Canadian Election Interference for a Sinister Cause

"Vote Palestine is a non-partisan platform calling on candidates to commit to five demands: a two-way arms embargo; the end of Canadian involvement in Israeli settlements; addressing anti-Palestinian racism and protecting free expression on Palestine; recognizing the State of Palestine; and properly funding relief efforts in Gaza, including UNRWA."

"The thousands of people who have taken the Vote Palestine pledge are not only committing to consider a candidate’s position on Palestine, but are joining a movement of people organizing in their neighbourhoods to make Palestine unavoidable this election." 

Demands:

D1 - Two-way arms embargo on Israel

D2 - Ending Canadian support for settlements

D3 - Combat anti-Palestinian racism and protect pro-Palestine speech

D4 - Recognizing the state of Palestine

D5 - Funding Gaza relief efforts, including UNRWA

Palestinian Youth Movement

Members of the Palestinian Youth Movement hold a rally in Toronto in November 2023. Photo by Jack Boland/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

The Palestinian Youth Movement has been busy in Canada creating a network of political support for its agenda of demonizing Israel, isolating the Jewish nation, and demanding of Canadian politicians that they stand firmly in support of Palestinian nationhood. Of course, that means the annihilation of Israel so that Palestinians can achieve their goal of 'From the river to the sea', claiming the entirety of the ancestral homeland of Judaism, the people who 'colonized' Judea in the 2nd millenium BCE, and who are now perched on Judean heritage geography that Arab 'Palestinians' claim as their own. 

Vote Palestine, a political movement by the Palestinian Youth Movement that emanated from the Palestinian BDS project, lauds its five-point Vote Palestine platform demanding among other issues a two-way arms embargo against Israel, a boycott of Israel-controlled territories and above all, recognition of Palestine as a state. Why bother with the unnecessary ritual of Palestinian leaders committing to a real effort at discussing with their Israeli counterparts critical issues such as recognition of Israel in exchange for recognition of 'Palestine'?

 

Successfully persuasive lobbying by PYM resulted in just about the entire caucus of the NDP, including their leader Jagmeet Singh, signing on in agreement with PYM's Vote Palestine, and with them members of the Green Party. Both parties did not fare particularly well in the April 28 general election, both losing official party status and Singh losing his own seat in Parliament. Their sacrifice was the Liberals' gain over the Conservative Party which foreign interference by President Trump brought to another 4-year mandate to govern.

"Islamists have been working overtime [to see] their favoured party [the Liberals, re-elected] so that the good times keep rolling for them for at least another four years."

Joe Adam George, researcher, Islamist Threats in Canada, Middle East Forum

 

"This is how foreign interference  happens."

"If a literal pro-terror group can get an MP's signature without difficulty, you think they're standing guard for thee against Iran or China?"

"Palestinian Youth Movement celebrated the October 7 massacres in Canadian streets while they were still underway. They've said Samidoun, Canada's newest terrorist group, did nothing wrong. And 19 Liberals just signed on with their "Vote Palestine" platform."

Tristan Hopper, journalist, National Post 

During the election campaign the Palestinian Youth Movement succeeded in persuading 28 Liberal candidates (19 of whom were elected) to sign their five-point, anti-Israel Vote Palestine platform. The candidates, through their endorsement served to help legitimize the demands of anti-Israel groups, totally ignoring their threatening values and actions, including their celebration of the Hamas October 7 pogrom, their championing of both terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, and organizing student encampments at North American universities where Jewish students were terrorized by their threats.

 

The People's Conference for Palestine, featuring speakers linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both given terrorist designations in Canada, and both involved along with Hamas in the October 7 massacre of Israelis in southern Israel was organized in May 2024 by the PYM group. Islamist terrorism is feature by PYM as a courageous response to Israeli 'colonization' of Judean heritage lands.

 

The promotion by Palestinian Youth Movement that Zionism is a racist ideology while glorifying the martyrdom of Hamas and calling for the elimination of Israel appears to have found favour in some sectors of Canada, and among some elected politicians who appear to find no fault with the reasoning of fervent Palestinians belabouring the West for its (past) support of Israel, a fellow democracy. 

