Taking Pride on an Anti-Israel Journey of Rejection

"The focus today is to show our love, to show our solidarity and our support to a community that needs it. The message here is that everybody is welcome, everybody is included and there's so much that we can learn from each other."

"For the youth to see so many groups, so may organizations and so many people being here to support this community, it gives that sense of validation that is so important -- to make people feel they are welcome and validated."

"This community is all about love, solidarity and support."

Mr. Capital Pride 2024

 

"All of the organizations and institutions that have pulled out have done so without consultation with their workers."

"This was top bosses and employers or boards of directors making decisions without consulting the people who work there or the people they actually serve." 

Emily Quaile, Community Solidarity Ottawa

Capital Pride Parade in Ottawa, on Sunday, August 25, 2024. (Chris Tanouye/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Inclusion, love, solidarity and support? Not quite. As it happens Capital Pride organizers conferred among themselves -- without taking a poll among their members, in fact -- to reach a consensus of opinion that inclusion would mean the Palestinian community of the Ottawa region, not merely those who qualify as 2SLGBTQIA+, but they and their sympathizers in general. The very groups that have celebrated the October 7 Palestinian terrorism butchery in Israel where 1,200 mostly civilians were left dead, girls and women raped and tortured, entire families put to the torch, children, women and the elderly taken hostage into Gaza.

 

Gaza, the stronghold of the Hamas terrorist organization; considered by the government of Canada to be terrorists just as they are in most Western countries, for their unabashed and straightforward dedication to the destruction of the world's only Jewish state, in an ancestral geography, an Israel reborn for the singular purpose of offering safe haven to Jews in a hostile world that continually reverts to a state of viral antisemitism, just as we now see in Europe, North America and elsewhere, boosted by the slanderous propaganda of the Palestinian agenda to discredit and demonize Israel and Jews everywhere. 

Palestinian organizations and sympathetic groups have organized raucous, threatening rallies in cities across Europe and North America from October 8 onward, funded by foreign organizations and Islamist countries like Qatar and Iran who have also supplied organizers for these pro-Hamas protests as well as the encampments on university grounds demanding that university administrators and corporations and business leaders as well as Western governments condemn Israel for its response to the mass rape, mutilations and bloodletting by Hamas when the Israeli military embarked on a campaign to destroy the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, the PLFP and Hezbollah.

The declaration of 'principles' and alliances expressed by Capital Pride prior to embarkation on its annual Capital Pride parade effectively raised the level of antisemitism in and among the LGBTQ community in favour of supporting a death cult that aims its poisoned arrows at Jews everywhere, extending its campaign in less visible but rising campaign against Western 'imperialism' inimical to Palestinian aspirations and extended Islamist jihadist goals.

"Part of the growing Islamophobic sentiment we are witnessing is fuelled by the pink-washing of the war in Gaza and racist notions that all Palestinians are homophobic and transphobic. By portraying itself as a protector of the rights of queer and trans people in the Middle East, Israel seeks to draw attention away from its abhorrent human rights abuses against Palestinians. We refuse to be complicit in this violence. Indeed, to withhold our solidarity from Palestinians in the name of upholding 2SLGBTQIA+ rights betrays the promise of liberation that guides our work. We join our voice to the calls for greater protection of civilians and reject any attempts to use a devastating conflict as a pretext to advance hate."

"To breathe life into our sincere hope for an end to this war and justice for all its victims, we commit to the following actions:

• Integrating resources such as the Palestinian BDS National Committee’s boycott list in our existing review process of current and future sponsorship agreements;
• Hosting Zaffa: A Queer Arab Showcase, a Signature Event as part of the 2024 Capital Pride Festival that features discussions about ongoing issues facing LGBTQIA+ Arabs locally and abroad;
• Recognizing the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in opening remarks at 2024 Capital Pride Festival Signature Events; and
• Working with all our partners, both public and private, to push for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, increased access to humanitarian aid, and more accessible pathways for refugees."

Capital Pride Statement in Solidarity with Palestine, August 8, 2024, Ottawa, Ontario

Replete with the slanderous calculated falsehoods of the Palestinian propaganda, the Capital Pride Statement is a document of ignorance and antisemitism combined in a lethal cauldron of pure hate. Israel is a defender of alternate gender human rights which are legally protected in Israel; its Pride Parades are open and respectful. Whereas on the other hand, in the Palestinian Territories gays risk their very lives if their sexual orientation becomes public knowledge. In the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as in Iran, death stalks members of the Palestinian  LGBTQ community.

There is no 'genocide' against Palestinians at the hands of Israel; there IS a military campaign to expunge the presence of lethal Islamist Palestinian attackers of Jews/Israelis from the territories. The founding charters of Fatah, Hamas and other such internationally recognized terrorist groups identify their purpose as the elimination of Israel from its ancestral soil. Deadly attacks against Jews have been the Palestinian formula since 1948 with the declaration of the State of Israel. Existential threats against Israel and world Jewry emanate from the Palestinians whom LGBTQ groups lionize.

In Ottawa, reaction to the Capital Pride position statement was clear and it was a denunciation of all that it alleges in demonizing Israel while supporting Palestinian terrorism against Israel. The city's mayor began the response of rejecting the Pride position when the City of Ottawa's Mayor Mark Sutcliffe let it be known with regret, that he would not be attending the parade. Followed by the Liberal Party of Canada, the Ontario Liberal Party the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, The Ottawa Hospital, the Montfort Hospital, Ottawa Tourism, the Bank of Canada, Giant Tiger, Loblaw, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, the University of Ottawa, the U.S. Embassy, the Public Service Pride Network, Conseil des ecoles publiques de l'Est de l'Ontario, Conseil des ecoles catholiques du centre-Est, and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

They did so in sympathy and agreement with the Ottawa Jewish community which felt excluded and isolated as a result of the Capital Pride statement and position taken on the Israel-Gaza conflict, repeating the slanderous accusation of Israel committing 'genocide' against the Palestinians. Ottawa's situation is not a unique one, as it happens, since Pride parades in Montreal, Toronto, Halifax and Vancouver have been disrupted by pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Hate-mongering against Jews resulted in over 100 synagogues, hospitals and Jewish community centres receiving bomb threats.

