Canadian BDS Coalition and International Allies Statement
On Tuesday, October 15, 2024, the Canadian government placed the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network on Canada’s terrorist entities list. As stated clearly by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG):
“While ostensibly a tool to protect the safety and security of people in Canada and internationally, the terrorist entities list is an arbitrary political tool that undermines freedom of association, freedom of expression and due process in the courts. Its effectiveness as a national security tool has never been demonstrated in a manner that justifies its use. . . Placing an organization on the list is a secret, discretionary process through which the government can consider any information – including untested intelligence. The listing allows the government to circumvent criminal charges or trial, placing the burden on the listed entity to challenge the supporting information, much of which is kept secret for “security reasons.” Nor is there a coherent process in place to challenge such a listing. The result is an effective violation of due process and the presumption of innocence.”
In effect, the government of Canada has breached Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms added to the amended Constitution of Canada in 1982. The terrorist list is a process by which the Canadian government – in lock-step with dictatorial regimes – essentially abolishes the principle of habeas corpus, a right protected under Section 10 © of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. By virtue of the terrorist listing, an organization or even an individual’s assets can be frozen; any use of property owned or controlled by the listed organization becomes a crime. Moreover, there is the ‘black-balling’ of the organization, and anyone accused of being associated with it can be accused of being a “terrorist,” regardless of their personal actions, without ever laying criminal charges or proving guilt in court. In this respect, the Canadian government mirrors how Big Brother’s regime abolishes individual freedoms in Orwell’s novel, 1984. According to the ICLMG statement, as noted above, “In the 24 hours since this announcement, there have already been calls on social media to label any individual attending an event, or associating with individuals linked to Samidoun, as terrorists or terrorism supporters.” The Canadian BDS Coalition and International Allies agree with the statement issued by the Canada Palestine Association regarding the listing of Samidoun:
“For over a year, the Canadian government has not taken any serious actions against the Israeli TERRORISM, war crimes and genocide being carried out against the Palestinian and Lebanese people. But instead of criminalizing those forces who are actually burning people alive in Gaza, this government chose to put yet another Palestinian group on its “terrorist list”. And this time, they are setting a dangerous precedent by banning an independent Palestinian political advocacy group with no organizational affiliations to any Palestinian resistance groups. In 2002, the Liberal government of the day listed several Islamic Liberation Organizations on Canada’s so-called “Terrorist list” and then in 2003, they also added most Palestinian resistance groups to the same list. The Israeli government and its array of lobby groups have clearly been behind these listings; their main objective is to suppress any solidarity work for Palestinian liberation and suppress criticism of the Zionist settler colonialist project (Israel).”
The Vancouver police arrested Samidoun coordinator, Charlotte Kates, a resident of Vancouver. In April 2023, the VPD opened a criminal investigation into Kates claiming she made hateful comments at an art gallery protest, calling the attack by Hamas on Israel “heroic and brave” and leading demonstrators in a chant “Long live Oct. 7.” Presumably, she would not have been arrested if she had shouted, ‘Support Israel’s killing of Palestinian children’ and ‘Israel has a right to defend itself.” There are those in Canada who have said as much publicly and none have been arrested. The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) sent a letter to the Vancouver police expressing its concern for what is an assault against Charlotte Kates’ protection as a citizen under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The BCCLA concludes:
The concerns the letter highlights include:
1. The lack of judicial oversight for the pre-trial conditions, which restricts Ms. Kates’ Charter rights for at least five months
2. The conflation of political speech and hate speech, weaponizing the Code to silence particular political speech, namely statements in support of the Palestinian liberation movement.
3. The misuse of hate speech provisions and the chilling effect of suppressing expression
*(It should be noted that while no formal charges have been laid against Charlotte Kates, the Vancouver police broke into Ms. Kates’ home in an appallingly violent manner, whereas a simple knock on the door would have sufficed to allow them to enter the residence peacefully. This violent intrusion into Ms. Kates home has been denounced by the Canada Palestine Association of Vancouver in an open letter to Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and Vancouver Chief of Police Adam Palmer.)