 

Vote Palestine's agenda to "force Palestine onto the debate stage trough nationwide visibility" and in the process shame those political individuals who fail to endorse its platform, does not appear to give second thought to those who have signed on as supporters. According to one of its lead activists, "pressure is applied" by PYM operatives on non-endorsing candidates to "make it impossible to organize fundraising events ... impossible for those MPs to canvass without being met by someone from within the community asking, Why are you not supporting an arms embargo?"

 

PYM, this activists notes, has manoeuvered the Canadian political scene to "create a kind of crisis within the Canadian electoral system", succeeding in signing up 362 candidates to their cause. And while they swept the NDP and Green parties' candidates into their fold, and made some inroads with the Liberals, they failed abysmally to persuade a single Conservative candidate to uphold their pledge. 

 

Muslims in Canada now constitute some five percent of the population, at 1.8 million, with prospects for further growth ongoing. According to the Canadian Muslim Vote, Muslims hold significant influence in between 60 to 80 of Canada's 343 ridings. Politicians without scruples view the potential of drawing Muslim votes a greater good for their political ambitions than concern for Canada's traditional moral values, much less sinister interference in a fair election. 

A keffiyeh'ed demonstrator lights off a smoke bomb during a rally in Vancouver celebrating the one-year anniversary of the October 7 massacres. Photo by Ethan Cairns /The Canadian Press

 

 

Hostility to Israel and anti-Semitism lives on Within Canada's New Democratic Party

"To remember [the Holocaust and fight anti-Semitism] is to be human; to educate on events past, the responsibility of the present."

"As the years pass, it is our duty to tell this story. To preserve the memory, to learn the lessons, to never, never forget."

"[Today’s children must be taught about the Holocaust] so that they understand the depth to which mankind’s cruelty can plunge."

"Our commitment to fighting racism and antisemitism sits at the heart of those values and freedoms."

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis  

 

"The thread running through this presidency will be teaching the Holocaust; including combating denial and distortion in the new fields now opened by the [Inter]net."

New IHRA chairman, Greek Ambassador Chris J. Lazaris

 

"[Despite the COVID-19 pandemic]: "Being able to work together across time zones, from Winnipeg to Berlin to Melbourne, required more than just a working microphone and a stable internet connection."

"It required all of us to want to get something done. And we did."

Outgoing chairwoman, German Ambassador Michaela Küchler

 

"[Israel’s embassy in Greece] extends its best wishes for a productive and eventful year."

"Greece taking the leadership of the IHRA during its 200 Anniversary of the Greek War of Independence is a significant message at home and beyond."

"The Embassy of Israel is committed to cooperate with the Greek Chair of IHRA and authorities in sharing the story of Greek Jewish Life, the contribution of the Jewish Community to the country, the horrors of the Holocaust, and the important acts of heroism of individuals who came to the rescue."

"We should learn, remember, honor the memory, and follow the moral lesson of Never Again."

 

"[On the occasion of the handover], we celebrate accomplishments with partners."

"We’ve promoted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, pushed Holocaust education, and called out Holocaust distortion."

"Vigilance against antisemitism and anti-gypsyism is never over!"

German embassy in the United States

Part of an exhibit on the Holocaust supported by the IHRA. Photo: courtesy of IHRA.

 

Canada's New Democratic Party is preparing to host its annual policy convention in the coming week. And this is where, once again, tensions over anti-Semitism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict persist, threatening to once more divide the New Democratic delegates. A list of potential resolutions has been released by party organizers which are expected to be produced to the virtual floor assuming they are able to survive a vote preceding the event, which is set to take place virtually, on line April 9th to the 11th.

 

A half dozen items articulating solidarity with Palestinian causes or which call for sanctions and stronger condemnation of Israel are included on the list. Over 40 NDP riding associations endorsed a particularly contentious resolution opposing a working definition of anti-Semitism as set out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism was received cautiously by the international community in some places initially. By and large, however, those doubts have been resolved given the non-legally-binding character of the resolution stating: 

“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.”

