You can watch video of their intervention at https://www.instagram.com/singforhumanity/reel/C4Cqd6kAmRs/.
]]>by Candice Bodnaruk
Since last October, when Israel’s War on Gaza began, Peace Alliance Winnipeg members have both organized and participated in demonstrations at the offices of both Liberal and Conservative Members of Parliament.
The original request was that our political leaders advocate for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Our most recent “ask” along with supporting a ceasefire, is that our federal leaders call for a 2- way embargo on weapons sales between Canada and Israel.
According to the Annual Report on Military Exports released in June 2023, Canada exported over $21,000,000 in military hardware to Israel in 2022.
A major portion of Canada’s exports (almost $5,000,000) is related to military aircraft, while over $3,000,000 is categorized as explosives or related components. Canadian-made components have been integrated into the F-351 Joint Strike Fighter, which is being used in Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza.
In the Netherlands, an appeal court has now ordered the Dutch government to halt the export of F-35 fighter jet parts to the U.S- citing violations of international law. Dutch civil society organizations like Oxfam and the Rights Forum, had previously launched a legal challenge against their government for supplying F-35 components to Israel. Canadians must do the same and immediately halt all weapons transfers to Israel or Canada risks contributing to International Law violations, including war crimes in Gaza.
We have been trying to connect MPs on Canadian weapons sales to Israel since late last fall. There have been snap rallies at MPs offices in Winnipeg, including at Conservative MP Marty Morantz’s office, as well as Liberals Dan Vandal and Terry Duguid. We also posted information in these ridings, encouraging voters to sign e-petition 4745 calling for a 2-way arms embargo between Canada and Israel. The petition was sponsored by NDP MP Heather McPherson.
Most recently we were able to meet in-person with MP Kevin Lamoureux. We began writing letters to him late last year, and in December I finally received an email response.
A couple of weeks back, Palestinian Solidarity activists were able to meet him at McDonald’s (where he has coffee a couple times a month and meets voters). At this meeting we were able to bring our concerns about Canadian complicity in Israel’s War on Gaza.
Our meeting with him lasted about 20 minutes. The discussion concluded when MP Lamoureux became frustrated with our demands, called our views “extreme”, then stood up and walked away. We already knew, before the meeting, that this MP was a major Israel supporter and that he also travels their quite regularly with his daughter, Cindy Lamoureux, as a tourist.
During our discussion he proceeded to defend Israel and refer to them as a Canadian ally. He also stated that he did not believe Israel was practising Apartheid in Gaza or Palestine and commented that there were many other human rights abuses around the world that we could be concerning ourselves with. He almost seemed mystified as to why we would be protesting against Israel at all.
After that disappointing meeting we decided to hold a protest at the McDonalds when we knew he would be there. On February 17 a group of us gathered outside the restaurant on Keewatin with placards and our voices. One of our messages was “Kevin Lamoureux supports Israeli Genocide in Gaza”. We also had placards aimed at Prime Minister Trudeau. The action also focused on McDonalds’ decision to serve free meals to Israeli soldiers after October 7. “McDonalds: Stop Feeding the Israeli Genocide in Gaza” was one of our messages aimed at the fast food chain. [For video of this action, click on this link.]
During the protest we chanted and waved at passing cars. Many people honked or flashed a thumbs up or peace sign in support. McDonalds staff came out briefly to talk with us but otherwise the event was peaceful. It was a productive, energetic action that seemed even more worthwhile when Lamoureux was required to face our protest to get into his vehicle. He clearly was not happy to see us.
Lamoureux has been meeting voters at McDonalds for years without anyone questioning or challenging his loyalty to Israel. That has got to change now. Canadian politicians must remember who elected them- Canadians. Our politicians work for us- not for Israelis.
Someone mentioned to me recently that maybe our McDonalds demo will have another impact- McDonalds will become tired of protesters showing up at their restaurant every couple weeks and ask Lamoureux to hold his meetings elsewhere. We will have to wait and see.
]]>Today, Canadian peace groups sent the following letter to Canadian Parliamentarians.
