report was "established in Canada. FPTV hosted a fundraiser for the channel in mid-December on Zoom. Guest speakers featured were prominent figures in Indigenous advocacy in Canada. Sleydo', known as Molly Wickham, a Wet'suwet'en chief and opponent of the Coastal GasLink B.C; Judy Da Silva, member of the Grassy Narrows First Nation in Ontario; and Isaac Murdoch, artist and member of the Serpent River First Nation