Yesterday CBC reported on remarks made by Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s Minister of International Development at a Toronto fundraiser, indicating a resumption of UNWRA funding.
Today Minister Hussen’s press conference to provide an update on Canada’s humanitarian assistance (or lack thereof) in Gaza has been cancelled without explanation.
What are they playing at?
People are starving and dying in Gaza.
Even if they weren’t UNWRA’s mandate stretches far beyond Gaza.
I hope anyone who hasn’t will sign & share Petition e-4802 as widely as possible.
As I write this, at 8,563 signatures it needs only 438 signatures to reach 9,000!!! This is so important because the more signatures e-Petition 4802 receives, the more seriously the Government of Canada will take it, so please keep signing and sharing!
Thank you for your support!
Many thanks to everyone who signs and shares, helping to keep this terrible thing in the public eye.
(Special thanks to Lulu for the heads up on this story!)
Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament assembled
Whereas:
• In 1949 the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established to carry out direct relief and works programs for Palestinian refugees.
• UNRWA is the primary provider of humanitarian aid: food, social services, healthcare, schools, refugee camps, and microfinance, sustaining the lives of millions of civilians, more than half of them children, in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, blockaded by Israel since 2007.
• South Africa submitted an Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel) to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
• After considering both Application and oral arguments, the Court concluded genocide was “plausible.”
• In its January 26th Order, the ICJ cited UNRWA statements documenting dire conditions in the Gaza Strip, before introducing its fourth Provisional Measure:
• “The State of Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip;”
• Hours later, Israel leveled allegations against a dozen UNRWA employees, and Canada “paused” Humanitarian funding committed to UNRWA without waiting for an Investigation.
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:
live up to our obligations under the Genocide Convention, to prevent the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip from “deteriorating further before the Court renders its final judgment,” by
reinstating Canada’s UNRWA funding, and
advocating other countries do the same to prevent the collapse of UNRWA when Gaza’s lifeline is needed most.
I’ve asked many people to sign petitions, but never started my own til now.
This is one of many bad things going on in the world today that could easily be stopped with political will. Unfortunately too many politicians in winner-take-all political systems like ours don’t actually represent us. Which is why we have to work so hard trying to get them to listen. And why so many people across Canada feel compelled to protest in the streets.
Genocide is the worst thing people can do to one another.
Israel has issued many orders to the people of Gaza since October 7, 2023. As a result, its attacks have laid most of Gaza to waste. The vast majority of the surviving population has been herded into Rafah, the last remains of a city in the Gaza strip. Today, more than a million people huddle in refugee tents that have no doubt been provided by UNRWA.
The genocide in Gaza is not just plausible, it is ongoing. And because it could be completed at any time, nothing is more important today.
That’s why it is so important to get 500 signatures as quickly as possible.
I am terrified that the end is imminent.
Which is why I am asking you to please sign this petition, and share it with everyone you know.
Q1. What opportunities do you think the Government of Canada should pursue to reduce emissions by 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2030 and position Canada to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, including in any or all of the following economic sectors? Please elaborate on your answers where appropriate, including any specific insights on policy opportunities or initiatives.
Q1 – Buildings
Since buildings are the source of 12% of our GHG emissions, the reasonable first step is to stop building buildings we know need expensive retrofits to get to NetZero.
It’s economical to build to standards we know are necessary.
Since time is of the essence, we need a moratorium on new buildings until we set and adopt a nation-wide net zero emissions building code for 2022, while concurrently developing a model retrofit building code.
Government commitments of $100 million for EV charging stations and grants up to $5000 for home retrofits is a start, but doesn’t go far enough. Especially amid Covid-19 economic challenges, offering homeowners grants to cover a percentage of needed retrofits will help only homeowners with the wherewithal to rennovate. We haven’t the luxury of abandoning homes—and homeowners— who can’t.
Banks could also be obliged to provide low or no-interest loans to retrofit homes.
Q1 – Electricity
Electrify everything and clean up how electricity is produced. Phase out coal but not by switching to natural gas. We need to phase out natural gas too. Nuclear is both too slow to get up and running and too expensive. Do not invest in LNG.
Q1 – Oil and Gas
Eliminate fossil fuel subsidies NOW, as promised in 2015.
Phase-out public financing of the fossil fuel sector, including from Crown corporations.
Q1 – Transportation
We need to electrify transportation With EVs and zero fare public transit. Build intercity transit, implement high performance rail.
Stop subsidizing airlines.
Stop building highways.
Incentivise development of compact, mixed-use communities, and promote work from home and co-share work spaces.