February 24, 2024
BRIEFING: On the Second Anniversary of War in Ukraine, the Urgent Need is for a Ceasefire, Negotiations, and Peace
FROM: Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, Victoria Peace Coalition, Regina Peace Council, Fire This Time, Mobilization Against War and Occupation, Nova Scotia Voice of Women, People for Peace (London, ON), Pivot 2 Peace (South Georgian Bay Chapter WBW), Montreal for World Beyond War (WBW), Canadian Peace Congress, Just Peace Advocates, Canadian BDS Coalition, Pax Christi Toronto, Canada Voice of Women for Peace (VOW), Women’s International League for Peace and Justice, Peace Alliance Winnipeg
TO: All Members of the House of Commons and the Senate
On February 19, Defence Minister Bill Blair announced that Canada would give Ukraine more than 800 unmanned aerial systems (drones) at a cost of more than $95 million. The $95 million is part of the $500 million in military assistance promised by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June 2023 when he visited Kyiv. The $95 million is in addition to the $60 million promised by Blair at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group to support F-16 fighter aircraft capability that can carry the B62-12 tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine. This escalation of more weapons to Ukraine to prolong the war will lead to more casualties and risks a nuclear exchange.
Since February 2022, Canada has committed over $2.4 billion in military assistance to Ukraine and approximately $10 billion in total aid. Canada is one of the top 10 countries in terms of providing military aid to Ukraine and together they have given $90.4 billion to keep this war going, the main benefactor of which is the US military-industrial complex.
Canadians demand an honest assessment of the war in Ukraine
Canada, other western nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the mainstream media all present the same narrative to justify the war and its continuation. The comments of Yvan Baker, Member of Parliament for Etobicoke Centre, speaking at the announcement of Canada’s $95 million for drones, said what has been repeated so often:
“Ukraine’s victory is vital to Canada’s security, so a Ukrainian victory is the only option for Canada. Ukrainians needs (sic) our help to fight against Russia’s brutal invasion and to achieve that victory. The military aid we are announcing today is going to help them do exactly that. We must stand with the Ukrainian people until they win – until we all win.”
This belies the real cause of the war: the continued and illegal push by NATO to expand eastward. This occurred even though the Cold War threat of the Soviet Union had collapsed, and the former Warsaw Pact countries became aligned with the European Union (EU), and NATO’s expansion to Russia’s borders, designed to extend US hegemony over Russia (and then China), brought numerous warnings from both Western and Russian officials. There needs to be an honest assessment of the origins of the current war in Ukraine. The red line for Russia became Ukraine, where the US staged a coup in 2014, and put into power an illegitimate and unconstitutional regime that included neo-Nazis and extreme-right wing nationalists, which, in turn, launched bloody attacks on the Russian-speaking regions of Eastern Ukraine between 2014-2022.
The war in Ukraine has lasted ten years, according to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. February 24, 2024, marks the second anniversary of y the war between NATO and Russia (as Dr. Jeffrey Sachs has explained). As we reach the second-year mark, an end to the violence which we, the undersigned, seek, is nowhere in sight. The second anniversary will be marked in predictable fashion by those who orchestrated the war and have worked to prolong it despite the enormous costs to Ukraine and its people.
Though recent public opinion polls show a dramatic decrease in support for the war in Ukraine among ordinary Canadians, the Trudeau government continues to recklessly push Ukraine to join NATO. Since 2015, the Canadian government has spent $700 million for Operation UNIFIER by which the Canadian Armed Forces has been training and integrating the Armed Forces of Ukraine with NATO and turning Ukraine into a de facto NATO state.
Canadians demand an end to this war
For two years, Canadian peace, faith and social justice organizations have called for a ceasefire to end the war and start negotiations. This call has resonated among Canadians, about a quarter of whom now agree with us, according to recent polls. Despite the united front of Western governments and mainstream media to silence the truth about this war, it is now clearer than ever that NATO has cynically used Ukraine as the proxy in its attack on Russia. The economy of Ukraine is in ruins and the number of soldiers killed or injured is numbered in the hundreds of thousands. An entire generation of young Ukrainian men has been wiped out in NATO’s attempt to “vanquish Russia.” (words of Deputy-PM Chrystia Freeland). There are over 12 million refugees that have fled worldwide from this war.
