Gandalf said:
loreta said:
I think you are right. And Canada has always been a servant of USA.
Well not always.
Remember during the time of Pierre Elliotr Trudeau, that was different.
As an example, Fidel Castro was a friend of PET at that time and the USA were upset about that.
Indeed, PET was an interesting man, there was a side of him that was far removed from politics, yet politics never left him. PET seemed to be at ease with the various cultures of Canada and the world. Whether spending time with the Inuit or canoeing in solitude on the many outings he took, he was not your statuesque politicization and he did not alienate those countries (as you point out) that were foe to the U.S. If given the chance, he would build bridges rather than collapse them as is the case now. PET surely knew the power behind the parliamentary process, yet he knew law and was pretty adaptable. In his last term, the west was alienated due to the NEP (National Energy Program), yet there were underlining factors, such as the bankers play at skyrocketing interest rates (early eighties - something like 20%) and many people were crushed.
Redrock12 said:
cindyj said:
Don't forget about the Green Party. If you haven't been hearing about Elizabeth May's many efforts to fight the status-quo, it wouldn't be surprising, since she doesn't usually get much mainstream media attention. I cannot find fault with her-- she seems to me to be sincere, compassionate, and actually gets things accomplished for her constituents, regardless of their wealth or influence. God bless her! If only others were more like her...
So true, and Elizabeth May was the only one who spoke the truth during the latest intifada. All the other main parties simply parroted "it's Hamas' fault that Israel was murdering Palestinian civilians and targeting children." Trudeau, Mulcair, and especially Harper, are nothing but a bunch of unprincipled sycophants.
For me anyway, trumpeting EM's deeds does not equate to a benevolent leader in waiting. Her party has been pretty mute on things like Gaza, although I'll quote a letter below where she speaks humanely. EM seems to have been riding the wave of anti Assad, playing the Hamas card when necessary, aligning on the Ukrainian democratic hype; basically ensuring she is close to the others without having to take a direct stand and create friction, osit. She does indeed stand out on XL pipelines and other important industrial and ecological concerns, yet she is a maximum C02 alarmist, for the "heating" reasons, that aids misdirection of what's going on. If you look at her website _http://elizabethmaymp.ca/ you will not see a large position against many of the lies we are being told. This may be strategic, so it is difficult to know what exactly is in her heart on many issues. In the below, as you said cindyj, she seems sincere.
I am heartbroken to watch such death, destruction, and violence with seemingly no end in sight. In recent days, the death toll has soared to unspeakable numbers, mostly civilians. With each death, the prospect of a lasting peace seems further away.
I firmly believe that Israeli children and Palestinian children have an equal right to grow up free of bombardment. This should not be a controversial statement. While I, of course, condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization for sending rockets into Israel, the Israeli retaliation and the invasion of Gaza violates international law and humanitarian norms. The death and destruction in a place that was already experiencing a humanitarian crisis is simply unjustifiable.
At the recent national convention in Fredericton, the Green Party of Canada passed the following emergency resolution:
"Be it resolved that the GPC urges the immediate cessation of hostilities between Israel and Palestine. The GPC will adopt a posture of engaged neutrality, opening all available diplomatic avenues in both Palestine and Israel to press for a peaceful resolution to the conflict consistent with the GPC’s commitment to justice and custom of speaking truth to power."
The people of Israel and Palestine desperately need a ceasefire. They desperately need this battle to end so that they can return to resolving the enduring issues in this conflict. The people of the Middle East cannot afford to have this flare up so tragically every few years. The issues of the blockade of Gaza, settlements in the West Bank, permanent borders, refugees, and terror, will need to be dealt with in a cooperative and comprehensive manner, so that Israeli and Palestinian children can grow up without fear and without hatred.
Canada can and should play a constructive role in this process. A one-sided stance on this issue forfeits any opportunity for Canada to be a useful mediator. Canada needs to stand up for human rights and international law wherever they are violated. Canada should continue to condemn Hamas rockets and terror but any Prime Minister of Canada worth his or her salt would also say, as a friend and ally of Israel, “you’ve gone too far - you must move to peace talks.”
This brings up an article from the Canadian Radicalpress.com (i'm not sure about this site _http://www.radicalpress.com/?s=Elizabeth+may+Gaza)
snip said:
Unfortunately for Elizabeth May, a lawyer and so-called seasoned politician, her ignorance of the true conditions within Israel and the Israeli government’s terrorizing and genocide of the Palestinian people, plus her abysmal understanding of the Zionist agenda for global hegemony, have both played into what she refers to as her “mea culpa” (i.e. “her fault”).
