Latest news with #VotePalestine
Hamilton Spectator
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Market Square hunger strike aims to garner Gerretsen's attention on Palestinian plight
A local woman says she is on a hunger strike until Member of Parliament Mark Gerretsen agrees to meet with local pro-Palestinian supporters. In an email to Kingstonist early on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, Lindsey Pilon expressed her intentions to sit in Springer Market Square for the duration of her public hunger strike. During this strike, she will take nothing by mouth, 'no food, no drink, no medicine,' until Gerretsen, the MP for Kingston and the Islands, meets with the local constituents and supports a two-way arms embargo between Canada and Israel. On Thursday, May 22, 2025, Pilon remained in her seat at the square, rain-soaked but smiling and energetic. She explained she has many friends in Palestine, but she also counts herself among many Palestinian supporters in the Kingston area. 'We are a collective; it is a groundswell. And there are many different organizations tethered in,' Pilon said. She feels that Gerretsen doesn't understand or is actively ignoring the large number of his constituents who are Palestinian and Palestinian supporters. 'We've been trying to get his attention and to get him to sign on to the Vote Palestine platform , which is pretty rational. And he has refused meetings consistently,' Pilon asserted. Vote Palestine, a grassroots organization with support from groups and individuals across Canada, contends that '[a]rms dealers in Canada export weapons (including parts and components) as well as military and security technology to Israel, both directly and via the United States. The Canadian military and defence industry also purchase Israeli weapons and parts, which are field-tested on Palestinians, thus directly funding Israel's war efforts and economy. These military imports and exports make Canada complicit in Israel's atrocities carried out in the illegally occupied Palestinian territory.' Their platform states that the Canadian government should impose a full and immediate two-way arms embargo on Israel that includes ending military trade with Israel through the US or any other third-party state. Pilon said there have been many requests for Gerretsen's attention to the matter, some polite and some more assertive, 'but regardless, he'll call the police [on protesters outside his office], has refused to meet with us, and is just giving stock and boilerplate responses.' 'I don't personally want to meet with them,' she shared. 'I am just showing my solidarity with the movement. I'm acting as a symbol for the movement at the moment [to draw his attention]. And this is easy and accessible for me to do.' Being outdoors in the elements helps her endorphin levels, Pilon explained. It's 'like I'm seeing a cousin or a mother,' she explained, looking around at the wind and rain. 'I'm full of fire. My body's made for this. My papa was a Mohawk, my mom's father was a Mohawk, and my mom's mother was Oneida. So we have the rebellious spirit and just [a] love for life.' Market Square is her ideal location, she said, because anyone who cares to look can see her on the City's web cam . Also, the space is potent in an Indigenous historical context, Pilon said: 'This was a meeting place. This was a bloody battleground. The Peacemaker came across Lake Ontario in the stone canoe. This place is profound.' The legend of the Great Peacemaker and Hiawatha in Mohawk tradition centres on a journey of peace and unity, starting from Lake Ontario and extending to the Iroquois Confederacy. The Peacemaker, also known as Deganawidah, travelled across Lake Ontario in a white stone canoe, bringing a message of peace to the warring Haudenosaunee nations. Hiawatha, a Mohawk warrior, was initially seeking revenge, but the Peacemaker convinced him to embrace peace instead. She likened this struggle for peace and resilience in turmoil to the Palestinian people. 'Palestinians have shown us — the journalists and the doctors —time and time again about courage and nobility and the grandfather teachings. I see my grandfather teachings in them,' Pilon expressed. 'I know that the dogma is fraught, the rhetoric is fraught. Still… we have the power as a society, as a humanity, to stop children from dying and starving. We could do that in the snap of a finger, and it needs to be done… let's get that done, and then we can figure out the rest. We'll figure out the partisanship after.' Pilon added, 'Palestinian history is being erased, and entire families [are being removed] from the Civil Registry. They feel like their memories are being trampled and they feel hopeless... There's a pervading hopelessness, a feeling like they have no future. And I very much care for these people.' 