There have been significant peace initiatives offered by many countries including South Africa and China. Shamefully, none of these efforts have been supported by Canada or other NATO nations. The people of Ukraine are now looking for an end to the war. Canada must turn from fuelling this conflict towards using its diplomatic resources to bring about negotiations to end it, before it expands into a wider regional war or even a nuclear confrontation between the superpowers.
This war, which has been recklessly driven by NATO, leads to our demand that Canada withdraw from NATO. It is irresponsible for Canada to increase military spending to NATO’s 2% GDP target when millions of Canadians need affordable housing, accessible healthcare and education, and adaptation to climate change. Withdrawing from NATO would give Canada independence over its foreign affairs and defence and would allow Canada to ratify the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons. It would also allow Canada to work cooperatively with all countries to seek a global response to the planet’s impending environmental and climate crises and sustainable development.
Finally, we, the undersigned organizations, call for:
Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, Victoria Peace Coalition, Regina Peace Council, Fire This Time, Mobilization Against War and Occupation, Nova Scotia Voice of Women, People for Peace (London, ON), Pivot 2 Peace (South Georgian Bay Chapter WBW), Montreal for World Beyond War (WBW), Canadian Peace Congress, Just Peace Advocates, Canadian BDS Coalition, Pax Christi Toronto, Canada Voice of Women for Peace (VOW), Women’s International League for Peace and Justice, Peace Alliance Winnipeg
SOURCES:
George Beebe and Anatol Lieven, “The Diplomatic Path to a Secure Ukraine” (Feb. 2024): https://quincyinst.org/research/the-diplomatic-path-to-a-secure-ukraine/
Congressional Research, “U.S. Security Assistance to Ukraine” (Dec. 2023): https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12040
Dr. Ivan Katchanovski, “Buried trial verdict confirms false-flag Maidan massacre in Ukraine” (Feb. 2024): https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/buried-trial-verdict-confirms-false-flag-maidan-massacre-in-ukraine-2024
Jack F. Matlock “The Christmas Gift that Keeps Giving”, American Diplomacy (Feb. 2024):
https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2024/02/the-christmas-gift-that-keeps-giving/
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, “The Biden-Schumer Plan to Kill More Ukrainians,” (Feb. 2024): https://www.jeffsachs.org/newspaper-articles/4xn8bew8gh25ygbt5d8d2a5s5tplex
]]>Canada lost a passionate defender of human rights on December 30, 2023, with the passing of Edmonton-based lawyer Dennis Edney at the age of 77.
Among his many high profile human rights cases, the one most well-known was his successful defence of Omar Khadr. Peace Alliance Winnipeg was an outspoken supporter of Omar Khadr and on two occasions (in 2014 and 2015) sponsored public meetings featuring Dennis Edney that raised funds for Khadr’s legal defence.
Here are videos of these public meetings. While Omar Khadr eventually gained his freedom, and was financially compensated by the Government of Canada for the violation of his rights, Edney’s eloquent description of the threat to human rights posed by the Khadr affair remains relevant to this day.
Dennis Edney’s family has invited those who wish to make a charitable contribution in honour of Dennis, to donate to the Alzheimer’s Society (AB, NWT) or Amnesty International, Canada.
]]>Rallies have been held in Winnipeg every week since October 7 to protest Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Organizers are now calling on the local community to take to the streets to defend to Rafah, Gaza and all of Palestine against Israel’s genocidal assault.
Organizer Candice Bodnaruk pointed out that Israel’s attacks on Gaza have been ongoing now for well over 100 days and almost 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7. More than half of Gaza’s population, or 1.4 million people, are now crowded into Rafah and have no way to escape Israeli bombardment. Bodnaruk also called out federal leaders.
“Canadian politicians have been primarily silent, and business as usual has continued with Israel,” she said, in reference to Canadian weapon sales to Israel.
Rally Organizer Damon Nasser noted that yesterday Médecins Sans Frontières warned that “Israel’s declared ground offensive on Rafah would be catastrophic and must not proceed,”.