As for the Pride commitment to integrate the BDS boycott list into its review of sponsorship agreements, that remains to be seen. The TD Bank is Pride's major 'presenting' sponsor and right behind it as a sponsor is Loblaws, and the LCBO followed by the province of Ontario, all of which are listed on the BDS Coalition's "Boycott List of Shame". Shame, in very point of fact, has settled itself squarely on the Pride community for its unabashed antisemitism cloaked unbecomingly under the banner of anti-Zionism, anti-Israel provocations.

Members of the OCDSB carry a giant pride flag during the Capital Pride Parade in Ottawa, on Sunday, August 25, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Tanouye

 

Expelling Violent Aggressor-Nations from the United Nations

"The choice of an aggressor country for the leadership of the UN Security Council has been met with reflections on whether the UN can fulfill its fundamental principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter."

"It forces us to face the bitter truth. The rules born from post-World War II trauma have less and less meaning."

Paulina Piasecka, national security expert,Warsaw

 

"We urge you to initiate a process to replace Russia on the UN Security Council as the fifth permanent member."

"Russia is not a responsible international actor and is unbecoming of a seat on the UN Security Council."

"Moreover, it has no right to this seat. Rather, it was provided to Russia in a deal after the dissolution of the Soviet Union."

" Ukraine could and should be recognized to fill the USSR seat rather than Russia."

Reps. Steve Cohen and Joe Wilson, a co-chair and the ranking member on the Helsinki Commission

UN Photo/Manuel Elías

UN General Assembly votes to suspend the rights of the membership of the Russian Federation in the Human Rights Council during an Emergency Special Session on Ukraine.

The globe's most infamous aggressor-state has a well-worn veto as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Imagine this, that a nation committed to territorial expansion -- that has over the last decade, attempted to reimpose on its neighbours the control that Russia exerted on its near-abroad in the interests of USSR solidarity and Russian power politics, ramping up its military excursions in Georgia then turning its sights on Ukraine with a full invasion -- is able to control sanctions against human-rights-abusing nations through its veto, including Russia's own.

Both Russia and China, and often in tandem, have deadlocked the UN's Security Council's resolutions and sanctions and neither, opposed to Western regimes and democracy, is likely to sway from their antagonistic positions. The very absurdity of a warring nation marching into a neighbour's sovereign territory, destroying its infrastructure, its civilian enclaves, murdering thousands both combatants and civilians, sitting in the world body as an arbiter of human rights and global peace gives absurdity a bad name.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been charged with war crimes at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. The General Assembly of the United Nations condemned its invasion of Ukraine, calling for Russia to "immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw". An order snubbed by Moscow of course, and though there are international obligations on the part of those nations which signed on to the ICC, it seems highly unlikely that should Mr. Putin appear in a foreign country he would be arrested and turned over to the ICC.

There are those calling the situation absurd beyond a vestige of reason, and although the general body of the UN is far from clamouring for Russia's expulsion in reflection of its threat to world peace and its obvious territorial aggression in Eastern Europe, it isn't as simple as it might appear. Expulsion from the world body would require the general consensus of the Security Council to enable the General Assembly to act.

The result of which is that the Security Council, tasked with identifying threats to peace or to respond to acts of aggression is unable to do either. Russia's veto has put a stopper in the Council's capacity to ask conflict parties to settle differences peaceably. Terms of settlement can b recommended, or the UN can send in its "blue berets" peacekeepers. However, because of Russia's veto, everything is at a standstill.

It's difficult to fathom that when the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia were authorized by the world body as permanent Security Council members, no one in authority had the sagacity to foresee such an event, where the very cause of a violent conflict is able to readily sidestep absorbing criticism and evade ordered withdrawal by dint of its veto action. 

Among the 15 members of the Security Council (the permanent members plus other nations voted to a multi-year term on the non-permanent membership of the Security Council) there is a revolving presidency on a monthly basis. In February of 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, it held the presidency of the Security Council, a mouth-agape hypocrisy of classic dimensions, if not a belligerent thumb in the eye of the Council. 

A overhead view shows a United Nations Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York on Sept. 30. Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

The Equality Sanctimony of Canada's Liberal Government

"If the government has moved an employee from an organization that was deemed to be discriminatory to now an even bigger organization to address anti-racism, it's not only hypocritical, but it's a farce. There's zero credibility in this type of leadership."

"We have this vicious cycle within the federal public service where there's no accountability -- wrong-doers are often either transferred when it comes to discrimination or promoted."

"This appointment is completely counter to the government's promise and commitment to create a diverse and inclusive workspace that is free from discrimination and harassment."

Nicholas Marcus Thompson, executive director,  Black Class Action Secretariat (BCAS)

 

"Employees report being harassed and facing retaliation from Ms. [Melanie] Mohammed after speaking up."

"Therefore, it is completely unacceptable for the Government of Canada to appoint this individual as director general of anti-racism for the entire government."

Black Class Action Secretariat statement

 

"We remain committed to improving the experiences of Black public servants, but while progress is being made, we know there is still more to do to make our workplaces inclusive and equitable for all equity-seeking employees."