Q1 – Agriculture and Waste
Keep your promise of “Triple funding for cleantech on farms, including for renewable energy, precision agriculture, and energy efficiency.”
We need food security, but we also need to revisit the whole idea of animal agriculture and factory farms.
Stop promising to ban single use plastic and DO IT.
Reduce and eliminate plastic production. Recycling is not enough.
Q1 – Nature Based Climate Solutions
Support conservation of wildlife habitat, nature conservation, wetland restoration, and recreation. Planting seedlings is no replacement for mature trees, especially old growth. Promote bamboo and hemp as alternative quick renewable replacement for paper plastic and wood fibre.
Revenue Neutral Carbon Fee and Dividend is the carbon pricing gold standard but the price has to rise much more rapidly.
Q2. What do you see as the barriers or challenges to reducing emissions in these sectors? Do you have suggestions on how to overcome these barriers?
Lack of political will.
Vote.
Proportional Representation.
Q3. What broader economic, technological, or social challenges and opportunities do you foresee resulting from efforts to reduce emissions in these sectors? For example, opportunities associated with economic diversification across sectors. Do you have suggestions on how to address these challenges and opportunities?
No.
Q4. Looking beyond 2030, what enabling measures, strategies or technological pathways do you think the Government of Canada should put in place now to ensure that Canada is on track to net-zero emissions by 2050?
Stop investing in Fossil Fuels.
Stop investing in military expansion and armaments.
Q5. What broader economic, technological, or social issues to you foresee as a result of the transition to a net-zero economy in Canada? Do you have suggestions on how to address these issues?
Our children will have a livable future
Q6. How would you like to be engaged on Canada’s climate plans moving forward? How often should this engagement occur, and what method or format would be preferable?
Every 6 months.
You need to do a better job engaging the public.
This would be okay but not anonymous.
The questions should be posed better.
I must admit I don’t expect this Liberal government to actually listen. They have been talking about climate action — like stopping fossil fuel subsidies— since 2015. They never actually managed it, yet they did manage to buy a pipeline. Clearly I have good reason to be skeptical. Nonetheless it is important to participate in consultations– even if we think they are simply window dressing— if for no other reason than to get our opinion on the record.
Without Proportional Representation, our Representative Democracy isn’t very accountable to us. But maybe they’ll listen.
An NDP advocate org is suggesting Universal Basic Income was somehow first introduced into the Canadian political conversation by the NDP. But that’s not the case at all. The first time I heard any public NDP discussion about UBI was when it was brought forward by NDP leadership candidate Guy Caron. Who didn’t win. At that time UBI was *not* NDP policy. Is it now? 👀
It certainly wasn’t NDP policy during the 2019 federal election. 🌻 Only Green Party of Canada candidates were actively advocating for UBI in 2019.
As they’ve done for years. I always thought the strongest resistance to NDP UBI were Unions worried they would become redundant if workers didn’t need to work.
🌻The GPC version of UBI is called Guaranteed Livable Income or #GLI. The idea is to provide not just a bare basic income, but enough to live reasonably on. (Like CERB.)
The GPC’s GLI wouldn’t just eliminate poverty. Nor would it be only a temporary means to allow the most vulnerable to stay home without during a pandemic. GLI would do much more than fill the economic gap left by ever increasing elimination of jobs by Artificial Intelligence (AI) automation.
GLI will provide the economic means that will free Canadians up so we can experiment while still feeding our families. Some of us will innovate and invent. Others will create music or sculpture or books or paintings or movies or games. Some will volunteer for the causes we find worthy. Many will be able to concentrate on education or take the time we needed to raise children. Those who work for others will be better positioned to achieve equity. Social workers won’t need to police the poor, and will finally be able to practice social work.
The one thing we have learned from the growing number of UBI studies and pilot programs from around the world is that Basic Income won’t turn us into a nation of lazy bums. People will work because we want to work. We need to work — it’s in our DNA.
Basic Income— especially if it’s a GLI— means we won’t have to work for other people, doing mindless soul sucking work better done by machines, for companies whose executives will loot our pension funds before driving the company into bankruptcy on the eve of our retirement.
GLI will free Canadians to follow our dreams.
It’s part of the excellent suite of social programs the Greens campaigned on way back in 2015. Programs like Universal Pharmacare.
The Mincome Basic Income Pilot Program was a joint effort by the federal Liberals under Pierre Trudeau and Ed Schreyer’s Manitoba NDP. Unfortunately both of those governments fell, as often happens under our First Past The Post winner-take-all voting systems, and the pilot project was allowed to finish, but neither of the succeeding federal or provincial Progressive Conservative parties cared to do anything with the data, so much like Indiana Jones’ Lost Ark it was packed off to a warehouse to be forgotten.