“The purpose of today’s rally is stand in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, as well as to draw attention to the Canadian government’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing military assault on Gaza,” he said, adding that made-in Canada components are part of Boeing’s F35 Strike Fighter jet that is being used in Israel’s assaults on Palestinians in Gaza.
Bodnaruk added that such Canadian complicity in Israel’s genocide must be called out- and Canadian leaders must be held to account for their unwavering support of Israel.
“Canada continues to do business with Israel- and through our arms sales to them we are directly contributing to killing Palestinians in Gaza. As people of conscience who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, this is unacceptable to us. It must end now.” Bodnaruk concluded.
]]>A statement by the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has done a grave disservice to Canadians and Canada’s long-term national interests by joining the US and UK-led Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea. This latest imperial military adventure is illegal because it lacks the approval of the United Nations Security Council, the only global body empowered under the UN Charter to authorize military action against states. When Canada openly participates in illegal actions, it undermines respect for international law and the UN Charter. It also undermines respect for Canada among the international community of nations.
According to US leaders, Operation Prosperity Guardian (now widely nicknamed “Operation Genocide Guardian”) was intended to deter the Ansar Allah movement of Yemen from maintaining its solidarity naval blockade of the Red Sea, in support of its demand that Israel immediately agree to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. It should be noted that the Yemeni blockade has so far not cost a single human life and was originally intended only to prevent passage of ships re-supplying Israel’s targeting of civilians in Gaza.
Importantly, despite days of repeated of US/UK bombings, Operation Prosperity Guardian only increased Ansar Allah’s resolve to continue its blockade and to begin attacks on US and UK warships until a permanent ceasefire in Gaza is reached. The whole Operation has therefore been a wasteful, costly, and destructive failure that is, in fact, widening the war in West Asia. In joining the US-led “coalition-of-the-willing” in the Red Sea, Canada has not only further isolated itself from the vast majority of states in the international community, but has also put our country on the path of being dragged by the US and UK into yet another war of the US empire.
Ceasefire in Gaza Now! According to recent opinion polls, a large majority of Canadians strongly support the demand for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Our Network likewise strongly supports this demand. We note that Israel’s ongoing slaughter of civilians in Gaza can continue only with endless supplies of US military aid and funding. Clearly, the US is the main enabler of the violence. If the US were to cut off the military aid and funding, Israel would be swiftly compelled to agree to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to commence negotiations on a prisoner exchange with Hamas as well as on a postwar settlement of the long-standing Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in its recent ruling, indicated its de facto recognition that a genocide is taking place in Gaza by attaching a number of demands upon the State of Israel. We argue that the Trudeau government should follow the example of over 70 UN member states and support South Africa’s application. Instead, in seconding Canadian military personnel to Operation Prosperity Guardian, while simultaneously withdrawing funding from UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency), Trudeau’s government has transitioned from enabling the State of Israel to continue its horrendous massacre of the helpless civilians of Gaza to implicating Canada directly in the genocide. We will ensure Canadians remember this fact when they go to the polls in the next federal election.
PM Trudeau acknowledged that his government had authorized – without consulting Parliament (nor apparently his NDP partners in the Confidence and Supply Agreement) – the participation of about 25 Canadian military officers in logistical and planning roles in the growing series of US and UK waves of military strikes on Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, which had resulted so far in several deaths and extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure. Trudeau’s duplicity was clearly motivated by fear of dissent both in Parliament and in Canadian civil society. In fact, several of our member organizations staged loud protests immediately following Trudeau’s announcement. As Canadians, we object to the prime minister’s high-handed actions taking Canada to war without a robust public and parliamentary debate.
Our Network was deeply involved in the opposition to the Harper and Trudeau governments’ authorizations of billions of dollars in Canadian arms sales to Saudi Arabia during the US/UK/Saudi war on Yemen from 2015-23. During that conflict, about 150,000 Yemenis were killed, six million were internally and externally displaced, and another 225,000 (mostly children) died from starvation and disease. The UNHCR declared Yemen the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis”, until the recent Israeli onslaught on Gaza. Opinion polls taken in 2016, 2017, and 2018 showed that Canadians increasingly opposed the Trudeau government’s arms sales initiatives with each passing year.