"[The Department is taking BCAS' statement] very seriously [and is looking into the organization's concerns]."

Dominique Collin, spokesperson, Canadian Heritage 

Bernadeth Betchi, who was a policy advisor at the Canadian Human Rights Commission, describes it as a toxic and poisonous workplace. (David Thurton/CBC)

 

The Black Class Action Secretariat was formed for the purpose of working toward the elimination of systemic discrimination inside Canada's public service. It is at the present time consumed with concern that the Department of Canadian Heritage has brought on board a former leadership member at the Canadian Human Rights Commission. That the woman, Melanie Mohammed was appointed to this sensitive human rights role is beyond disturbing to the BCAS.

The Canadian Human Rights commission was recently found to have discriminated against its own employees who are Black and racialized workers. Treasury Board had ruled that the Canadian Human Rights Commission whose mandate is to deal with discrimination complaints, had breached the "no discrimination" clause of a collective agreement between Treasury Board and the Association of Justice counsel, the bargaining agent for 2,600 lawyers the government employs.

The appointment of Ms. Mohammed who had been the CHRC's chief of staff is seen to be "disturbing" and "reckless", in the words of BCAS executive director Nicholas Marcus Thompson. A message is being sent to Canadians of no accountability or consequences for discrimination, he points out. And well he might, while overlooking the role model for all of Canada, a prime minister who infamously labels Canada a 'racist' country, yet shrugging impartially when he was himself found to have indulged in Black mimicry through infamously repeatedly wearing Blackface.

The director general of multiculturalism and anti-racism's role is fairly obvious; not only to provide funding to organizations led by Black and racialized people, but as well to address the issues of racism and hate through federal multiculturalism and anti-racism strategies. Which would include Canada's Anti-Raacsm Strategy and the Federal Anti-Racism Secretariat.

Representing the views of the Black Class Action Secretariat, its executive director spoke to the Senate with respect to anti-Black racism, sexism and systemic distribution in the Canadian Human Rights Council and above all his concerns relating to the lack of accountability within the government. The BCAS called on the government to rescind Ms. Mohammed's appointment and to issue an apology. This government has an uncanny penchant for appointing the wrong people to the most sensitive positions, from governor general to human rights appointments.

Julie Payette, a workplace-abusive elitist who spurned most of the activities common to the position of British royalty's representative in Canada as a Commonwealth country, to contracting with a rabid racist and antisemite to give lessons on human rights and racism to government groups. Situations that were allowed to fester, and which were only addressed when they became so egregiously dysfunctional they slopped over into the public sphere through newspaper exposes.

 

The Treasury Board Secretariat's March 6 ruling said the Canadian Human Rights Commission had breached the “no discrimination” clause of a collective agreement between Treasury Board and the Association of Justice Counsel. Photo by Vladstudioraw /GETTY IMAGES / ISTOCK PHOTO

For this reason, the Secretariat is calling on the Government of Canada to:

1. Rescind the appointment immediately of the new Director General, Melanie Mohammed, to lead the Anti-Racism and Multiculturalism Program at Canadian Heritage, and issue an apology.

2. Appoint a person with no connection to the leadership of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and who has demonstrated an understanding of systemic anti-Black racism.

3. Rescind the appointment of Melanie Mohammed from the Federal Executive Leadership Development Program as she has failed to uphold the public service’s values and ethics standards.

4. Mandate senior executives of the Department of Heritage, including Associate Deputy Minister Mala Khanna who appointed Ms. Mohammed, to undergo anti-Black racism training and to meet with Black employees and address their concerns on anti-Black racism within the department.

Anti-Semitism: A Cause of "Great Concern" in the Western World

"The member states of the European Union support policy initiatives at European level that aim to combat incitement to antisemitic hatred and acts of violence, as well as the dissemination of antisemitic conspiracy myths online."

"The increase in threats to Jewish persons in Europe including the resurgence of conspiracy myths, public expressions of anti-Semitism, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and an increase in anti-Semitic incidents and hate crime is a cause of great concern."

Council of the European Union  

 

"The UN’s display of hypocrisy continues this afternoon, as the General Assembly continues to debate the so-called 'question of Palestine' resolutions which are all one-sided, all blame Israel and are all detached from reality." 

"Countries that supported Israel today have understood that this package of resolutions does nothing to forward peace but serves instead to entrench the Palestinian’s rejectionist position and deepen the conflict."

"No other country in the world faces such discrimination in the UN ... and it is time for more UN members to join our struggle to challenge the organization's anti-Israel agenda."

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s envoy to the UN

 

"Shame: Canada's Justin Trudeau government just joined the jackals at the UN by voting for a one-sided resolution singling out Israel, co-sponsored by Syria, Venezuela and North Korea."

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch

The United Nations building stands in Manhattan on the first official day of the 75th United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2020, in New York City.  Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Yet again, as predictable as snow in winter, the United Nations General Assembly adopted five anti-Israel Resolutions on December 2nd. Five out of a package of 20 pro-Palestinian texts that are approved by rote on an annual basis every December, passing with an easy majority of the United Nations member states. One of the resolutions' texts is a condemnation of Israeli 'occupation' in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, condemnatory of annexation plans, while a second text addresses Israeli 'occupation' of the Golan Heights. The remaining three relate to UN committee work on the issue of Palestine and its refugees.