And none of the succeeding majority federal Liberal governments (1980, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2015) or Manitoba majority NDP governments (1981, 1986, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011) ever considered even looking at, much less implementing even a modest Basic Income like Mincome.)
In a last ditch effort to appear progressive to stave off losing power, the Ontario Liberals put forward their own #BasicIncome pilot program designed to continue into the next electoral term. However the Ontario Greens pointed out the OLP’s pre-election budget failed to provide funding to continue the pilot, much less implement it.
The other parties often shy away from policies they are afraid they can’t sell, especially if other parties have been associated with them.
Only the Green Party consistently champions basic income policy. Not because it’s politically expedient, but because it is the right thing to do.
As Annamie Paul says, the Green Party is the Party of Daring.
#COVID19 Changes Everything
Arguments against UBI suggested such a policy was too expensive, or that it would transform Canadians into lazy bums who would not work.
Both of those arguments were thoroughly debunked by the #CERB (Canadian Emergency Response Benefit) which provided weekly payments of $500 a week to enable people to stay home during the height of the pandemic. The program demonstrated that political will was the only real barrier to funding thus basic Income program, and it quickly became clear that CERB benefuciaries couldn’t wait to get back to work.
It is true that Mr Singh advocated for the expansion of #CERB, so if could function as a UBI. But his initial caveat was that his recommendation was only for a temporary emergency measure.
So we are happy to see the positive response to CERB has helped the NDP join us in advocacy for a truly Universal Basic Income for all Canadians.
We’re always happy to see other parties adopt Green policies addressing problems that require equitable solutions.
When I began Whoa!Canada I’d been determinedly non-partisan all my life. For various reasons I did end up joining a party —the Green Party of Canada—in middle age. Even so, I’ve worked to keep partisanship out of this blog. But the Green Party Leadership race, like any major party leadership, is important for all of Canada. TVO recognized this from the get go, but even so there has been very…
When I began Whoa!Canada I’d been determinedly non-partisan all my life. For various reasons I did end up joining a party —the Green Party of Canada — in middle age. Even so, I’ve worked to keep partisanship out of this blog. But the Green Party Leadership race, like any major party leadership, is important for all of Canada. TVO recognized this from the get go, but even so there has been very little serious coverage. In the Internet era, we’re no longer entirely at the mercy of MSM gatekeepers, so there’s been plenty to see online. Tonight CBC, Youtube and Facebook will present live election night coverage.
As most of the GPC Leadership campaign has coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, although a few of the Candidates had begun cross Canada tours when the shut downs hit, there has been very little opportunity for Green Party members to actually engage with leadership candidates face to face.
But that hasn’t stopped the Canadian Greens from putting on an excellent engaging leadership campaign. Interim Leader Jo-Ann Robert’s People, Politics and Planet podcast hosted interviews with all the candidates. We began with 10 candidates, and end with 8 going into tonight’s election.
The Green Party of Canada is choosing a new leader. If you’ve been leaning green, join the party by Thursday, September 3rd, and you’ll be able to vote in October’s election.
I am very sad to see Ms May step down as the Green Party of Canada leader; I believe she would make a fabulous Prime Minister, but that was not to be. On the other hand, she’s certainly put the GPC on the map. And, for that matter, Greens. Despite the Defenders of the Status quo who’ve accused her of trying to hog the spotlight. Since becoming involved with the GPC, I can tell you nothing could have been further from the truth. Part of the reason there are 3 Green MLAs in BC, 1 MPP in Ontario, 3 MLAs in New Brunswick, and that the Official Opposition in PEI is due in part to the fact Ms May has always spared some of her prodigious energy working to help build the Green movement across Canada. The problem has not been with Ms May, but with defenders of the Status Quo number the MSM (Mainstream Media), which has generally worked hard to lock Greens out of politics. They know a strong enough Green influence will disrupt the status quo. Because Greens do politics differently. This is a great interview. Well worth a listen.
But one of the two founders of north99wrote an angry Facebook post denying misleading anyone, insisting CBC had made a mistake
“This morning CBC published a misleading and factually incorrect piece about North99. We have already filed an official complaint with the CBC and asked for a correction to be issued. If you’ve read the piece and are wondering what’s true and what’s not, here’s the facts: people sign up to our email list through issue campaigns, surveys, petitions, and our newsletter. We always make it clear up front what issue or campaign people are joining when they sign up.