The peace groups comprising our Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network have been in the thick of the massive grassroots Ceasefire Now! campaign across Canada over the past four months. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally bent to intense popular pressure when his UN representative voted on December 12, 2023, for a non-binding UN resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire at the UN General Assembly. From our Network’s point of view, that step was welcome, but definitely not enough: the resolution’s fine words changed nothing on the ground and Gazans continue to be killed in large numbers. We demand that the Trudeau government take the following actions:
1) withdraw from the US-led, naval Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea and seek an end to hostilities in West Asia;
2) restore funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA);
3) officially support the application of South Africa to the International Court of Justice to declare Israel’s slaughter of Gazans a genocide;
4) recall the Canadian ambassador to Israel until a permanent ceasefire is declared in Gaza;
5) place an embargo on the two-way trade in arms between Canada and Israel;
6) call for an end to shuttle diplomacy on the part of the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, to frame an unilateral, US-brokered postwar settlement for Israel/Palestine, which would benefit the apartheid State of Israel to the detriment of Palestine. Instead, Trudeau should advocate for the UN-sponsored Quartet to be empowered to facilitate the just, lasting, and comprehensive peace agreement for Israel/Palestine contained in decades of UN resolutions, and resulting in the creation of a Palestinian state. Conversely, an international peace conference, as proposed by the Peoples’ Republic of China, would also serve to try to reach a multilaterally-satisfactory peace in West Asia;
7) ensure a process that creates peace, security, and human rights for all. To this end, decisions must not be left solely in the hands of governments. Civil society and grassroots peacemakers must be empowered to be full participants in any peace agreement. Most importantly, as required by UN Security Council Resolution 1325, women peacemakers must be included and empowered in any peace negotiations;
8) end the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund in Canada (JNF), and other pro-Israeli organizations in Canada, who send approximately $250 million in tax-free donations from Canada to Israel annually to support the Israeli Defence Forces, the establishment of Jewish-only settlements in the Occupied Territories, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians;
9) curtail recruitment for the Israeli Defence Forces in Canada;
10) suspend the Canada-Israel free trade and security agreements;
11) re-establish diplomatic relations with the Syrian and Iranian governments;
12) lift Canada’s unilateral (and, therefore, illegal) economic sanctions against Syria, Lebanon, and Iran;
13) develop an independent, non-NATO, non-aligned, foreign policy that seeks to establish friendly relations with all the countries of the world and thereby cooperate on responding to the existential environmental crisis facing all of humanity;
14) work urgently for a permanent end to hostilities in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen before these conflicts escalate into a wider regional war that would set all of West Asia, and perhaps the whole world, on fire.
]]>by Althea Arevalo, Kristine Bolisay, Anton Ador, Erik Vladimirov, Karen Torres, Emery Roy
The mere possession of nukes is a gamble with fate. The risk of accidents and miscalculations triggering an unintended nuclear war hangs over us like a sword of Damocles. The fear and instability they create are a heavy price to pay for a dubious sense of security.
—
The doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) is the thin line between us and an atomic disaster. MAD is a twisted and dangerous game of chicken that held the world at gunpoint during the Cold War. The principle is simple, yet horrifying: if two countries have enough nuclear weapons to wipe each other off the face of the earth, striking the enemy first is suicide, because the opposing country could counter with an equally powerful strike. How did we come to this brink of madness? MAD’s evolution reveals a deadly history of one-upmanship, where political leaders and defence officials tried to gain or maintain an edge over their rivals by using different strategies and technologies.
The Kennedy administration faced a new reality of nuclear terror, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. As the Soviet Union placed nuclear missiles in Cuba, the U.S. built a nuclear triad – a mix of bombers, land-based missiles, and submarines – to ensure they could strike back, even if they were hit first. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev defused the crisis peacefully, but it led to a change in U.S. nuclear doctrine by US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara, who proposed a counter value strategy that would target cities, not military bases. He claimed that the threat of assured destruction would deter any attack. This implied that they required only a minimum number of nuclear weapons to keep this balance. However, McNamara’s doctrine was challenged by military analyst Donald Brennan, who coined the term MAD to mock what he saw as an unstable and unrealistic strategy. He pushed for an anti-ballistic missile defence system to shield the U.S. from Soviet missiles.
