Earlier this month, in the Canadian House of Commons, a private member’s bill aimed at halting the flow of lethal weapons, munitions and their hi-tech components to Israel, via the US, was defeated.
Although the ‘No More Loopholes Act’ did not mention Israel, or any other state, Israel-USA’s genocidal assault on Gaza was clearly on the mind of the Parliamentarian who tabled it, last September, New Democratic Party member Jenny Kwan.
Bill 233, An Act to Amend the Export and Import Permits Act, also known as the No More Loopholes Act, failed by a vote of 295 to 22. Fifteen members of Mark Carney’s pro-genocide/apartheid Liberal government voted in favour of closing the loophole. Another fifteen abstained. Canadian anti-war activists see that as a victory.
Back in September 2024, US-Israeli genocide well underway in Gaza, and Justin Trudeau still Prime Minister, Trudeau’s Foreign Minister, Melanie Jolie, announced that new arms shipments to Israel would cease to be permitted, regardless of their route. Old export permits would be honored.
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As it turns out (reported by Canada’s independent journal The Maple), bombs, ammunition, and spare parts for the F-35 fighter bomber and other murderous hi-tech systems continued to flow to Israel via its conjoined twin, the US.
In the lead-up to the March 11 vote on the No More Loopholes Act, a handful of Canadian antiwar and human rights organizations lobbied Parliamentarians to close the Israel loophole. Rachel Small is Canada Organizer for one of those groups, World Beyond War.
Listen to our conversation with Rachel Small. Click on the play button above, or go here.
Watch out complete conversation here:
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Are you worried about the direction the world is heading today?
Does the relentless rise of fascism, anti-immigrant hatred, and authoritarian tyranny scare you?
Perhaps it’s the ceaseless enrichment of a handful of already obscenely rich men, peddling climate-destroying AI technologies, or the perfidious silence of corporate media, or the sterilization of public education systems that bum you out the most.
If so, you may wish to resist. Before you get up/stand up, sit down and give Henry Giroux a read. No one captures the contours of fascist culture and aesthetics, the role of critical education in resisting “fascist plague,” and the imperative to resist more sharply and colourfully than Henry Giroux.
Henry Giroux is Professor for Scholarship in the Public Interest, and Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario. Among his latest books: The Violence of Organized Forgetting, Disposable Futures: The Seduction of Violence in the Age of Spectacle, America at War with Itself, and Dangerous Thinking in the Age of the New Authoritarianism (together with Brad Evans).
Listen to our conversation in today’s GPM podcast. Click on the play button above, or go here.
Listen to our complete conversation here:
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