The CBC claimed we were not being clear with people about this, and that we were signing them up for campaigns they didn’t want to be a part of. Let me be clear: this is 100% untrue. It’s as untrue as saying the sky is green. Their so-called “analysis” of the forms on our website was wrong, and this led them to report a falsehood. That’s unfortunate, and we hope they will correct this embrassing error. Canadians deserve the unvarnished truth from our public broadcaster.
But you know who doesn’t give a damn about the truth? The Conservatives. And they have already seized on the mistakes made by the CBC to attack us and the North99 community. This morning Lisa Raitt — a former Harper Cabinet Minister and the Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party — took to Twitter to attack North99. She made wild allegations about us — the sort of stuff you’d expect from The Rebel, not someone trying to lead the country.
Look, none of this is surprising. Our community is disrupting politics in this country, and we have to expect the forces of the right and the status-quo to come after us with everyone they’ve got. Now that we are growing in size and our community is having an impact, people are going to try to tear us down. Lisa Raitt won’t be the last politician to smear and slander us. They hate what we stand for. But you know what: we aren’t going to back down from a fight.
Here’s my commitment to you: 1) We take your trust seriously, and we take accuracy seriously. We won’t always be perfect, and sometimes — like the CBC! — we’ll make mistakes. But we’ll always correct them and be honest with you. 2) We will never stop fighting for a Canada that works for the many, not just the richest few — even when we’re attacked by powerful politicians like Lisa Raitt. As long as you’re with us, we’ll keep on working.
Perhaps most interesting is how deftly Mr Scollon this message of righteous indignation was transformed into a Conservative attack piece.
While I don’t know the truth of the misleading petition allegation, it is nonetheless clear that the two gentlemen who are behind North99 are indeed Liberals.
But are they operating with the blessing of theLiberal Party of Canada or are they acting alone in support of it. Presumably North 99 is a third party advertiser in this, the new “Pre-Election Period” devised by the latter, else they’ll fall afoul of the LPC’s own new law which lays down rules about third party advertisers and possible collusion with political parties.
“While it shouldn’t be surprising that online partisan front groups stir the pot, what is remarkable is how effective they have been with so little accountability. All of these groups are scooping up massive amounts of data, often directly collecting information through their own cynical petitions on hot issues. These groups show how empty much of the political landscape has become. Digital media strategists are running a shell game that treats ordinary working people as something to be manipulated and toyed with. Forget about all that nonsense about Russians on distorting democracy through social media. We need to look no further than the communication specialists and political parties in this country to see who the true manipulators are.”
Whoever WRONG KIND OF GREEN is, I share their concern about who is driving our politics. Both North99 and Ontario Proud are working to build an us against them political culture that polarizes Canadians, and certainly seems to impose undue influence on our electoral process by demonizing the other side’s politicians.
This is, of course, why we still have the atrocious First Past The Post voting system. Attacking the enemy is a time honoured strategy that often leads to winning elections and becoming the winner who takes all in our majoritan political system.
The Liberals and Conservatives take turns getting elected by convincing their base and any swing voters they can woo that only they will save us from the other.
![[CBC Wordmark]
Politics
Canadian government will resume funding to United Nations relief agency for Palestinians: source
Ottawa paused funding after Israeli government alleged organization staff were connected to Hamas attack
Catherine Cullen · CBC News · Posted: Mar 05, 2024 8:59 PM EST | Last Updated: 11 hours ago
[Image] Minister Hussen
caption: Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen delivers remarks at a fundraiser event, in Toronto. Hussen is expected to make an announcement on Wednesday. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)](https://whoacanada.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/ministerhussen.png)
![[Wordmark: Government of Canada]
EVENT CANCELLED - Minister Hussen to hold press conference to provide an update on Canada’s humanitarian assistance in Gaza
From: Global Affairs Canada
Media advisory
** EVENT CANCELLED **
March 5, 2024 - The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development, will hold a press conference to announce additional humanitarian assistance for Gaza. Minister Hussen will be accompanied by Bob Rae, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York.
Event: Press Conference
Date: Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Time: 9:00 am EST
Location: Mississauga, Ontario
Notes for media:
Media representatives are asked to arrive 15 minutes before the start time of the event.
Media are asked to confirm their attendance by contacting media@international.gc.ca. The exact address will be shared following confirmation.
https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2024/03/minister-hussen-to-hold-press-conference-to-provide-an-update-on-canadas-humanitarian-assistance-in-gaza.html](https://whoacanada.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/event-cancelled.png)