'And the bombardments of the so-called Gideon's Chariots are devastating. They are munitions testing, and [the munitions are] being launched with propellant exported from Turtle Island. And that, as an Indigenous mother, a social activist, human being... is unacceptable.' Pilon said the level of access to imagery and stories that Palestinian journalists have provided on social media is an alarming call for urgency: 'What we're seeing is devastating every day, all day.' 'If you're at all able to take some time, following the journalists in Palestine means the world to them. It gives them purpose because they feel it. They feel like they're helping to show injustice. I highly recommend you follow , he is a phenomenal journalist,' she said. 'Tuesday night was the first time that I announced that I was going to stop food and water. Honestly, it's a lot easier than I thought it was, so I feel it's not going to be so dramatic. Still, I won't stay... Mark Gerretsen has to meet with the constituents before Friday. After all, the meeting of the House is on the 26th, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he will meet with them before Friday, and if not, I will then retire to prepare for other actions, because there will be no rest,' she asserted. 'Gaza is under the rubble; it's a dire time, and we were socialized out of caring for each other. Our manners hold us to these prescribed postures that are not going to help us. And so I love showing people that a different world is possible.' This is why she sits at a table with two chairs. She says she wants people to engage in conversation with her. 'Come, sit down, let's chat about it all.' Kingstonist reached out to MP Gerretsen for confirmation of the allegations he's refused to meet with the pro-Palestinian constituents, as well as for comment on this situation and whether he might agree to meet with the constituents in the future. No response was received by time of publication.
National Post
11-05-2025
- Politics
- National Post
Barbara Kay: The credulously pro-terror members of Mark Carney's caucus
Article content Palestinianism's umbrella narrative is that Zionism is an inherently racist ideology. Drawing on that premise, pro-Zionist expression may be legislated as hate speech, but the glorification of Hamas 'martyrs' and calls for the eradication of Israel should not be. (When Bill C-63, the online harms act, is revived, they may get their wish.) Article content Vote Palestine's strategy, according to one of its Instagram posts, is to 'force Palestine onto the debate stage through nationwide visibility' and shame political actors who do not endorse its platform. Article content Leading PYM activist Yara Shoufani, who has a long rap sheet of anti-Israel extremism, explained on a podcast how 'pressure is applied' by PYM foot soldiers within ridings to non-endorsing candidates. They '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?' ' she said. Article content Shoufani seems proud that PYM has managed to, in her words, 'create a kind of crisis within the Canadian electoral system.' And all of this, fellow Canadians, is what 362 candidates — not a single one of them Conservative — signed onto. Article content Article content At 1.8 million and growing, Muslims constitute around five per cent of Canada's population. The Canadian Muslim Vote, a nonprofit, estimates that Muslims hold significant influence in between 60-80 of 343 ridings. Article content According to Joe Adam George, lead researcher for Islamist threats in Canada at the Middle East Forum, '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.' Article content Credulous candidates' greed for Muslim votes is understandable. Which is why it is so important in these matters that savvy political leaders provide a backstop to their candidates' lack of judgment in collaborating with what essentially amounts to foreign interference in the election. Article content
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Barbara Kay: The credulously pro-terror members of Mark Carney's caucus
Prime Minister Mark Carney's election victory speech included a note of humility: 'Over my long career, I have made many mistakes, and I will make more, but I commit to admitting them openly, to correcting them quickly, and always learning from them.' Yet it is too late to correct one of his big mistakes. Will he at least admit to and learn from it? During the election campaign, 28 Liberal candidates (19 of them elected) signed onto a five-point anti-Israel Vote Palestine platform. Vote Palestine began as a BDS project, and quickly gathered steam after a trial run in the 2021 election. The platform contains demands — such as a two-way arms embargo against Israel, a full boycott of Israel-controlled territories and recognition of Palestine as a state — that do not reflect current Liberal policy. In total, 362 candidates signed on. Carney could have stopped his own candidates' irresponsible trend early in its trajectory by issuing a memo that foreign policy is the purview of party leadership, not individual candidates, and ordering signers to rescind their endorsement