As a result, grievous errors such as May’s tactless criticism of the CJPME suddenly become grist for the Zionist agenda’s overall plan of making the Green Party of Canada not only look ridiculous in the eyes of the Canadian public but also making its leader out to be both a groveling sycophant of the Israeli state and just another lying politician trying to cover her ass. This foreign Zionist Jew B’nai Brith lobby are professionals at this sort of smear campaign all designed to destroy Canada’s democracy and control the peoples’ elected representatives.
The only hope for the Greens now is for the membership to call their leader to task on this horrendous faux pas and get their priorities straightened out as quickly as possible. Failing that their reputation will be undoubtedly tarnished and their support will surely dwindle.
I'm not sure this is correct, at least the former part, that May does not understand the true conditions.
The most interesting piece (2010) which contains old history of Canadian's links to Palestine/Israel is from an article focused on the book
Canada & Israel: Building Apartheid, by author, Yves Engler _https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/44753
Here is a snippet:
The material is already out there, but the author skillfully constructs a coherent narrative that brings it together into one accessible volume. His well-referenced and easy-to-follow exposé leaves little doubt of the strength and longevity of the Canada-Israel relationship.
Engler adheres to a Chomskian interpretation of this alliance. Namely that it is driven more by Canada's backing of American-led imperialism rather than the appeasement of the Zionist lobby. The latter, Engler claims, plays an undeniable role in funding Israeli apartheid. But in terms of steering policy in Ottawa, it is pushing against an open door.
Engler stresses the fact that the roots of Zionism in Canada are Christian rather than Jewish. He chronicles Canada's involvement at every stage of Zionist history by citing the prominent role Canadian Zionists played. Businessman and Christian Zionist Henry Wentworth Monk was campaigning to buy land in Palestine long before Herzl “thought of a Jewish state”.
In 1881, Monk proposed setting up a National Jewish Fund. Clergymen like Albert Thompson and Charles Russell spoke of turning the "wilderness" of the holy land into the “very garden of the lord”.
But Monk's efforts bore little financial fruit. By 1906, Canadian Zionism had raised a mere $6000 in support funds. Things changed during World War I. About 400 Canadian soldiers took part in British General Allenby's invasion of Ottoman Palestine. Some were mobilised by then-president of the Zionist Societies of Canada, Clarence De Sola.
Following Britain's Balfour Declaration in November 1917, which declared support for a Jewish national home in Palestine, Canadians raised close to half a million dollars for Zionism between 1919 and 1921.
Canadians took part in the Nakba, the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Palestine. The main recruiter for the Zionist Haganah militia in Canada — and heir to giant retailer Tip Tops — Ben Dunkelman put the number of Canadians who fought to establish Israel at 1000.
Canadian participation left its clearest mark perhaps on Israel's air force. Engler states that the Zionists' central base commander was Canadian Sde Dov, while Canadian Sydney Shulemson is considered the “father of the Israeli air force”. At least 53 Canadians are believed to have enlisted in Israel's small air force during the 1948 war.
Canadian undersecretary of state for external affairs (and later prime minister), Lester B. Pearson, chaired the UN Committee on Palestine in 1947 (UNSCOP). Canadian Supreme Court Justice Ivan Rand was also a member of the commission and is considered by some as the chief architect of the UN's partition plan of Palestine. Pearson actively lobbied and advocated for the partition.
Engler identifies the Pearson era as a time of gradual transfer of Canada's services from British-led imperialism to that of the US. When the Eisenhower administration was hesitant to directly sell heavy weapons to Israel (lest it upset Arab governments and by extension Washington's Cold War planning in the region), Ottawa struck the arms deals in lieu of Washington.
This set the stage for a much more institutionalised form of cooperation between Canada and Israel that spanned the intelligence, military and business fields.
Engler cites reports by Canadian diplomats on the close cooperation between the two countries' spy agencies. The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) and Israel's Mossad not only share information, but also conduct joint operations according to these sources.
One of the most contentious issues surrounding joint security operations is the use of Canadian passports in Israeli assassination operations. Israeli agents who carried out the 1997 botched assassination attempt of Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Amman entered Jordan on Canadian passports. Engler traces this practice all the way to the 1970s.
In By Way of Deception, former Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky described Israel's passport forgery factory and laboratory and claimed that in the 1980s he saw more than a thousand blank Canadian passports, which were Mossad's favourite.
If you get the chance, reading
By way of Deception is a good backgrounder on Mossad.
So perhaps Mulcair, May et al, are beholden to this "institutionalised" relationship that has spanned decades if not a century?