The US-backed invasion of Cuba in 1961 was a disaster. A group of 1,400 exiled Cubans tried to overthrow Castro, but they were quickly defeated and captured. The US denied any involvement, but the truth soon came out. They trained and armed the invaders and even approved the plan. Historian Theodore Draper called it “a perfect failure,” as a small country humiliated the US, resisting one of the strongest militaries in history.
The US wanted to topple a legitimate government that did not suit its interests. The US did the same thing in many other countries, such as Ukraine, Korea, and Libya. But when Russia does the same thing, the west calls it aggression. This shows the west’s hypocrisy and arrogance.
The invasion had terrible consequences. It led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which almost started a nuclear war. The US tried to destabilize Cuba with covert operations, such as Operation Mongoose and Operation Northwoods. These involved sabotage, assassination, and even false flag attacks on US soil. JFK rejected these plans, but their actions showed how far the US would go to achieve its goals.
Cuba became more closely to the Soviet Union after the invasion. The Soviet Union placed atomic weapons in Cuba as a deterrent. This sparked a crisis that threatened to destroy the world.
The invasion was a failed and foolish attempt by the US to impose its will on another country. It backfired and almost caused a nuclear catastrophe. It shows how dangerous and reckless the US’s foreign policy can be, and how they need to be held accountable for its actions. Nuclear weapons are a horrifying manifestation of our power and our madness. They can wipe out everything in an instant, leaving only ashes and radiation behind. They can also cause long-term damage to the environment and humanity. Nuclear weapons are a constant threat that hangs over our world.
No nuclear-armed countries have faced an invasion by a foreign power. There are two examples of countries that were attacked after disarmament; Libya and Ukraine.
In Ukraine’s case, they held the third-largest nuclear stockpile after seceding from the Soviet Union. However, in the 1990s, they transferred their weapons to the Russian Federation, making them a non-nuclear state.
In late 1994, the US, the UK, and Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum. All aforementioned countries promised to recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty. Russia broke this promise in February 2022 when it invaded Ukraine’s eastern territories.
Ukraine’s decision to disarm came because of said nuclear powers prodding them to ensure their security through an agreement, rather than the more economically and politically costly method of maintaining their nuclear weapons program. Was this decision an ill-advised one? Did disarmament lead to the situation now with Russia’s invasion and NATO shipping more arms to Ukraine; instead of helping them deal with the situation?
Former Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev heads a Security Council panel which coordinates arms production. He scoffed at Western claims Russia is running out of weapons and says that Russian arms industries have increased production.
Medvedev said Ukraine may force Russia to use a nuclear weapon if their counteroffensive succeeds, and Russia’s defeat in the war could lead to a nuclear conflict. He said:
“The defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war can lead to the outbreak of a nuclear war… Nuclear powers do not lose the major conflicts on which their destiny depends.”
With Libya, former dictator Muammar Gaddafi began the process of disarmament in December 2003 to release American-imposed sanctions, and to improve Libya’s relations with the West.
In response, then-US President Bush said Libya should be an example for other countries, and that others should take away the message that: “leaders who abandon the pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and the means to deliver them, will find an open path to better relations with the United States and other free nations.”
In 2011, NATO assisted Libyan rebels in overthrowing the Gaddafi government.
Before their interference, Libya had some of the highest living standards in Africa. The UN’s Development Program rated them as a “high-development nation” in 2010. Under Gaddafi’s governance, Libya rose from being among one of Africa’s poorest nations in 1969 to being at the top of the continent’s Human Development Index in 2011.
The beginning of Gaddafi’s government signaled a paradigm change, leading Libya to use its newfound oil revenue to boost redistributive measures among the population. Additionally, he improved Libya’s relations with neighbouring countries and worked to upkeep ties with other nations such as France and Russia.
Now, Libya remains “trapped in a spiral of violence” caused in part by NATO’s bombing. They made Libya into an example for other nuclear-armed countries that oppose the West, clearly sending the unintended message to not disarm.
