Green Party leader Annamie Paul speaks with students at a press conference in late March. Photo from Facebook. Last week, Annamie Paul added a new chapter to her deception in service of Israeli colonialism and fidelity to former senior adviser Noah Zatzman. On Tuesday, July 6, the Green Party leader
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Canadian Dimension: Canadian media defend Green Party leader as she accuses her critics of racism
Green Party leader Annamie Paul’s critics are not racist, writes Yves Engler. They are simply appalled by her autocratic behaviour and repeated and consistent refusal to side with the Palestinian people. Still image from YouTube/CBC. Last month Montréal saw its largest-ever protests by predominantly racialized communities. On May 15, upwards
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Green Party scores own goal with defection of pro-Palestine MP
On June 10, Green Party MP Jenica Atwin crossed the floor to sit with the Liberals less than two years after her breakthrough election for the Greens in New Brunswick. Photo courtesy Jenica Atwin/Facebook. Score an own goal for the Green Party of Canada’s most pro-Israel members, Noah Zatzman and
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why does Canada still support Colombia’s repressive right-wing government?
Demonstrators in Bogota, Colombia, protest against President Iván Duque’s tax reform bill. Photo from Flickr. On May 28, right wing Colombian President Iván Duque deployed the military to Cali. The city of 2.3 million has been the epicentre of a month-long nationwide protest that forced the government to withdraw a
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: For Canadian taxpayers, why is Israel still a charity case?
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through London and other British cities to protest against Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, May 22, 2021. Photo by Alisdare Hickson/Flickr. Over the past two weeks, Canada has seen its most significant ever outpouring of support for Palestinian rights. More than 150,000 letters
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The JDL is a violent extremist group—so we should treat it like one
Canada’s branch of the Jewish Defence League is a small but active militant organization with a long history of committing violent acts and intimidating pro-Palestinian activists. Photo from Flickr. On Saturday evening, some 5,000 people packed Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square to denounce the Israeli government’s continued violence and injustices against
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The high cost of Canadian military propaganda
Canadian Armed Forces soldiers participate in Exercise COLLABORATIVE SPIRIT in Petawawa, Ontario, September 25, 2019. Photo by Melissa Gloude, Garrison Imaging Petawawa/Flickr. Ignored in the flap over the Halifax International Security Forum (HFX) awarding its dubiously titled John McCain Prize for Leadership in Public Service to Taiwan’s President, Tsai Ing-wen,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why is a Montréal school pushing students to join the Israeli military?
IDF soldiers from the Nahal Brigade operating in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge, July 30, 2014. Photo courtesy the Israel Defense Forces/Flickr. Why are Québec taxpayers funding a school enthusiastically promoting a foreign military engaged in a brutal 50-year occupation? More important still, are these efforts even legal? The Foreign
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Where does the NDP really stand on NATO?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a NATO Heads of State and Government summit in Warsaw, Poland, July 8, 2016. Photo courtesy the Prime Minister’s Office. Does the NDP want Canada to ratchet up tensions with Russia? Unfortunately, this seems to be the notion at the heart of a recent statement
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Does Canada’s unilateral sanctions regime violate international law?
According to CD columnist Yves Engler, Canada’s unilateral sanctions regime runs afoul of the principle of self-determination and people’s right to development. Photo from iStock. Is Canada breaking international law when it applies to unilateral coercive economic measures, commonly referred to as sanctions? Most countries and international law experts believe
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why Canada should leave NATO
According to Canadian Dimension columnist Yves Engler, it is long past time Canada left the belligerent, militaristic, North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Image courtesy NATO. By all accounts, NATO is a bad influence on Canada, and the alliance has proven to strengthen the worst tendencies of our political culture. In March,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why the NDP needs a new defence critic
CAF members along with American and Polish forces participate in medical evacuation training during Operation REASSURANCE in Adazi, Latvia. Photo by Corporal Zebulon Salmaniw/Canadian Armed Forces/Twitter. What should progressive Canadians expect from the defence critic representing the country’s only left wing party? An easy answer might be legitimate criticism of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada’s aid to Yemen is just a humanitarian band-aid
A man, displaced by fighting in the Yemeni city of Hodediah, cools down in the Rabat camp near Aden, July 4, 2019. Photo by EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid/Flickr. Too often, international “aid” is doled out by the rich and powerful to gloss over global inequities. It’s also a
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Pro-Israel lobby group has no credibility to lecture NDP on racism
According to Yves Engler, the NDP’s upcoming convention will likely feature attempts by the party hierarchy to suppress two key resolutions on Palestine solidarity. Photo from Flickr. It’s heating up. With a month to go before the NDP convention, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has twice attacked
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Racial capitalism and the betrayal of Haiti
PetroCaribe Challenge protestors in Haiti, August 19, 2018. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. Domination by multinational corporations and “light-skinned” local capitalists—that’s the story of Haiti as illustrated by one recent event. The day after his already paper-thin constitutional legitimacy completely eroded, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse gave significant amounts of the country’s
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The trouble with Canadian aid
One of the many internally displaced persons (IDP) tent camps that sprang up around the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Photo courtesy Haiti Liberté. Global Affairs Canada, international development studies departments and many NGOs recently celebrated International Development Week, which ran from February 7 to 13. Lost
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The dark side of Canada’s role in Haiti
Jovenel Moïse with Justin Trudeau, April 14, 2018. Photo courtesy the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru/Flickr. Sunday will be bittersweet for many Haitians. February 7 is usually a day to commemorate the fall of Jean-Claude Duvalier’s dictatorship, whose government was overthrown by a popular uprising in 1986, but this
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: How Ottawa is helping wealthy corporations grab Guyana’s oil
Texas-based ExxonMobil has discovered more than five billion barrels of oil and gas off Guyana’s shores, sparking a renewed territorial dispute with Venezuela. Photo courtesy JWN Energy Why is Canada pushing Guyana, an impoverished nation of 800,000 people, into conflict with Venezuela while helping multinational corporations grab its oil? Recently,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: It’s time for Canada to sign the United Nations Nuclear Ban Treaty
Protest against investments in nuclear weapons, Melbourne, April 2012. Photo by Tim Wright/Flickr. It’s time to nuke the nukes. The Trudeau government needs to live up to its rhetoric and sign the United Nations Nuclear Ban Treaty. Doing so would be a meaningful contribution to creating a world without the
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: When will the Trudeau government finally end its embrace of Juan Guaidó?
President Donald Trump introduces Juan Guaidó during the State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, February 4, 2020. Official White House Photo by D. Myles Cullen/Flickr. Just before this week’s inauguration of a new National Assembly in Venezuela, Canada’s Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne tweeted, “as
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