What continues to surprise sympathetic onlookers to these annual rites of condemning a democratic nation which has absorbed and given citizenship to millions of Palestinian Arabs, Bedouin, Druze, Christians and B'hai, rescuing black Ethiopians who traditionally identify as Jews from persecution to bring them to safety in Israel, is the cowering hypocrisy of nations that assure Jews and Israel that they support the Jewish state's sovereign presence in their ancestral home and are committed to fighting anti-Semitism and to honour the memory of the Holocaust, yet in the august halls of the United Nations they uniformly vote against Israel's interests.

It is as though a mental block obscures reality, commitment and morality for these nations who see no contradiction in publicly voting against Israel, condemning the state for its existence in essence, while in another breath they claim to be fully supportive of its right to exist. In the one-way street of voting against Israel there is no balance, no recognition that Israel has attempted time and again to satisfy the demands of the Palestinians, only to be turned down time an again. 

 

Similarly there is no recognition of the incitement by the Palestinian Authority for violence against Israel, for refusal of normalization of relations, while it continues to dole out financial awards and honours to Palestinians and their families who have committed violent acts against Jews. Much less the constant refusals to bargain in good faith to achieve a sovereign state of their own, for the covert plan aspiring to Palestinize the geography from the river to the sea. ("From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.") 

 

The sanctimony of government leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who appoints a well-known Canadian human rights activist to the role of envoy to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance by a prime minister who was unable to muster the word "Jew" when unveiling the then-newly-opened Holocaust Memorial in Ottawa while bemoaning the death of six million people, and whose administration overlooked the word "Jewish" on the commemorative plaque is painful to observe.

Under the government preceding his own led by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the long-running Canadian tradition of voting in support of Israel on UN resolutions was assured, but it has executed an abrupt and to some, puzzling turnabout under Trudeau, the ultra-progressive, post-nationalist, feminist prime minister anxious to display himself on the world stage as a leading progressive. 

 

 

Canada, like other countries, has seen fit to formally adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

Yet though the IHRA definition has been adopted by countries and groups that agree with the definition per se and want that recognition to signal that they are morally opposed to anything resembling, leading to or aggravating anti-Semitism, they appear to suffer amnesia when a vote in the General Assembly comes up which has familiar content that aids and abets and formalizes and promotes anti-Semitism. Canada's stance a case in point. Anti-Semitism is exemplified by denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, and by affirming the right of the Palestinians to self-determination without taking Israel's into consideration is ipso facto, anti-Semitism, clear and simple.

The United Nations has entertained 96 resolutions since 2015 condemning Israel, while seven have been allocated for Syria, five for North Korea, four for Iran and three for Myanmar. Canada has company in its hypocrisy given the European Union speaks passionately about fighting anti-Semitism and the promotion of Holocaust remembrance, but again, once at the United Nations all that is forgotten in the obligatory bashing of Israel at the behest of countries notoriously acknowledged for their human rights abuses.

The British newspaper, The Guardian, this week published a piece signed by 122 Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists and intellectuals denouncing the definition of anti-Semitism claiming "profound disagreement" with the notion that "Israel in its current reality embodies the self-determination of all Jews", an astounding impudence by self-righteous, anti-Israel belligerents claiming that they know better than Jews themselves what Israel should represent as a Jewish state; the assurance that Jews will never again face the horror of genocide.

Courting the UN Vote, Revealing Unsubtle Bias -- It's The Liberal Way

"All the plans offered to us in the past included renouncing parts of Israel, withdrawing to the 1967 borders and dividing Jerusalem while allowing refugees to enter Israel."
"This plan offers the opposite. We are not the ones required to give up [territories], the Palestinians are."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Canadian Press

"I've been very direct with the Israeli leaders. We deplore such actions, which are going to delay any prospect of lasting peace in the Middle East."
"So, we should be working while respecting the concept of dialogue. And we are very concerned."

"I have highlighted both publicly and directly to Prime Minister Netanyahu and alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz the importance of staying away from measures that are unilateral and our deep concerns and disagreement with their proposed policy of annexation."
"We think that the path forward is a two-state solution reached to by dialogue between the parties involved and anything that is unilateral action by either side is unhelpful in the cause of peace."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"The comprehensive U.S. Peace Plan is the only viable peace initiative currently on the table trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel has accepted its foundations, despite concessions which will be required on our behalf. However, the Palestinians have rejected it outright, once again closing the door on any option to negotiate a peaceful future."
"While it is dismaying that diplomats would choose to attack Israel rather than try to facilitate dialogue between the two sides — or at the very least urging the Palestinians to return to direct peace negotiations – Israel will nevertheless remain committed to the U.S. peace plan, in hopes that we eventually find a way to resolve our differences."
Ohad Kaynar, chargé d'affaires at the Embassy of Israel in Canada

"Annexation of the West Bank is clearly an issue that most UN members disagree with and this is likely to be seen favourably by those states still trying to gauge what kind of Canada they would get on the coveted UNSC [United Nations Security Council]."
Bessma Momani, Middle East expert, University of Waterloo

"Today's comments by the prime minister do not change this long-standing entrenched track record of acting as an asset for Israel."
"Ireland and Norway have not voted against any UN resolutions on support of Palestine during this century."
Karen Rodman, spokeswoman, Just Peace Advocates

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and his wife Sara, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, attend ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 in Paris. (Francois Mori/The Associated Press)

Peace negotiations? They've stalled, the Palestinian Authority refuses to rejoin Israel at the negotiating table. Time and again. A reasonable proposal was made to carve out areas in Israel with majority Arab-Palestinian populations to transfer them to Palestinian rule, while doing the same with the Israeli 'settlements' in what the world insists on calling the 'occupied' West Bank, an equal measure of territory that would be governed and held by Israel. Made part of a potential plan for peace, that too was rejected by the Palestinians.