Many believe had Libya maintained their nuclear program, their current situation possibly wouldn’t have occurred. The country is in a constant state of political turmoil. With the constant threat of armed conflict, many human rights violations, and a dysfunctional judicial system, present day Libya is a far cry from the highly developed nation under Gaddafi’s government.
North Korea’s history with nuclear weapons began in the 1980s and 1990s. The end of the Cold War led the North Korea regime to worry that its protective superpowers might abandon Pyongyang. And so increasingly, they saw nuclear weapons as a way to ensure security. North Korea was part of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty in 1985. Violating this treaty, they developed a military nuclear program and subsequently announced its intention to withdraw from the NPT. Assuring that they had no intention of developing that type of weaponry, despite the sanctions that weighed on the Asian nation, Pyongyang carried out six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017.
Kim responded by saying his country must prepare for both “dialogue and confrontation.”
North Korea has kept its hermetic political system intact for decades despite tensions with the international community. North Korea officials have even cited the example of Libya in discussing their own weapons. In 2011, as bombs rained down on Gaddafi’s government, a North Korea foreign ministry official said, “The Libyan crisis is teaching the international community a grave lesson.” That official went on to refer to giving up weapons in signed agreements as “an invasion tactic to disarm the country.”
The west has condemned North Korea’s continuation of its weapons of mass destruction programs, since they’ve shown they possess missiles with enough range to target Europe. The European Union also approved an autonomous sanctions regime that provides for additional measures.
The full and effective implementation of these sanctions is a priority for the west in the absence of concrete progress toward complete denuclearization. They provide a total embargo on trade of weapons with North Korea, a ban on importing certain products from North Korea (coal, iron, minerals, etc.), and exporting other products to the country (luxury items, etc.).
Large nuclear superpowers like NATO and Russia invaded less-powerful countries once their weapons weren’t a threat to the invading forces, but what has followed has reduced Ukraine and Libya to states of chaos and political turmoil, torn apart by war and foreign intervention. Such wars only heighten the risk of nuclear weapons being used. North Korea holds nuclear power over the world, but with MAD barely keeping Earth from going to ruin, it forces us to live life knowing at any moment, nuclear destruction could be upon us.
There would be no danger of nuclear Armageddon if nuclear weapons didn’t exist, but history suggests that possessing nuclear weapons deters attacks from hostile countries. Is the thought of nuclear disarmament realistic? Or will examples like Libya and Ukraine prevent countries from disarming their stockpiles? Can humanity trust each other enough to eliminate the risk of destruction from these horrible weapons or is Mutually Assured Destruction really the only realistic option?
]]>
Six years ago, on 14 January 2018, Hassan Diab returned to Canada. He had spent thirty- eight months in the French maximum security prison of Fleury-Mérogis just outside Paris. For most of that time, Dr. Diab was held in solitary confinement for up to twenty-two hours a day. He was never formally charged nor tried in court.
On Friday, 12 January 2018, Jean-Marc Herbaut and Richard Foltzer, the two senior anti- terrorist investigation judges responsible for Dr. Diab’s case, signed their 72-page ‘Order of Dismissal’ decision (Ordonnance de non-lieu). They had determined that there was no evidence to justify bringing Dr. Diab to trial and ordered his immediate, unconditional release. This concluded thirty-eight years of investigation into the 1980 rue Copernic bombing.
Dr. Diab’s French lawyers, William Bourdon, Apolline Cagnat, and Amélie Lefebvre, stated that “this decision is exceptional […] in French judicial history. It is based on clear evidence that there is no possibility of attributing to Hassan Diab any responsibility in the attack.”
With the active support of Global Affairs Canada (Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland) and Canadian Embassy officials in Paris, Dr. Diab was able to fly back to Ottawa on 14 January 2018. He was welcomed at the airport in the early hours of the morning by his wife and children, together with many of his local supporters.
