ILLUSTRATION BY AGATA NOWICKA Originally published by the Globe and Mail By GEOFFREY YORK PUBLISHED DECEMBER 23, 2019 After leading landmark inquiries on racism in Manitoba, residential schools and police discrimination Read more…
Continue readingTag: apartheid
Paul S. Graham: Israel Palestine International Law Symposium
Earlier this month I attended and recorded the proceedings of the Israel Palestine International Law Symposium, held in Winnipeg September 7 – 9. While I thought I was better informed than the average Canadian going into the symposium, by the time it was over I was overwhelmed by the amount of
Continue readingAlberta Politics: If F. W. de Klerk’s apartheid comparison to the fossil fuel economy is OK, why is David Suzuki’s slavery analogy an outrage?
A speech in Calgary last week by the last white president of South Africa in which F. W. de Klerk suggested the challenges faced by Alberta in the waning days of the petroleum industry may not be dissimilar from those facing his country in the last days of apartheid seems
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: While We’re On the Subject of Jerusalem.
The Palestinians are once again on people’s minds (sort of, briefly) due to Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. It sort of confirms the idea that if a nightmare drags on for decades, half a century is plenty, we forget what really
Continue readingLeft Over: BDS is no BS – They Call the State “Pariah”
Jewish groups condemn Green Party for supporting Israeli boycott policy Leader Elizabeth May ‘disappointed’ by party’s vote at its national convention The Canadian Press Posted: Aug 08, 2016 10:09 AM ET Last Updated: Aug 08, 2016 10:09 AM ET World … Continue reading →
Montreal Simon: Benjamin Netanyahu and the Apartheid State
Benjamin Netanyahu may have won the Israeli election, by using fear and racism to get people to vote for him.Like his good buddy Stephen Harper is trying to do in Canada.But it is tuning out to be a pyrrhic victory.For while he may deny he is a racist. Read more »
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: #DayofRage: For Gaza, Palestinians, History and Humanity
by: Obert Madondo Follow @Obiemad | Published Sat. Aug 9, 2014 “Die-In” protest in front of NDP Leader Tom Mulcair’s office in Montreal, held on Aug 5, 2014. (Photo: Darren Ell/FACEBOOK) Gaza, Palestine and you, freedom lovers everywhere, you’ve educated me. Now I know why they didn’t support indigenous Zimbabweans’ justified armed struggle
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Climate change divestment movement gains ground in church – but not in Canadian media or political circles
Ho-hum… Some typical Canadian reporters, hard at work … Actual Canadian newsrooms may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Is he more influential than we imagined in Alberta? CALGARY When retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu visited Alberta’s Tarpatch capital of Fort McMurray last month and called
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Jerusalem’s checkpoints and ‘Kafkaesque’ restrictions through the eyes of visiting authors: video
Stills from Jerusalem: Uprooted, Walled Out and Cut off – (view video beneath). The video Jerusalem: Uprooted, Walled Out and Cut off was first released by the Palestine Festival of Literature (Palfest). The camera follows a group of authors in the course of their visit to Jerusalem and records their
Continue reading350 or bust: Archbishop Desmond Tutu: No Excuse For Climate Ignorance
* The Guardian: We need an apartheid-style boycott to save the planet: We must stop climate change. And we can, if we use the tactics that worked in South Africa against the worst carbon emitters
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Israel gets a plug: Don Sterling cites Israeli racism in justifying his racist views
Above right: Don Sterling and V. Stiviano / Beneath: Israelis protesting against African asylum seekers Affirmation of Israeli racism can surface in the most unlikely of places. In the taped phone conversation between disgraced L.A.Clippers owner Don Sterling and his girl friend V. Stiviano, Sterling cites Israeli racism in an
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Israel, Harper back unelected Kiev government: anti-Semitism and far-right nationalism downplayed
Top: Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok in group shot with Canada’s John Baird / Lower left: Tyahnybok in action / Lower right: Svoboda parade Stephen Harper’s visit to Ukraine this week is the first by any G7 leader since the coup that saw the overthrow of Yanukovych. Harper is a
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Palestinian legislator Ahmad Tibi slams Harper’s postion on Israel as "unbalanced" and "right of Likud": why Tibi gets it right
Ahmad Tibi, the Palestinian legislator who walked out of Stephen Harper’s Knesset speech said in an interview with CBC’s Evan Solomon that Harper’s views on Israel were “unbalanced” and “right of Likud.” Sounds pretty accurate. Harper’s views are indeed extreme even by some Israeli standards and certainly more extreme than
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Why Arab-Israeli politician protested Harper’s speech to the Knesset
by: Obert Madondo “When you are controlling, discriminating, confiscating, occupying lands from one side and putting them in the corner without any basic rights, you are by this way ruling and committing apartheid in the occupied Palestinian Territories.” The words of Arab-Israeli legislator Ahmad Tibi as he explained to the CBC
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Mandela Was More Radical Than Most Know
Well, I miss Mandela. The post-Mandela world is sadly less colourful. While all sorts of people, including reprobate politicians in Canada laud him for this and that, it’s important to remember that he never seemed to angle for being a darling of right wing, neoliberal libertarian freedom fighters. Here are
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Irony of Raul Castro – Obama handshake: Cuba helped defeat S.A. apartheid in battle whereas U.S. sent Stingers to UNITA
Raúl Castro at Mandela memorial service / Nelson Mandela with Fidel in Cuba At the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, the media seized on the handshake between Barack Obama and the president of Cuba, Raúl Castro, as possible evidence of something more significant afoot in the relations between the two
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Day One, Post-Mandela
Today is the first day of our world after the Nelson Mandela era. We don’t need to canonize him or consider any messiah characteristics, but we should stop today and reflect on what kind of Mandela legacy we want to carry forward. Here are a few ideas to consider. Chances
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Nigel Kennedy ‘apartheid’ reference to be censored by BBC: Palestine Strings at the Proms
On August 8 the BBC Proms featured the Palestine Strings in company with world renowned violinist, Nigel Kennedy, and members of his Orchestra of Life. Palestine Strings is made up of seventeen young Palestinians ranging in age from 12 to 23 who study at the Edward Said National Conservatory
Continue readingdrive-by planet: Ehud Olmert called ‘war criminal’ and ‘murderer’ during speech at Woodrow Wilson Center
Former Israeli PM, Ehud Olmert, who authorized operation Cast Lead against the people of Gaza, had his speech interrupted earlier this month at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC. Student activists showed their outrage at Olmert’s role in the Gaza assault by standing up at various points during his
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Why Mandela Is So Important
Although I have only made reference to him three other times in this blog, Nelson Mandela is a person who I revere like no other. And of course, I am hardly alone in that sentiment, attested to by the fact that millions of people, not only in South Africa but
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