We’ll be joining thousands of people across Turtle Island (and beyond) to hold the RBC accountable for their role in the climate crisis, colonial violence towards Indigenous people, and an ongoing genocide.
@decolonialsolidarityvancouver has joined together with the Vancouver Palestinian coalition groups for this important solidarity event!
Vancouver marked the original Land Day in 1976!
All out on March 15 for complete divestment! No Genocide Profiteering! Shame on Scotiabank!
We are proud to be part of the global campaign to #ShutElbitDown and hold Israel’s arms industry and its investors accountable for their complicity in war crimes. MARCH 15: SHUT DOWN GENOCIDE PROFITEERING! Shut Down Scotiabank
Let’s keep up the pressure, our grassroots campaign is working. ScotiaBank reduced its Elbit Systems investment in the last quarter, but still stands as the largest foreign investor in this Israeli arms company, profiting off the killing and maiming of Palestinians.
Here is an initial list of Scotiabank branches with actions that you can join on March 15:
Vancouver and BC:
Chinatown – 268 Keefer – 11am
Downtown – Granville & Georgia – 12 Noon
Granville – 12th and Granville – 11:30
Kits – MacDonald & W. Broadway – 2pm
West End – 1669 Davie St – 12 Noon
Commercial Drive – Broadway & Commercial – 11am
Oak & Broadway – 7:30-8:30 am
Burnaby (SFU) – 8972 University High St – 11:00 am
Surrey – Guildford Mall – 3pm
Coquitlam – Coquitlam Centre – 3pm
Port Moody – 2501 St. John’s St – 4pm
North Vancouver – 1357 Lonsdale Ave – 11am
Kamloops – 276 Victoria St – 2pm
Kelowna – 488 Bernard Ave – 12 Noon
Powell River – 7030 Alberni St – 11:30am
Nanaimo – 65 Commercial St – 11am
Victoria – 702 Yates Street, 11am
Courtenay Courthouse – 11:30 am
Prairies:
Regina – 1901 Hamilton St – 12pm
Ontario:
Toronto – 70 Carlton St. – 12 Noon
Toronto – 19 Bloor St W – 9am
Toronto – 992 Bloor St W – 9am
Toronto – 222 Queen St W – 9am
Peterbourough – 111 Hunter St. W – 11am
St. Catharines – 185 St Paul St, #177 – 10:45 am
Maritimes:
Scotiabank – 780 Main St, Moncton – 12 noon
The connections between indigenous people in Turtle Island and the indigenous people of Palestine run deep. Here on unceded territory in “Vancouver”, the unflinching solidarity from indigenous brothers and sisters has been essential in maintaining support for the five-month (and counting) battle against Israeli genocide and settler colonialism.
In January of this year, a Liberation Conference was held that focused on and strengthened these bonds. It was a unique and inspiring event, that brought together inter-generational Palestinian and indigenous speakers and artists to share the experiences that unite them.
Nowhere were the connections between the two struggles more evident than in the recent outrage over the comments and racist history of former BC Cabinet Minister Selina Robinson. Her final Zionist rant about Palestine being “a crappy piece of land” with “nothing on it”…“didn’t produce an economy” struck to the heart of settler colonialism logic. The centuries old traditions and lifestyle of indigenous people constituted “nothing” until settlers came to civilize and develop them. In the case of Palestine, to “make the desert bloom”.
Robinson has now come full circle with the Zionist mantra, by finally leaving even her party caucus with (guess what!) a charge of “anti-Semitism” against her former colleagues.
Ironically, Selina Robinson’s comments even included the feeble Zionist attempt of claiming indigenous roots to Palestine. No-one indigenous to a beloved land, no matter what state of “development” it was in, would ever label their home as “a crappy piece of land”.
Zionists were openly colonialist from the beginning. Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, wrote in his book The Jewish State in 1896: “We should there form a portion of the rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism.”
The Assembly of First Nations, in a resolution in December 2023, has also grasped the obvious. According to media reports: “An emergency resolution advocating for a permanent ceasefire in Israel and Palestine, which recognizes the Palestinians as an Indigenous People under international law, passed unanimously.”
By now, any decent peace-loving individual or organization should have recognized that Zionism is a deeply flawed and vicious settler colonialist enterprise. It is way past time for all those who claim to support Palestine to disassociate from this stain on humanity. As Zionism enters its final death throes and inflicts even greater horrors on Palestinian civilians, we know that their end is within sight.
For years, the chair of Canada Palestine Association has noted that the brutal and arrogant behaviour of the Zionist regime will bring it to a miserable end .. “their end will be ugly”. Based on the inevitable resentment and hatred that Israel, its military forces, and its backers have engendered in the Arab world, compounded a thousand times in the last five months, that sentiment rings truer than ever. This resentment is also evident in many areas of the global South, as multiple leaders in South America, South Africa and beyond have taken clear stands against the naked Israeli aggression.
Yes, the end of Zionism and its cruel brand of fascism will be ugly. It is a sad comment on the inaction of the leaders of the “international community” that this is now the only possible outcome in the region.
(by Marion Kawas, cover photo Michael YC Tseng)