The sense of relief and the hope that justice was finally being done, were to be short-lived. The French Prosecutor appealed against Dr. Diab’s release. Pressure from victims’ advocacy groups, aligned with ultra-conservative political opinion, and the compulsion to identify the individual(s) responsible for the 1980 explosion, all combined in the scapegoating of Dr. Diab. The French Court of Appeal, after multiple delays, rendered its opinion on 27 January 2021, effectively dismissing the Ordonnance de non-lieu and ordering that Dr. Diab stand trial.
Dr. Diab’s Canadian lawyer, Donald Bayne, carried out a detailed analysis of the Court of Appeal decision: (https://www.justiceforhassandiab.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/DIAB-Memo-France-COA-2021-05-05.pdf). Donald Bayne concludes: “The serious multiple errors of fact, reliance on evidence so unreliable it should be disregarded, misstatement of its own mandated handwriting report, resort to sheer speculation in an effort to explain away “essential elements” of exculpatory fingerprint and consistent alibi evidence, willful ignorance of the actual evidence and imposition on Hassan Diab of an impossible onus to prove absolute innocence “indisputably” demonstrate that the decision of the French Court of Appeal to set aside the Investigation Judges’ Order of Dismissal and order that Hassan Diab be put on trial in France is an unjust decision and one that perpetuates over a decade-long miscarriage of justice.”
Dr. Diab was tried in absentia in April 2023. Although the Investigation Judges (Jean-Marc Herbaut and Richard Foltzer) testified that there was no valid basis for a conviction, the Special Assize Court in Paris sentenced Dr. Diab to life imprisonment and ordered his arrest. “The unjust French conviction was based on secret, unsourced, uncircumstanced and unreliable ‘intelligence’ – inadmissible in our system of justice. Canada should not be party to this injustice.” (Donald Bayne)
Dr. Diab and his family live a stressful life in limbo, not knowing when or if a further unjust process might be commenced against him. Prime Minister Trudeau must honour his words in June 2018, when he acknowledged that “this is something that obviously was an extremely difficult situation to go through for himself, for his family” and promised to “make sure that this never happens again”.
Read the full media notice (in English and French):
——————————————–
How You Can Help
1) Please sign this new petition from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association:
https://takeaction.ccla.org/justice-for-hassan-diab
2) Send a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging him to give immediate assurances that Canada will not accept nor accede to a second extradition request and reform Canada’s extradition law.
Letter in English: https://iclmg.ca/diab-letter
Lettre en français: https://iclmg.ca/fr/lettre-diab
(It’s okay to send the letter again even if you’ve done so before).
Thank you for your continued support!
]]>by Candice Bodnaruk
I recently started attending Labour 4 Palestine meetings at the Union Centre in Winnipeg.
Labour for Palestine (L4P) is a part of a growing international solidarity movement guided by the just demands of Palestinian labour, civil society and political organizations.
Essentially, L4P is intended to be a place for doing work in labour and within the community. The organization consists of both unionized and non-unionized workers.
L4P is made up of a network for labour activists from across Canada and has chapters in cities across the country. Labour 4 Palestine stands in solidarity with Palestinian workers and people. Moreover, the organization understands the essential role unions can play in support Justice for Palestinians, as they did in the struggle for justice in South Africa. L4P also recognizes the important role unions have played in supporting Justice for Palestine.
The organization’s goals include to raise awareness with the labour movement about the plight of the Palestinian people and workers as well as to support Palestinian labour unions and workers. The Labour for Palestine movement also strives to expose Canada’s complicity with Israel’s violations of international law and to educate union members about the history of the Palestinian liberation struggle.
Labour for Palestine also supports BDS and members are encouraged to work together on a variety of campaigns to advocate for Palestine Solidarity. Other work the organization is doing includes networking with labour unions, outreach and education, for example, on talking to employers in workplaces about allowing workers to advocate for Palestine. L4P recently ran a webinar on about how workers can address push back to Palestinian solidarity activism in their workplaces.
In Winnipeg L4P is working on a number of major issues, including Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), lobbying government around Palestine, and encouraging all Canadian unions to support Palestinian Solidarity. The group also strives to educate union members about the history of the Palestinian Liberation struggle.
Contact Labour for Palestine Winnipeg by email at labourforpalestinewinnipeg@gmail.com.
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