There have also been accusations made by Zionist groups of pro-Palestinian activists comparing the Israeli genocide taking place in Gaza to a form of Nazism. Some notable Jewish intellectuals have drawn a parallel between Zionism and Nazism, among them Albert Einstein, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Israeli historian Zeev Sternhell (who calls Israeli socialism, ‘social nationalism’ or ‘socialism in the service of the nation’) (3) Moreover, a direct parallel can be drawn between the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto (where the Jewish resistance brought in food and whatever weapons they could muster by way of the tunnels they had dug) and the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Ghetto. In a letter signed by Einstein, Hannah Arendt and other notable Jews in 1948 in The New York Times, protesting the arrival in the U.S. of Menachem Begin, the terrorist, following the Begin-led massacre of 200 Palestinians in the village of Deir Yassin, Begin and his Freedom Party ( precursor to Likud) were denounced as being “ closely akin in its organization, method, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.”(1) In a 1952 interview with the Egyptian journalist Muhammad Heikel, in reference to the assassination of the first UN peace mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte by Begin and the terrorist Stern Gang, Einstein stated: “These people are Nazis in their thoughts and deeds.” (2) The late Israeli intellectual and academic, Yeshayahu Leibowitz warned, subsequent to the 1967 Israeli invasion of the Palestinian West Bank, that the illegal occupation would result in the glorification of the State, the effacement of Judaic moral precepts and humanism, and finally to the cult of ‘Judeo-Nazism.’ If Einstein and Leibowitz were living in Canada today, they might very well find themselves on Canada’s terrorist list. Let us remember that while Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa in 1994 after the ANC dismantled South Africa’s apartheid regime, Mandela remained on the U.S. terrorist list until 2008! Clearly, the addition of Samidoun to Canada’s terrorist list amounts to the policy of criminalizing pro-Palestinian activity in Canada and intimidating those individuals who would otherwise openly and publicly support the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people to throw off the colonial yoke of Israel’s apartheid regime from their shoulders. Moreover, this is latently fascist legislation which proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that the present government of Canada works in cahoots with the pro-Israel lobby to whitewash the ongoing genocide taking place in Gaza, as well as the Jewish zealot settler and Israeli army-led pogroms happening in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and the indiscriminate bombing of Lebanese villages. There is a non-verbalized but clear message that the Trudeau government is sending: the lives of Arabs are less important than the lives of Jewish Israelis. The terrorist list equates to an anti-Palestinian racism. The anti-Palestinian racism is tantamount to an anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism (While the majority of Palestinians are Muslims, some Palestinians are Christians. Israel has destroyed both mosques and churches in Gaza.) A government which adopts such fascist legislation does not deserve to govern. Those politicians responsible for such legislation are unworthy of the office which they hold. This is the case of Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs who brought forth the legislation targeting Samidoun specifically and pro-Palestinian activists in general. It is necessary for the Canadian electorate – in particular, the Canadian Arab (Muslim and Christian) and Canadian Muslim communities – to unseat in the next federal election those politicians who promote racist anti-Palestinian (Arab/Muslim) propaganda and legislation. To paraphrase Charles-Forbes (Count of Montalambert): “If you don’t take care of politics, politics will take care of you.” Our message to the Canadian population is this: “Take care of politics! Make your voices heard!”
- The Canadian BDS Coalition and International Allies demand the immediate resignation of Minister Dominic Leblanc;
- demand that Canada’s terrorist entities list legislation be repealed
Notes:
- Fred Jerome. Einstein on Israel and Zionism. New Enriched Edition. Montreal: Baraka Books, 2024. (page 193)
- Ibid., page 249.
- Zeev Sternhell. The Founding Myths of Israel. Princeton University Press, 1998.
Outraged by Excessive VPD Raid against pro-Palestine Advocate – Canada Palestine Association
