Yuen Pau Woo@yuenpauwoo :
“Are we seriously thinking of passing a bill to celebrate Arab Heritage without any reflection on how Canadian policy is aiding and abetting the slaughter of Arabs in the Middle East?”
Jody David Armour@NiggaTheory:
This is a powerful political speech about Canadian (and by implication our own) complicity in the slaughter of Arabs in the Middle East—it is pitch perfect and its moral clarity meets this blood-soaked moment.
C-232: Reflecting on the Celebration of Arab Heritage in the Face of Canada’s Stance on Palestine 12:33 Min. by Yuen Pau Woo, Nov 27, 2024
The Honourable Senator Woo gives a speech during the third reading of Bill C-232, An Act respecting Arab Heritage Month.
Full text here
Honorable Colleagues, I arrived in Canada in 1979 to attend an international school named after Lester Pearson. One of my roommates was Karim from Egypt. He taught me the only Arabic words I know — Ya Habibi — which means “my love”. He used it as an affectionate term for his roomies, and girlfriends. I also met Anees and Nasir, two of the first Palestinian Arab refugees who received scholarships to study in Canada. Their families had been displaced by the Nakba, or “Catastrophe” of 1948. I vividly remember having passionate discussions with them, and with fellow students from Israel, on the question of Palestinian statehood. It seemed to me at the time that the establishment of a Palestinian state was both just and inevitable, and very likely something I would see in my lifetime.
Forty-four years on, we not only do not have a Palestinian state, but we are witnessing before our very eyes the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and the forced relocation of civilians from their places of residence, presumably to make way for Israeli settlements. In effect, a continuation of Nakba. You may already know the official figures – more than 43,000 killed, including upwards of 17,000 children. What you perhaps don’t know is that a July 2024 paper in The Lancet estimates that 186,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza alone since October 7th, either from direct military action or from starvation, malnutrition, disease, exposure, and lack of access to medical facilities. This much larger number of casualties is on account of Israel’s policy of restricting humanitarian aid such that essential medicines and food are not getting to civilians in Gaza. For the record, the Government of Canada’s position, as articulated by its representative in the Senate and cheered on by the Conservatives, is that civilian casualties in war are unfortunate, humanitarian aid to Gaza is not being impeded, and it is all the fault of Hamas anyway.
The government launched in December 2023 a Temporary Residence Visa Program for Gazans with Canadian Family Ties but it is unclear whether the program has facilitated the exit of any Palestinians from Gaza. The Canadian government has the capacity and ability to expedite approvals for the immediate exits of Palestinians from Gaza, as they did with Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion. But the Government instead is choosing to abandon Palestinians in Gaza, including Canadians who have Palestinian families.
Here is what over 40 civil society groups have said about the program: “Anti-Arab, and specifically anti-Palestinian racism, saturates every aspect of the Special Measures program”.
The world is looking with horror at the situation in Gaza, and we have had multiple UN General Assembly resolutions in support of Palestine. Canada has been on the wrong side of most of these votes, but I would note that on November 20, Canada supported a resolution to condemn illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. That we would vote to condemn illegal settlements should be a no-brainer, but we have failed to do so on the same motion for 13 years. For all our rhetorical commitment to a two-state solution, our actions suggest that we are offering just lip service and often working at cross purposes.
Last month, the Canadian government refused to meet with Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Humans Rights in Palestine, when she was in Ottawa. The official excuse is that she is anti-Semitic, a claim that has been rejected by many Jewish leaders and antisemitism experts. I suspect the real reason is that our political leaders cannot bear to listen to the fact of war crimes in Gaza that expose their hypocrisy and duplicity, and dare I say the complicity of Canadian foreign policy in violations of international humanitarian law.
It is not just that Arabs in Palestine and Lebanon are suffering at the hands of the Israelis. Arab Canadians, especially Palestinian Canadians, are also being shunned and silenced for expressing their views on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. And the weapon of choice increasingly is the charge of antisemitism. I do not dispute that there has been a rise in antisemitic acts across Canada and I reject all forms of hatred towards Jews, as individuals, groups or as a collective.