Tellingly, the Palestinians with Israeli citizenship living in those areas of Israel that were proposed as transferable to Palestinian rule, themselves rejected the proposal, preferring to live under Israeli governance as opposed to Palestinian. As Israelis, they have their elected Arab legislators, as Members of the Knesset -- the Israeli parliament -- who advocate on their behalf and who also agitate to the extent that some of their actions can be construed as anti-Israel. In contrast, the Palestinian Authority has made it clear that no Israeli Jews will ever live among the Palestinians.

Countries of the European Union, Canada and others who insist that Israel keep sacrificing itself to satisfy the ever-growing demands of the Palestinian leaders have never had to live under the constant threat of a neighbour inciting its people to violence against them. Constant vigilance to ensure that as many of the violent threats that can be apprehended as possible takes its toll, both on the civilians being targeted and the security forces tasked with their protection.

In insisting that Israel maintain its laser focus on a peace settlement without exerting pressure on the Palestinian Authority to do likewise, Israel's critics are satisfied to hold the Jewish state to account for not living up to its critics' expectations, while forgiving the Palestinians all their blatant, obvious efforts to destabilize Israel by attacking its people with knives, vehicles, rockets and suicide attacks, expecting nothing better of them and signalling that whatever they do is justified.

Someone like Justin Trudeau who has mismanaged the governance of a peaceful, prosperous country like Canada to the extent that east and west have become disengaged from one end of the country to the other has nothing whatever to teach a nation of survivors like Israel. Justin Trudeau, as prime minister of Canada, has constantly exhibited himself as a selfish narcissist, a thin-skinned ideological partisan, a hypocrite and vindictive in character.

His personal assault by proxy on the second in command of the Canadian military, Vice-Admiral Norman, his aggravated harassment of the nation's former Minister of Justice to flout the law in favour of a Liberal stronghold in Quebec, his shocking lack of ethics in matters of personal gifts by influential wealthy government lobbyists, his lack of leadership in failing to support a vital energy sector in extracting fossil fuels in part of the country that has traditionally given financial support to economically weaker provinces, all paint a sordid picture of failure.

He and the party he represents have nothing whatever to teach the executive branch of other nations. Not only is Justin Trudeau preciously sanctimonious, flaunting himself as a theatrical superstar, he is also a shallow ideologue, an intemperate egotist whose presence on the theatrical stage would never have done the harm to the country he now governs that his decision-making has caused to national unity, Canadian pride and civil functioning. He has succeeded in destroying the Democratic process in Parliament under guise of a necessary response to SARS-CoV-2.

His ambition to have Canada under his imprimatur be voted a temporary two-year seat on the revolving UN Security Council where he believes he would have access to the movers and shakers of the world as his just due, directs many of his actions in his preoccupation with prestige for himself on the world stage. And his statement regarding Israel's decision to reclaim its heritage rights against the claims of wrongful ownership of Arab 'settlers' on heirloom Judean land is meant to favour Canada's UNSC bid with the voting blocs that the UN's Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Non-Aligned Movement and the African Group represent.

Amusingly enough, right in Canada he has opposition to his ambition for that UN revolving Security Council seat, with a coalition of 100 organizations and people which collectively support 'justice for the Palestinians', which equates with destruction of the State of Israel, in their demands for 'right of return', to swamp the population of Israel with majoritarian Arabs, over and above the million and a half who now hold Israeli citizenship.

Israeli soldiers taking position as Palestinian demonstrators gather during a protest against the expansion of Israeli settlements, in the West Bank village of Beita, near Nablus, March 2, 2020.  Credit: Majdi Mohammed/AP

 Righteous Hypocrisy or Just Plain Sanctimony?

Russian Defense Ministry officials show off Russia's 9M729 cruise missile at the military Patriot Park outside Moscow on January 23. Moscow insisted the range of a missile system that has prompted Washington to withdraw from a key Cold War-era arms treaty is allowed under the agreement. VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images

"It is noteworthy that the test of an advanced Tomahawk-type missile was conducted just 16 days after the U.S. withdrew from INF, and the treaty was terminated."
"Perhaps, there can be no clearer and more explicit confirmation of the fact that the United States has been developing such systems for a long time, and preparations for quitting the agreement included, in particular, the relevant research and development."
"The missile had been fired using the Mk41 vertical launching system. That's a universal launching system that is suitable for both firing SM-3 interceptor missiles and ground-to-ground and surface-to-surface cruise missiles. All that is regrettable."
"The United States has evidently set the course for fomenting military tensions. Russia will not be pulled into [a] new arms race."
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov

"We do not give in to provocations. As Russian President [Vladimir Putin] said in France yesterday, we reiterate our commitment to a unilateral moratorium on deploying land-based intermediate-range systems until the U.S. deploys such systems in some part of the world."
"Several weeks and even months are not enough to make preparations for such a test."
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov

The U.S. conducts a test flight of a conventionally-configured ground-launched cruise missile at San Nicolas Island, California, August 18. The weapon, which the Pentagon told Newsweek "was a variant of the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile" using a Mark-41 Vertical Launch System, was said to have flown more than 310 miles, a range once restricted by a deal signed by Washington and Moscow in 1987 and since abandoned by both. U.S. Department of Defense

"[The test occurred] less than three weeks after the U.S. announced its official withdrawal from the INF Treaty."
"This move by the U.S. will trigger a new round of an arms race, leading to an escalation of military confrontation and a serious negative impact on the international and regional security situation." 
"We advise the U.S. to abandon its outdated Cold War mentality and zero-sum game concept, maintain restraint in the arms development, earnestly safeguard the existing arms control system and do more that is conducive to maintaining global strategic balance and stability and conducive to international and regional peace and tranquility."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang

Three radiation victims were brought to the Arkhangelsk regional hospital

"[The emergency room continued to admit other patients for about an hour, until the doctors realized that the three] had received a very high radiation dose."
"The radiation picture was developing by the hour. Blood tests were being done, and every hour you could see that this or that cell count was plunging. That signified a very high radiation dose."
"[The casualties' clothing was removed, along with stretchers and a] highly radioactive bath."
"Our cleaners should have been advised, they're just simple country folk, they were just picking up sacks and bundles and carrying them out."
Arkhangelsk medics

 According to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) operating as an international network of radiation monitoring stations, two Russian radiation monitoring stations went offline two days following a mysterious nuclear accident in Arkhangelsk near the northern frontier of Russia. The logical conclusion being that a rather clumsy cover-up operation had been launched; none too subtle, at that. Russian officials have their own explanation.

According to a local news website there is a simple enough explanation, "network and communications problems" have beset the stations in Dubna and Kirov, necessitating their temporary shut-down. Completely defensible, logical and acceptable. And that mysterious explosion hard by a military test range on August 8? What explosion? Oh, that one. Yes the one where five nuclear scientists died. The one where nearby Severodvinsk was the site of a brief and inexplicable radiation spike.

Take it from the Russian military, though, no radiation was released, and they should know, should they not? The public was notified through an official statement from Severodvinsk authorities of a radiation level increase, but that official statement was unofficially withdrawn from the website of the city government. The CTBTO head, Lassina Zerbo noted his organization was looking at "technical problems experienced at two neighbouring stations", amid speculation the blast was caused by a failed nuclear-powered cruise missile.

And according to the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, two of the Russian specialists who died in the explosion at a White Sea missile testing range died of radiation sickness before they could be shipped out to Moscow for treatment, and not as a result of traumatic injuries caused by the blast's impact. An unnamed medical worker involved in their care explained: "Two of the patients did not make it to the airport and died. The radiation dose was very high, and symptoms of radiation sickness grew every hour."

Rest assured, all is well. The blast, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, took place during a test of 'promising' new weapons systems. "When it comes to activities of a military nature, there are certain restrictions on access to information". Moscow, he stressed cannot reveal everything because of its delicate military nature, so which weapons system was being tested is kept under careful wraps, understandably.

"[Medics were speaking out now because they feared for their own health and did not want any similar] safety violations [to recur]."
"We don't want them to bring us next time not three, but ten people, God forbid, and hide the information from us again."

Lassina Zerbo ✔ @SinaZerbo

To requests on #IMS detection beyond #CTBT, data in, or near the path of potential plume from the explosion are being analyzed. We’re also addressing w/station operators technical problems experienced at two neighboring stations. All data are available to our Member States.

CTBTO ✔ @ctbto_alerts

In response to media queries, and to meet civil society expectations on applications of #CTBTO data beyond the Treaty, we confirm an event coinciding with the 8 Aug explosion in #Nyonoksa, Russia, was detected at 4 #IMS stations (3 seismic, 1 infrasound).

Child Marriage Hypocrisy in Canada

"There's been absolutely no reflection on the fact that it [child marriage] remains legal in Canada."
"[Child marriage in Canada] is legal and ongoing. [Research results probably] underestimate the true extent of the practice."
"Child marriage is associated with poor health and economic outcomes, particularly for girls."
Alissa Koski, assistant professor, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University

"Canada has committed to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals."
"Canada reported on progress made against target 5.3 including some of the foreign aid the government has given to countries to end child marriage as well as domestic figures on child marriage, during its 2018 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum, the mechanism through which countries report their progress on the Sustainable Development Goals."
Action Canada for Sexual and Health Rights

Canada's explicitly "feminist" government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau considers itself a leader and vital funder of efforts to end child marriage under the imprimatur of the United Nations where the practise is considered a measure of a country's social development. Canada is proud of the fact that it is involved in combating the incidence of child marriage, forced marriages, the entire culture of girls being viewed as ready for marriage at age 12 and upward. The very practise of both forced and child marriage is an assault against the human rights of any child, male or female.

The welfare of girls and women in developing countries and Canada's involvement in establishing a United Nations fund to elevate the quality of life for both girls and women in impoverished conditions was in fact initiated by the previous Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The current Liberal government has expanded that initiative to protecting girls from being forced into early marriage, by custom and culture. Where marriage confers no benefits to the girls, but hastens them into adulthood, robbing them of their childhood.

Children who are married often must cook with fire and heavy pots of boiling water over unventilated cookstoves. (iStock)

So, is Canada an exemplar of commitment to upholding the rights of girls not to be forced into marriage before adulthood? Not quite; even as the Liberal government congratulates itself for its 'progressive' credentials in caring for the human rights of girls in developing countries while portraying itself as their champion, in Canada itself, child marriages continue to occur and seemingly no one in the federal government feels obliged to take much notice of it.

The simple fact of the matter is, while the Canadian government is prepared to intervene in the marriage fortunes of under-privileged girls in developing countries, where immigrants to Canada have brought their child-marriage culture with them to Canada, authorities are loathe to interfere in fear that they will be accused of infringing on peoples' religious freedom. Under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada people are guaranteed the right to practise and freedom of religion.

So the reality is that Canada, while deploring child marriages abroad in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and African countries, legally permits the very same practise in Canada. Various provinces issue marriage licences -- some 3,382 of them, allowing children to be legally married in Canada, over the past 18 years.

Ontario permitted 1,353 child marriages from 2000 forward, Alberta 791, Quebec 590 and British Columbia 429. These reflect immigrants' cultural practises imported with them into Canada. And government authorities' unwillingness to intervene.

