Category: CPA Statements

Open letters and statements to the public from the Canada Palestine Association.

Demand to know where politicians stand – for justice or for genocide!

UPDATE #2: Those Complicit in Genocide will be held Accountable!

UPDATE #1: #IVotePalestine #IVoteAgainstGenocide

Our #IVotePalestine questionnaire* started in 2019 and continues this year, as an independent campaign committed to presenting the difficult issues that reflect the struggles and challenges of the Palestinian people. We do not believe that any single election in Canada will substantially change policy on Palestine, but we do see the educational value in bringing these issues to the public and highlighting the overwhelming Canadian complicity in genocide. Yes, go to candidates in your riding and raise these crucial points, but also stay focused on organizing in our communities, on grassroots activism and on stepping up direct action campaigns going forward.
#IVotePalestine #IVoteAgainstGenocide
*(Distinct from VotePalestine, started in 2021)
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The questionnaire  

The past eighteen months have witnessed a horrific escalation of Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people that started in 1948. It has been estimated that, within the first seven months alone, 7-9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip had perished. 
This current genocide has been documented by multiple UN agencies, the International Criminal Court and Human Rights Council, as well as human rights organization including Amnesty International, Human Right Watch and Doctors without Borders. 

  1. The Canadian government denies that Israel is an Apartheid state and further refuses to recognize that it is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. 

Q- Would your party recognize Israel as an apartheid state that is committing war crimes and genocide against the Palestinian people? And would you call for severing relations with Israel on all levels including diplomatically, economically, politically and militarily? 

  1. The Canadian government has been directly complicit in Israeli genocide, sending arms and special forces to support the Israeli genocide. The Genocide convention criminalizes “complicity, attempt, or incitement of its commission.” 

Q- Do you support laying charges in Canadian and international courts against all those who are complicit in the Israeli genocide including former Prime Minister Trudeau and his cabinet, Canadians who joined the IDF and participated in the genocide and Zionists who were advocating for and supporting this genocide? Also, would you support arresting Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant if they enter Canada and hand them over to the International Criminal Court (ICC)?     

  1. In a UN resolution cosponsored by Canada in 1949, Israel was admitted to the UN on the conditions that Israel implement resolutions of 29 November 1947 (the Partition Plan), of 11 December 1948 (the Palestinian right of return), and that Israel “accepts the obligations contained in the Charter”. 
    Israel has never implemented the above two resolutions, and committing genocide is definitely not one of Israel’s obligations under the UN Charter. 

    Q- For violating the terms of its admittance to the UN, would you call and support the expulsion of Israel from the UN?
  1. During 2002/2003, the Canadian Liberal government of the day added Hezbollah as well as the vast majority of the Palestinian resistance organizations to the “Terrorist List”. Six months ago, the Palestinian advocacy network Samidoun was added to this list after intense pressure for years by Zionist organizations. Any concrete charges against Samidoun were trumped-up; however, according to the official listing, we should note that Samidoun was also accused of holding the political belief that “Israel and Zionism are the greatest danger to the Middle East and the world.” 

    Q- Would you recognize the Palestinian resistance organizations as a national liberation movement struggling against settler colonialism and occupation? Would you support scrapping the terror list due to its deep flaws? Would you condemn the listing of Samidoun as a politically motivated act, aimed at targeting all advocates of Palestinian human and national rights? 
  1. On March 8, 2025, former PM Justin Trudeau proudly announced “I am a Zionist”. With this, he promoted anti Palestinian racism and promoted anti-semitism by equating the fascist Zionist genocidal practices with the Jewish people. This racist ideology promotes hatred against the Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Jewish people and all of humanity.

    Q- Would you recognize Zionism as a supremacist settler colonialist movement, that can only survive with the support of western imperialist powers as proven by recent developments?  

The Delusionary Appeal of Electoral Politics

 Once again, a federal election is looming. And again, the same cycle will be repeated of many activists busying themselves with the allure of impacting politicians. We will be told that we must engage in this important work, even donate money for it, as it will be critical to advancing the cause of Palestine. But is it? And does all this “busy work” actually result in any substantial change? 

Not that there isn’t an educational value in such campaigns but only if they advance clear and principled demands, not peddle merely what seems “popular” or “achievable”. Politicians must be shamed and exposed for their complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, and there is a long history of such complicity amongst Canadian politicians from all the major parties. 

Some may give lip service to certain nice-sounding phrases, especially during election time, but are they to be trusted to follow through if elected? The record would indicate otherwise. 

The appeal of course is that for a short time, especially in the current horrific landscape, you feel that you are “doing something”. But is this “something” distracting from other more long-term organizing that might not be as flashy or immediate, but more productive? Not just that, but do we send the wrong message that meeting these limited demands will lead to the liberation of Palestine? 

Firstly, only the resistance of the Palestinian people will guarantee the liberation of Palestine. We have an important role to play in diaspora, but we are not the leading nor the deciding factor. To pretend otherwise is disingenuous and misleading. 