But it is not antisemitic to argue that Germans and Italians should be at the forefront of the opposition to the assault on Gaza. Or that our collective obliviousness to what led, 100 years ago, to the Third Reich’s genocide of people not in conformity with a pure race is leading to the commission of yet another genocide. I am paraphrasing Special Rapporteur Albanese’s remarks, but these are the ideas that our government has labeled as antisemitic, and used as the reason for not meeting with Dr Albanese when she was in Ottawa.
The so-called “working definition” of antisemitism that has been endorsed by the government means Palestinians, and indeed all Canadians – including Jewish Canadians – who make deep criticisms of Zionism and Israel, can be accused of antisemitism. For example, calling for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions directed at Israel or at supporters of Israel’s assault on Gaza and the West Bank, could be labeled antisemitic. This weaponization of language represents an assault on free speech, legitimate political debate, and political activism. It suppresses the views and rights of a minority – especially Palestinian Arabs – who have a particular stake in that debate. It is the antithesis of celebrating Arab heritage.
Take the recent uproar over the singing of an Arabic song during a Remembrance Day ceremony at an Ontario high school. Provincial and Federal politicians, including MPs who voted in support of this bill, expressed outrage over the use of Arabic during the ceremony. Imagine that – the use of Arabic in a Canadian school! Well, honourable colleagues, if we truly respect and celebrate Arab heritage, we can surely welcome an Arabic song at a ceremony to remember Canadian veterans, whose ranks of course include Arab Canadians.
After all, we have welcomed expressions of Ukrainian culture at recent Remembrance Day ceremonies. And in my hometown of Vancouver, there is always a special Remembrance Day ceremony in Chinatown for Chinese Canadian veterans. For the record, the song Haza Salam is a lament for peace. If there was any potential harm to students from this incident, it is in the graffiti that appeared outside the school labeling it “Hamas High”. Where is the outrage against the threat to Canadian students of Palestinian and Arab ancestry?
And here we are, colleagues, on the cusp of passing a bill to mark April as the month to celebrate Arab Heritage Month, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the single biggest threat to Arab heritage is the callousness with which we regard Arab lives in the Israeli war on Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the suppression of Palestinian views on Gaza right here in Canada. Are we seriously thinking of passing a bill to celebrate Arab heritage without any reflection on how Canadian policy is aiding and abetting the slaughter of Arabs in the Middle East? Doing so would make April, in the words of T.S. Eliot, “the cruelest month”.
In the aftermath of World War One, Eliot cast April not in its usual role as a harbinger of better times, but as a moment of bitterness and painful memories. The title of his poem is “The Waste Land”, which pretty much sums up the way Israel has rendered Gaza since its response to the reprehensible Hamas attack of Oct 7.
To be clear, I take no issue with the examples of Arab Canadian accomplishment in Canada that have been highlighted by colleagues in this chamber and in the Other Place. There is much to celebrate about the Arab presence in Canada which dates to the late 19th century. The first Lebanese migrants to British Columbia – brothers Abraham and Farris Ray — arrived in 1888. They worked as itinerant peddlers in Victoria. Many early Lebanese immigrants also worked in Vancouver Island’s forestry industry. In 2023, the Lebanon Emigrant Plaza was inaugurated at Centennial Park on the southern shore of Victoria Harbor. I had a chance to visit the Plaza earlier this year and to view the Lebanon Emigrant Statue, which is a replica of statues in Halifax and several other cities that have prominent historical connections to the Lebanese diaspora. We should indeed celebrate Arab Canadian heritage and the contributions of Arab Canadians to this country in April and every other month. But let’s not do Arabs the dishonor of passing a bill in haste that willfully ignores the suffering of Arabs in Palestine and Lebanon, and the silencing of Arab Canadians because of their views on the situation in Palestine.