of the platform. Instead, he remained silent, essentially giving the green light for more candidates to pledge fealty to a platform crafted by ideological stakeholders in a global campaign to delegitimize Israel and whitewash terrorism. By endorsing these demands, the candidates lent an air of respectability to the anti-Israel groups that organized the campaign — including the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), one of the lead organizers — obscuring their ugly values and activities, which include celebrating Hamas's October 7 pogrom, lionizing Hamas and Hezbollah, and organizing Jew-baiting student encampments at universities throughout the United States and Canada. In May 2024, PYM organized the People's Conference for Palestine, featuring speakers affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both designated as terrorist organizations in Canada, the U.S., Israel and the European Union. PYM's aim is to normalize terror as a righteous response to (alleged) colonialists. The most insidious of the five Vote Palestine platform demands, therefore, is the innocuous sounding, 'Address anti-Palestinian racism (APR) and protect freedom of expression on Palestine.' The definition of 'anti-Palestinian racism,' as conceived by the Canadian Arab Lawyers Association, includes speech or action that 'dehumanizes Palestinians or their narratives.' The word 'narrative' — in this case an origin story held sacred by a group of people that is based in belief rather than evidence — is a trap, inserted into the APR definition to promote a legal prohibition against criticism of that group's beliefs. Along with other Islamist groups obsessed with Israel's alleged sins, PYM represents a movement best described by Israeli politician Einat Wilf as 'Palestinianism.' The Palestinianism movement is dedicated to opposing the existence — and more important any right to the existence — of a Jewish state by any means necessary, including October 7-style massacres. Palestinianism's umbrella narrative is that Zionism is an inherently racist ideology. Drawing on that premise, pro-Zionist expression may be legislated as hate speech, but the glorification of Hamas 'martyrs' and calls for the eradication of Israel should not be. (When Bill C-63, the online harms act, is revived, they may get their wish.) Vote Palestine's strategy, according to one of its Instagram posts, is to 'force Palestine onto the debate stage through nationwide visibility' and shame political actors who do not endorse its platform. Leading PYM activist Yara Shoufani, who has a long rap sheet of anti-Israel extremism, explained on a podcast how 'pressure is applied' by PYM foot soldiers within ridings to non-endorsing candidates. They '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?' ' she said. Shoufani seems proud that PYM has managed to, in her words, 'create a kind of crisis within the Canadian electoral system.' And all of this, fellow Canadians, is what 362 candidates — not a single one of them Conservative — signed onto. At 1.8 million and growing, Muslims constitute around five per cent of Canada's population. The Canadian Muslim Vote, a nonprofit, estimates that Muslims hold significant influence in between 60-80 of 343 ridings. According to Joe Adam George, lead researcher for Islamist threats in Canada at the Middle East Forum, '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.' Credulous candidates' greed for Muslim votes is understandable. Which is why it is so important in these matters that savvy political leaders provide a backstop to their candidates' lack of judgment in collaborating with what essentially amounts to foreign interference in the election. As my colleague Tristin Hopper posted on X in regard to the Vote Palestine scandal, '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?' National Postkaybarb@ Opinion: Canadian universities have an Islamist problem John Ivison: Government policy is now in the hands of pro-Palestinian radicals
Toronto Sun
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
EDITORIAL: Voters reject division and antisemitism
An elector casts a ballot. Photo: Elections Canada One heartening outcome from this week's election is the way voters decisively rejected the politics of hatred and division, refusing to elect candidates or re-elect incumbent MPs who courted the anti-Israel vote. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account As Postmedia journalist Bryan Passifiume reported this week, of the 362 candidates who signed the 'Vote Palestine' platform pledge, only 25 were elected — a 93% failure rate. The pledge, in part, supported a two-way arms embargo on Israel and recognition of the state of Palestine. Out of 362 candidates who signed the pledge, 216 were NDP, 116 were Greens, 28 were Liberals and two represented the Bloc Québécois. Only six New Democrats who signed it were elected, while 18 Liberals won. Some vocal anti-Israel MPs lost their seats, including Niki Ashton, Matthew Green and Joel Harden. Clearly, it wasn't the only reason the NDP was decimated. It is, however, heartening that voters soundly rejected those who used the war in the Middle East to stir division and antisemitism. Several New Democrats smugly wore keffiyehs in Parliament in support of Palestine, in defiance of legislative custom that forbids the use of political props. While the Speaker allowed it, there are reasons for such parliamentary niceties. It maintains the neutrality of the chamber and stops attempts to intimidate free debate. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Liberal Ya'ara Saks was dumped by voters in her Toronto riding. Last year, she was pictured, alongside Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, arm-in-arm with Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority. Voters sent a strong message that they do not support such political grandstanding. She was the only Liberal in Toronto to lose a seat, which speaks volumes about the disgust felt by constituents in her riding. Sara Jama, a former NDP MPP in Ontario, was dumped by her party for statements deemed to be antisemitic. She, too, insisted on wearing the keffiyeh in the provincial legislature, in defiance of a ban by the Speaker. In Ontario's February election, voters overwhelmingly rejected her attempt at re-election as an independent. This should serve as a warning to any politician cynically tempted to use the Gaza war to score political points in this country. Canadians will not tolerate thinly disguised antisemitism in our hallowed legislatures. Break that rule and you'll face the wrath of voters. Toronto & GTA Toronto Maple Leafs Canada Editorial Cartoons Ontario
Toronto Sun
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
'Vote Palestine' campaign sees minimal success rate on election night
Only 25 of the 362 candidates who signed the 'Vote Palestine' platform pledge were elected on Monday Former Churchill-Keewatinook Aski NDP MP Niki Ashton. Photo by Gino Donato / Postmedia OTTAWA — From the river to the see-you-later. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Efforts to rally anti-Israel candidates into a pro-Palestine voting block failed miserably on Monday, after only 25 of the 362 candidates who signed the 'Vote Palestine' platform pledge were elected. That represents a 93% failure rate. Candidates who signed the pledge agreed with a number of controversial platform points, including a two-way arms embargo on Israel, ending Canadian support for Israeli settlements, and recognition of the state of Palestine. Candidates also must endorse UNRWA as a legitimate humanitarian presence in the area — an organization with long-standing links to Palestinian terror organizations like Hamas. Last year, Canada was one of 16 nations who followed suit with the United States in pausing their UNRWA funding after these links were made public. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The previous Trudeau government resumed funding just months later, in time to fulfill a $25-million installment of that year's $100-million pledge to UNRWA. Of the 362 candidates who signed the pledge, 216 were members of the NDP, 116 were from the Green Party, 28 were Liberals, and two ran for the Bloc Quebecois. Only six NDP signatories won a seat, while 18 were Liberal. Read More The only Green party signatory to win a seat was party leader Elizabeth May — Jonathan Pedneault, who also signed the pledge, failed to win a seat on Monday and has resigned as Green party co-leader. A number of prominent anti-Israel MPs were voted out of office on Monday, including Niki Ashton, Blake Desjarlais , Matthew Green and Joel Harden. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Other incumbent signatories who lost their seat include former NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Laurel Collins (NDP, Victoria,) Peter Julien (NDP, New Westminster-Burnaby-Maillardville,) Alistair MacGregor (NDP, Cowichan-Malahat-Langford,) Leila Dance (NDP, Elmwood-Transcona,) Brian Masse (NDP, Windsor West,) Lindsay Mathyssen (NDP, London-Fanshawe,) Mike Morrice (Green, Kitchener Centre,) and Bonita Zarrillo (NDP, Port Moody-Coquitlam). Mike Fegelman, executive director of HonestReporting Canada, attributed voters' frustration over continued anti-Israel extremism that's resulted in snarled traffic and persistent — and sometimes violent — protests at Jewish schools, communities and places of worship. 'The complete failure of the 'Vote Palestine' candidates to get elected is a microcosm of their larger movement: Indisputably loud, but ultimately representing a small and radical fringe of Canadian society,' Fegelman told the Toronto Sun. 'Canadians are clearly sick and tired of the incessant extremism coming from the pro-Palestinian movement, and overwhelmingly turfed their candidates in Monday's federal election.' bpassifiume@ X: @bryanpassifiume Toronto Maple Leafs Toronto Maple Leafs Columnists Canada Celebrity