 

The move among some within the political party to resist what it interprets as an "effort by anti-Palestinian lobby groups" to apply moral/political pressure on the party's leadership to suppress debate around the plight of Palestinians is being applauded by a group calling itself the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute. Among its foreign policy positions for Canada, the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute published this simplistically one-sided tirade on its website, to make its position perfectly clear: 

"In the Middle East, Canada has sided with Israel on almost every issue of importance. Since coming to power the Trudeau government has voted against more than fifty UN resolutions upholding Palestinian rights backed by the overwhelming majority of member states. The Canadian government has refused to abide by 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2334, calling on member states to “distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied in 1967.” On the contrary, Ottawa extends economic and trade assistance to Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. Should it win a seat on the UNSC, Ottawa has stated that it will act as an “asset for Israel” on the Council."

Party members from 17 ridings responded to the floor-potential resolutions (among the 17 some of which whose electoral district associations do not support the IHRA definition) with a signed letter forward to NDP riding presidents: "The NDP policy convention, where at least 99 percent of attendees will not be Jewish, is neither the time nor the place to debate a resolution that condemns the definition of this pervasive hatred for the Jewish people."

 

The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism adopted by the federal Liberal government in 2019, forming part of its anti-racism strategy, has seen the definition condemned by a number of New Democrats. Others among them, including NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh feel the definition can serve as a useful but non-binding educational tool -- perhaps somewhat patronizingly. 

 

According to Richard Marceau, general counsel for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Toronto, hostility to the working definition reflects the attitude of "activists" and "fringe groups". "I believe that there is a small and active and vocal group of NDP-ers that have a suspicious obsession with the State of Israel. And their obsession borders on the unhealthy." For the very obvious fact that endemic hatred emanating from identifiable sources is indeed psychologically psychopathic.

 

 

 

 

 

Letting It All Hang Out

"Unfortunately, due to language in social posts that was unacceptable, the candidate for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour [Nova Scotia] has been removed as the NDP candidate."
"We expect our candidates to engage on important issues respectfully."
Melissa Bruno, national director, New Democratic Party

"If Israel is so advanced then why can't they avoid shooting defenceless para-medics and journalists, unless they're killing innocent people deliberately!"
"Thousands of Israelis came into Palestine and were welcomed when the world turned them away. Where's your heart?"
"I wonder if Israel borrowed this from the #Nazis after they saw how successful they were?"
"At the speed Israel is killing I wonder if they're aiming higher than 6 million #Palestinians?"
"#Gaza is the new #Auschwitz and #Israeli the gatekeepers!"
Rana Zaman, social activist, Muslim, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

In her apology, Rana Zaman said she appreciates that her comments referencing the Nazis were “inappropriate, hurtful and sadly may be perceived as anti-Semitic.”    Facebook

Rana Zaman, described as a social activist, and strident 'Islamophobia' fighter was confirmed in May as the candidate for the New Democratic Party in the Halifax-area riding of Dartmouth-Cole Harbour in Nova Scotia for the upcoming October federal election. Evidently her 'activism' brought scrutiny to her candidacy and someone unearthed a number of incendiary and rather hateful tweets she had posted a year earlier. The content of the tweets, brought to the attention of the NDP executive, has earned her censure and removal as an NDP candidate.

The NDP doesn't mind a certain level of criticism of Israel, but it must be done discreetly so that it can be pointed out that it is Israel's purported record on human rights failings that is being criticized, and as such not a whiff of anti-Semitism is attached. The statements by Rana Zaman ooze anti-Semitism, quite in keeping with her status as a 'Muslim activist' whose major preoccupation is asserting that any criticism of Islam as a religion that tends to foster violence is beyond the pale.

The woman, in fact, betrayed colossal ignorance of history and reality in the tenor and vitriol of her comments, entirely out of whack with any vestiges of cerebral functioning. On the other hand, perfectly aligned with most 'Palestinian rights' campaigners who relish accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians, despite Palestinians living in Israel having citizenship, voting rights, electing Knesset Members, holding Cabinet positions, sitting on the Supreme Court....

Canada's newly adopted definition of anti-Semitism as part of its anti-racism strategy includes "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" in its adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition. A definition linked to a current-day example of anti-Semitism. To add to her sterling resume as a candidate for public political office, Rana Zaman supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, yet another Palestinian-branded delegitimization of Israel's right to exist, and one which all parties of the House of Commons rejected two years ago.