I hope other honourable colleagues will join the debate and that we will take the time to reflect on what it means to celebrate Arab heritage in the face of Canada’s stance towards Palestinians, and the blatant anti-Arabs racism that pervades society. We can start by observing this Friday the Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People, which is based on a resolution that was passed by the UN General Assembly in 1977. Canada, by the way, voted against that resolution. 29 November 1947 is the day the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine.
When the time comes for us to call the question, I will vote in favour of the bill – not just to celebrate and honour Arab heritage, but to protest our collective complacency about genocide and crimes against humanity in Palestine, as well as to express the lament for peace that is captured in Haza Salam. That, Ya Habibi, is what it should mean to declare April as Arab Heritage Month. Not as in The Waste Land of T.S. Eliot, but The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote:
When April the sweet showers fall
And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all
The veins are bathed in liquor of such power
As brings about the engendering of the flower.
Thank you for your attention.
Biography
Appointed to the Senate of Canada in November 2016, the Honourable Yuen Pau Woo sits as an independent representing British Columbia. He served as Facilitator of the Independent Senators Group from 2017 to 2021.
Senator Woo has worked on public policy issues related to Canada’s relations with Asian countries for more than 30 years. From 2005-2014, he was President and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, during which he also served on the Standing Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and as Chair of PECC’s State of the Region Report. He is a Senior Fellow at Simon Fraser University’s Graduate School of Business, and a member of the Trilateral Commission. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of the Mosaic Institute and the Canadian Ditchley Foundation.
Senator Woo is a joint chair of the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations and a member of the following Senate Standing Committees: Foreign Affairs and International Trade; Banking, Trade and Commerce; and Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament.
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@sabreenmow570:
Much respect to Sen Pau Woo in a time we Canadians have lost hope in the Canadian Political class and their decency. Our prime minster advocates for zionism and our opposition says he is “Israel”.
Canada the peacekeepers’ nation is sold to the highest bidder of the Israeli lobby and American influence.
@WalidChahal:
Senator Woo was quite articulate in conveying the anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism in Canada, at the top political level.
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Yves Engler@EnglerYves:
Cotler is a human rights charlatan who falsely claimed to have been Mandela’s lawyer. He’s promoted Israel’s genocide & has become a saintly figure by expressing moral outrage at official enemies while endorsing or ignoring Canada’s international abuses
MonicaFree@BlakPantherBabe:
If I gave weapons to someone with multiple warrants knowing they were going to kill people, that would be called aiding and abetting and I would be charged as an accomplice. BidenForPrison
Cheryl Benson @cherylbenson Nov 27, 2024:
Jewish Faculty Against IHRA
JEWISH FACULTY AGAINST THE IHRA WORKING DEFINITION OF ANTISEMITISM
We add our voices to a growing international movement of Jewish scholars to insist that university policies to combat antisemitism are not used to stifle legitimate criticisms of the Israeli state, or the right to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We recognize that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is a legitimate, non-violent form of protest. While not all of us endorse the BDS movement we oppose equating its support with antisemitism. We also are deeply disturbed by the upsurge of antisemitic acts in recent years which display painfully familiar forms of antisemitism.
We are specifically concerned with recent lobbying on our campuses for the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. This definition offers a vague and worrisome framing of antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews” and that may be “directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property.” The most serious problem however is that the definition is tied to a series of examples of which many are criticisms of the Israeli state. For this reason, the IHRA working definition has come under extensive criticism. Not only does it essentialize Jewish identity, culture, and theology, it also equates Jewishness and Judaism with the State of Israel – effectively erasing generations of debate within Jewish communities. The issue is particularly pressing as the IHRA working definition has been invoked by those seeking to interfere with collegial governance and student life at Canadian universities. The IHRA working definition distracts from experiences of anti-Jewish racism, and threatens to silence legitimate criticism of Israel’s grave violations of international law and denial of Palestinian human and political rights.