Children who are married off do hard labour like agricultural work, cooking, lifting heavy pots and other household chores from dawn to dusk, notes an advocacy group. (iStock)

Compared to boys who are also forced into early marriages, girls marry at younger ages, and often to substantially older males. Five girls per 10,000 population represents the rate in Alberta, contrasting with 1 boy forced into early marriage out of 10,000 population figures, according to measured data dating from the year 2016; three children total per 10,000. Data derived from vital statistics offices while indicating early marriages occur in Canada, offer limited additional information.

Census data might be thought of as clarifying the issue with a more distinct idea of demographics, but that data will include marriages that took place in other countries prior to emigration to Canada. The rate of child marriage in the United States stands at about 6.2 children per 1,000, more elevated for girls than for boys, at 6.8 versus 5.7. The practise is lower among white populations, higher among Indigenous and Chinese.

In Maine, Rhode Island and Wyoming the rate is less than four children per 1,000, graduating upward to as much as ten per 1,000 population in West Virginia, Hawaii and North Dakota, figures provided through Dr Koski's previous American studies of child marriage. Sub-Saharan Africa and India provided figures on child marriage for her doctoral research, feeding into the popular image of child marriage as "something that happens elsewhere".

The minimum age for marriage in Canada set out by Canada's federal Civil Marriage Act is 16, whereas licensing, administered by provinces requires parental consent for those younger than 18 years of age, to acquire a marriage license. According to the standards of the United Nations to which Canada is a participant, child marriage is regarded as a marriage of a child; someone under the age of 18.

Research that has taken place in the United States demonstrates higher mental illness and substance abuse in women who were girl brides.

It's a Job, God : Feel The Love Flim-Flam

"It's going to be wonderful. We'll be out from underneath that heavy cloud. Now we'll be able to really fly [among the Angels on High]."
"There have been times of elation when I have felt the incredible support and energy of that support and love and affirmation from my congregation and across the country and around the world."
"And there have been moments of incredible despair."
Reverend Gretta Vosper, minister, West Hill United Church, Toronto

Rev. Gretta Vosper is seen at West Hill United Church in Toronto on Aug. 5, 2015.

The Canadian Press

"The dances between these core values [faith in God and 'inclusiveness'], how they interact with and inform each other, is one that we continue to explore as followers of Jesus and children of the creator."
"As a Christian church, we continue to expect that ministers in the United Church of Canada will offer their leadership in accordance with our shared and agreed-upon statements of faith."
Reverend Richard Bott, moderator, United Church of Canada

"Both parties took a long look at the cost-benefit at running a heresy trial and whether it was good for anyone [and] the results speak for themselves."
"They recognized there's a place for Gretta, and that there is no reason to separate the minister and the congregation."
Julian Falconer, Vosper lawyer

Canada's second-largest religious group in Canada has decided that it is perfectly all right for a professed atheist -- one who has openly celebrated her rejection of a belief in a divine being -- to act as minister of one of their affiliated churches in Canada's largest, most populous city. To an onlooker that might appear as gross, ungodly hypocrisy, but it must be understood that the United Church prides itself on being non-judgmental, inclusive and open.

It has certainly be open about condemning Israel for the violence it 'perpetrates' against Gazans who insist on breaching the border between Gaza and Israel the better to attack Israeli settlements. The United Church has divested itself of all 'investments' in Israel, and sanctimoniously urges all other Canadians of 'good faith' to do likewise. It professes to hold Israel and the Palestinians in equal esteem, yet castigates Israel for its 'violence' and 'occupation' victimizing Palestinians, failing to hold the Palestinian Authority responsible for inciting violence and rewarding it.

The story today, however, is that of Reverend Vosper, most of whose parishioners think so highly of her that they don't mind one whit her denial of the existence of a supreme being despite that they may themselves believe in God and attend the church for the express purpose of worshiping his only begotten son, himself and whatever else the United Church believes steadfastly in, aside from its commitment to 'inclusiveness' leading them to embrace a minister who fails to embrace God.

Reverend Vosper is relieved she need no longer be concerned over an ecclesiastical court hearing condemning her atheism even as she insists she be permitted to lead a United Church of Canada congregation. Which congregation appears to be somewhat more committed to its reverend than to its God. "West Hill's non-exclusive language provides a church experience that draws participants across a wide spectrum of belief and unbelief", according to Randy Bowes, chairman of the West Hill church board. A social club, perhaps?

In any event the United Church and Reverend Vosper, 60, who has served as minister of West Hill United since 1997, commencing four years following her ordination in 1993, are relieved to have decided on terms of a (confidential) settlement which will leave the good reverend in charge of her church and the church a bit of a conundrum in religious circles one might imagine. Reverend Bott, new to his job as church leader is certainly pleased to get that one over with -- 'whew'!

gretta vosper @grettavosper

Cake and dancing this Sunday @WestHillUC as we celebrate our @UnitedChurchCda heritage and our welcome within its broad spectrum of belief. 3385 Lawrence Ave. E To. 10:30 until the cake is gone and we're tired of dancing!

12:17 PM - Nov 9, 2018

All are reconciled to being reconciled to a long-standing situation. Not that Reverend Vosper is a rarity among churches of any denomination; she is merely a trifle less discreet than are other religious leaders. Must be something about the new culture in Canada of 'progressivism' so beloved of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. As a Catholic, he is most certainly progressively understanding of a woman's right to an abortion at any stage during a pregnancy.