Secondly, we must not allow ourselves to avoid the hard questions during election cycles. For example, the NDP proudly says they would call for a ban on Israeli settlement products. But would they? When given a chance to do something as the government in BC, did they make any moves to ban Israeli Wines? No! Even though the same BCNDP government showed it was ready to act on its own to ban both Russian and US red state liquor products, ahead of federal directives. We can’t allow politicians to spout certain positions without challenging them on what they’ve actually done, or not done. 

Let’s be realistic about our politicians and not waste time on calling for hollow, performative gestures that mean nothing even if they were attainable. Enough of emphasizing the defunct and bankrupt “two-state” solution, and calling for recognition of “the (non-existent) Palestinian state” under the no-authority “Palestinian Authority”. 

Let us imagine a future of liberation, free from Zionist and colonial restrictions. Anything less is a betrayal of the Palestinian people and their huge sacrifice! 

Engaging in electoral politics must not mean advocating for watered-down compromised demands. Make our demands count…for Palestine, for return, for liberation. 
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! 

Support our legal defense fund!

Protecting our Rights, Defending our Voices

Over the last year, the Canada Palestine Association has been supporting activists targeted by institutional and police repression across BC. We have seen multiple cases of intimidation and harassment, especially by the Vancouver Police. CPA has already donated over $10,000 from funds previously collected to help people gain legal representation and fight back.

Stand up for our rights, defend our voices and donate today.
Please donate by e-transfer to cpavancouver@gmail.com
(Note: donations are not tax-deductible.)

We know that all systems of oppression are inherently linked.  The fight for Palestinian liberation is closely tied to imperialism and the role our government plays in the ongoing oppression, ethnic cleansing and displacement of the Palestinian people.  As the Palestinian movement advocates within our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we are seeing our civil liberties tested by our own government.  All levels of government are attempting to silence the movement with frivolous charges to deter our voices. We are seeking to combat these charges with a legal fund designed to defend our voices of expression and civil liberties, now and into the future.

Hanna Kawas, CPA Chair: 
“Due to the generosity of members and long-time supporters, CPA hasn’t needed to make a public appeal for operating funds. However, this is a special circumstance; we are facing the combined ferocity of the Zionist/Israel lobby and the US-led empire as they attempt to erase Palestinian identity and voices. We need your support now to ensure that we continue the fight until return and liberation!”

CBC is complicit in genocide!

CBC’s outgoing ombudsman, Jack Nagler, recently released a review entitled “A Divisive Phrase”. This review came about due to complaints over CBC’s repeated use of the term “Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.”   

His conclusion was similar to what we have seen before from his office. Yes, useage of the phrase in the incident cited was probably unnecessary but it “in no way violates CBC’s journalistic standards.” (More on those “standards” later) 

This was the same approach Nagler used with our complaint back in 2021, when we challenged the on-air apology about the use of “Palestine” during an interview. This was when CBC’s infamous language guide received international exposure for its pro-Israel bias, a guide that states: So do not refer to Palestine or show a map with Palestine as a country. Use the term “pro-Palestinian” instead of “pro-Palestine” when referring in generic ways to Palestinian supporters. 

This new review covers a complaint that is now almost one year old, going back to Jan. 11, 2024. As such, it gives us a unique opportunity to see how CBC’s framing of the health situation in Gaza helped lay the groundwork for Israel’s horrific destruction of Gaza’s entire medical infrastructure and the arrest and torture of doctors and other medical staff. 

The repetition of such terminology has consequences and as the original complainants noted: “the addition of the “Hamas-led” qualifier is inherently pejorative in intent. It is also preposterous for reasons we have stated, showing direct bias against the integrity of the Gazan health authority. The “Hamas-run health ministry” is synonymous with ‘terrorist health ministry’.” 

This imaging, this dehumanization of all Palestinians in Gaza as terrorists (even kids) is the foundation for what we have seen recently and are still witnessing at hospitals across Gaza…Kamal Adwan hospital, Indonesian hospital, AlAhli hospital and the list goes on. The cornerstone was laid for Western public opinion to accept these atrocities, although the response in recent days to the arrests and disappearance of Kamal Adwan’s staff and director has defied this racist narrative. 

The CBC ombudsman concludes his rambling review with the following: 

The point for consideration, then, is volume and frequency. I note that the phrase “Hamas-run” is used much less often in CBC’s reporting these days. I would encourage programmers to use it as sparingly as possible, and only when relevant to the story at hand.   

But no, this is too little, too late. The damage has been done and the outcome is there for all to see. Gaza’s health care system will take generations to recover and that was really the Israeli objective from the beginning. An objective that CBC obligingly aided and is now still defending. 

Which brings us back to CBC and its touted “journalistic standards”. 

Don’t tell us your seasoned journalists and editors don’t understand the power of language and the role of media in perpetuating a specific narrative. Don’t expect us to believe that you don’t comprehend how the words you use will help facilitate a certain outcome…outcome of genocide, an outcome of the obliteration of Palestinian society in Gaza. 

Your senior executives can repeat endlessly that they “reject the idea that CBC News is somehow…’cheerleading a Genocide’.” We know that CBC is complicit in genocide, and history has now proven that this is true beyond any doubt. These are your only journalistic standards, whether by intent or cowardice.