On campuses where this definition has been adopted it has been used to intimidate and silence the work of unions, student groups, academic departments and faculty associations that are committed to freedom, equality and justice for Palestinians. A range of international Jewish institutions have recognized this problem; for example, the New Israel Fund of Canada has recently retracted their support for the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. Furthermore, the University College London (UCL) has seen its Academic Board advise that the university seek an alternative definition of antisemitism and reverse adoption of the IHRA model. The UCL Academic Board joins a growing chorus of voices, including over 500 Canadian academics and multiple statements by Jewish and Israeliacademics, British academics who are Israeli citizens, and specialists in Jewish and Holocaust history,opposing the adoption of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism.
We know that there is serious and occasionally fractious disagreement on our campuses about antisemitism and its relationship to criticism of the State of Israel. These disputes cannot and will not be resolved by definitional fiat. If the goal of adopting the IHRA definition is to quell further conflict around the legitimate scope of criticism of Israel, it will surely fail. This is already evident at many academic institutions.
Adopting a seriously flawed framework to confront antisemitism is antithetical to the broader pursuit of justice and tolerance at the core of the mission statement of many universities. Freedom to criticize the policies and practices of any state without exception, including the State of Israel, is central to accountable scholarship, learning and education. We believe it is also central to building a more just academy.
Signed,
https://jewishfaculty.ca/jewish-faculty
@MouinRabbani:
Defamation League redefines anti-Semitism in order to defame opposition to genocide
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Last but not least, Zionists’ Rudy Guliani: Epstein’s lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
@kennardmatt:
Shame on Alan Dershowitz.
Shame on every other demon defending the annihilation of Gaza.
We must stop this genocide at all costs.
Then we must dismantle Zionism once and for all. It’s an abomination and maker of monsters.
@RogueKite:
Dershowitz is such a monster. This man is so culpable for so many things from normalizing genocide, to protecting and participating in child sex trafficking rings, to destroying the careers of honest Jewish scholars like Norman Finkelstein. He has done so much damage to America and the world at large. And he’s unfortunately the embodiment of an entire section of the American ruling elite
The evil that is Zionism terrifies me; many rich and powerful in the raping legal-judicial industry work to destroy our rights to freedom of expression/free speech globally to aid Israel’s genocide. No wonder then supreme court of Canada judge Rosalie Abella, another Zionist and genocide denier, pissed on my charter right to freedom of expression and took it further, defaming me and my case in her ruling in Ernst vs AER. I lost via Zionist Harper’s judges, there was no need for douche Abella to lie about me and my case.
ADELAIDE FreeAssange 8:32@teapot21:
Whenever I see Dershowitz I think of @1AutisticArtist Maria FARMER. He is depicted in her art work.
2020: The Setiles by Maria Farmer
Detail of Dirty Dershy (Alan Deshowitz), genocidaire who helped keep billionaire Jeffrey Epstein free to keep raping kids
Maria Farmer a regular AMALEK@1AutisticArtist:
I’ve fought Zionists since the mid 1990s when I reported Epstein to the FBI. Very soon I am suing on behalf of victims.
ABC: EPSTEIN- A Closer Look at ‘The Setiles’ by Maria Farmer Nine minutes explaining the rapists and rape-enabling villains in Ms Farmer’s painting, The Setiles. Well done. (I think the clip is age restricted because of Dershowitz’s wee willy hanging out as in the detail included above.)
Refer also to:
2010 Latuff cartoon of woman buying Israeli goods seeing herself in the mirror with human skulls filling her cart, with caption: “Buying Israeli goods is funding Apartheid!”
Meme of Justin Trudeau serving genocidal Israel and Zionism saying “The BDS movement…has no place on Canadian campuses” with McGill students resoundingly responding in 2016, “Yes it does,” by passing BDS resolution.
2024:
2024:
2024:
Carlos Azevedo@cprazevedo:
The West won’t do anything to put an end to this genocide because it’s the West doing it.