That some of her church's congregants are critical of her disavowal of the existence of God and her disinterest in the verities of the Bible, is of little moment to her; they can leave if they're dissatisfied and go elsewhere, but she no longer is concerned that it would be she meant to depart. Her parting with the doctrine and values of the United Church notwithstanding. Seems she likely precipitated matters when she wrote an open letter to the spiritual leadership of the church.

When the Paris massacre took place at the editorial offices of Charlie Hebdo she pointed out in her communique that motivation to commit to 'bad things' could be laid at the doorstep of religion. Complaints followed and the Toronto Conference interview committee set forth to conduct a review, finding (split decision) in 2015 that she was patently unsuitable for the ordained ministry since "she does not believe in God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit". Indeed!

However, things have progressed along a different path, as it happens, leaving Reverend Vosper free to continue her ministry as she will, with no restrictions whatever. As an atheist, free to speak of her non-belief in a theistic, interventionist, supernatural being called God. She will continue to minister to the religious/irreligious needs of her flock. And so be it.

God, are you listening? Are you not appalled? Smite her!

Gretta Vosper holds a Sunday service at West Hill United Church in Scarborough in a Jan. 24, 2015,   (J.P. MOCZULSKI / The Toronto Star)

Canada, Punching Above Its Influence : Canada Misplacing Its Moral Code

"It was a stupid law. And it's still a stupid law. But we're stuck with it."
"Lost in all of the information about the reasons why, was the real reason ... It was the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, frankly. That's the reason: that still exists."
"It's no coincidence that we closed the [Iranian] embassy basically the day after the legislation became effective."
"The British weren't even seizing Iranian government property [following the attack on the British embassy in Tehran]. This law called for the seizure of Iranian government properties; [the Iranians] have a very flexible view on diplomatic immunity."
"How could we possibly stay open under those conditions? How can we reopen under those conditions?"
Dennis Horak, former Canadian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia

This is a man, now retired, who in 2012 was director of Middle East relations for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs at a time when the-then government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper through Cabinet Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird announced the closure of the Tehran embassy in Canada. The accurate analysis cited for the drastic move of shuttering a foreign embassy in a country that had testy relations with an Islamist nation known for its leading role as a sponsor of   unsavoury human-rights-abuses generally was that Canada would not support relations with a state sponsor of terrorism.

Mr. Horak's views follow in lock-step with Foreign Affairs' traditional tolerance for Middle East infractions of human rights, a supporter himself of overlooking the vicious and violent tyrannies whose version of capital punishment would make any supporter of same in the West cringe with horror. It is his considered opinion borne of long years of toiling at the behest of Canada's governments in diplomatic missions in the Middle East, that those countries must be judged by different standards of ethics and morality. They are, after all, Islamic.

In the fine old tradition of Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, before that External Affairs, now Global Affairs -- the name may change but the sentiments within do not -- Israel, the only democratic, liberal country in the Middle East, surrounded by avowed enemies, is viewed with disfavour. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's expressed loyalty to the concept of a Jewish State and his respect for the security of that anomalous state in its heritage geography within a larger, Muslim-majority establishment found no support within the Foreign Affairs old guard which has always transmitted its values to incoming members.

Inciting Saudi Arabia to a furious response to a tweet by current Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland represented an unprofessional, undiplomatic demand that this most rigidly Islamist of Muslim Kingdoms immediately shed its normal response to interior dissent, causing not only a diplomatic rift of icy dimensions, but a disruption in trade, investment and student exchange of even more serious implications leading to the question, why is Canada which celebrates itself as liberal progressive to a fault, so dependent on relations with the Kingdom to begin with?

The answer, of course, is Saudi Arabia's clout in the Middle East and the United Nations, and this government has its eye set on a seat on the two-year revolving UN Security Council, while also prepared to bank-and-spend the billions it is set to receive selling military weapons to the Saudis; so much for the morals of a government that sanctimoniously preaches morality to the world at large, proving that for the most part, with Liberal rule Canada is indeed 'back'.

As far as former Ambassador Horak, who deplored riling Saudi Arabia to the point where he was ejected persona non grata, is concerned, diplomats are skilled in many things, but overlooking human rights abuses represent one issue that cannot be overstated in looking after Canada's interests on the world stage. The Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, enacted by the Conservative-led government of Stephen Harper whose conscience is alive and well, made it lawful for victims of violent terrorism attacks to hold responsible those governments who sponsor terror; in this case the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Ambassador Horak, now nothing-Horak, is incensed that Canada has inadvertently in one instance and deliberately in the other, sacrificed a working relationship with the two most influential, oil-wealthy countries in the Middle East; Sunni Arab Saudi Arabia, and Shiite Persian Iran; no ambassador present in Riyadh and a shuttered mission in Tehran. Although this Liberal government is determined to restore relations with Iran. And this is not to be thought necessarily a black mark on Canada's capacity to have amicable relations with important and influential nations who can further Canada's interests.

While on the other hand, this administration, boosted by Foreign/Global Affairs accommodation, is doing its utmost now to separate itself in international public opinion -- at the same time catering to a home audience whose knee-jerk reaction has always been anti-U.S., even while Canadians are flocking as vacationers to various American states -- to demonstrate itself morally superior to an America now led by a conservative counterpart personality to Canada's inept liberal-progressive selfie-clown extraordinaire.

The reality is we share a border cutting straight across a huge continent. The reality is Canada's prosperity is inextricably linked with that of its powerful partner. The reality is that Canada cannot adequately protect itself in the event of conflict or invasion, without relying on the strength of the American military. The reality is that many American values are those shared by Canada. The fact is that without our vital trade with that economic and trade powerhouse the Canadian standard of living would be hugely reduced.

All of which show Trudeau up as a pitiful sham in every conceivable way.