I have a cat, Diego, who charges after a ping pong ball when I roll it down the hallway. He runs but when it stops he loses all interest.

Such is the situation with most journalists who work in the media.  They are chasing after the unnamed politicians, notably MPs, who are “traitors” to Canada according to federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.  This call to reveal the “traitors” is echoed by the extreme right in the person of Neal Sheard, of the Freedom Convoy.  The Convoy just announced it is returning to Ottawa this week with their Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally.  Sheard said, “We have traitors in our government colluding with China and India.” Is this a bedfellow that Singh wants?  

What the media has revealed from reports mostly from CSIS and the RCMP is that those involved in “foreign interference”  are –to put it nicely– “influence peddlers” for another country, or more ominously, they are suspected of influencing Canadian affairs.  What affairs? Well, it seems the baddies want to influence our elections.  So far the only name that’s been bruited about is Han Dong, former Toronto Liberal MP (Don Valley North) who resigned from the caucus and now sits silently, off-side, as an independent.  

At the risk of breaking any bubbles, I checked out Han Dong’s two terms as an MP.  First elected in 2019, Dong was re-elected in 2021.  He was born in China, but like all MPs, he is a Canadian citizen.  Before he was in the House of Commons, he served as a Liberal MPP in the Ontario legislature from 2014-18.  In other words, he is a seasoned politician. 

In the House of Commons, in the 44^th parliament (from 2021) alone, Dong was a member of the following: 

-the Industry and Technology Committee

-the Public Accounts Committee 

And he belonged to the following Parliamentary associations and interparliamentary groups:
-Canada-China Legislative Association

-Canada-Japan Interparliamentary Group

-Canada-United States Interparliamentary Group

-Canada-China Interparliamentary Group

-Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group

-Canada-Italy Interparliamentary Group

-Canada-United Kingdom Interparliamentary Group

Seems to me he didn’t have a lot of spare time – but that might be because I’m slowing down. He was accused of telling a senior Chinese diplomat at the People’s Republic of China’s consulate in Toronto to hold off on releasing “the two Michaels”.  This never happened according to Dong, and according to David Johnston, former special rapporteur on Foreign Interference.  But there was some concern about Dong’s campaign hiring a bus to take students from a college residence in his riding to his nomination meeting. Dong refutes that and the evidence is that the residence (not Dong) hired a bus to send qualified (citizens and permanent residents) supporters to the nomination meeting. Dong agrees his campaign hired two buses to bring seniors who supported him to his nomination meeting; the bus rental expenses were above-board and given to Elections Canada. 

Who are the real foreign influencers?

The jury is still out about who the foreign influencers are, but CSIS claims that it “takes all allegations of foreign interference seriously” and wants anyone to phone their 1 800 number if you see something.  Not just you – their warnings on the website are in Arabic, Farsi, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Punjabi.  So CSIS seems to be concerned about anyone with ties to the Middle East, to Iran, to Russia, to China and of course to Sikhs. Hmmm… . 

CSIS and me

If my experience is anything to go on, I wouldn’t put too much store in CSIS.  In July 2006, Israel was bombing the blazes out of Lebanon – the pretext was that Hizbollah had abducted 2 Israeli soldiers.  So Israel destroyed Beirut’s airport, the highways, blocked seaports, and sent jets in waves of attacks on Lebanon.  More than 1,100 people in Lebanon died and more than one million Lebanese were displaced.  

Being intelligent and getting intelligence are two different concepts…

In July 2006, I stood on the steps outside of the Maritime Centre in downtown Halifax; I handed out a leaflet I wrote on why Canada had to push for a ceasefire. Eventually the UN declared a ceasefire on Aug. 14.    But this was July.  My son, Omri, came with me.  I saw a preppy young guy with his photo ID hanging from his belt, and noted the word CSIS on the tag.  At the time, CSIS had an office in the Maritime Centre.  As he bounded up the stairs to work, I offered him a leaflet.  He waved me aside and kept going.  I yelled after him,  “I think your boss wants you to pick up this leaflet.”  About five minutes later he came out of the building and retraced his steps toward me.  He politely asked me for a leaflet.  I gave it to him.  The incident showed me, being intelligent and getting intelligence are two different concepts – for at least one CSIS employee.  

Most Canadians don’t need to rely on CSIS to tell them which country, other than the US, has the most influence in Canada today – clearly it is Israel.  

Item:  We have at least three MPs – Anthony Housefather, Melissa Lantsman and Marty Morantz who regularly ask parliament to back motions in support of Israel.  There used to be four MPs who did, but Michael Levitt quit as a two-term Liberal MP to become President and CEO of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, one of three major lobby groups in Canada in total support of Israel. 

Item: Many of you have read about the IHRA, the International Holocaust Remembrance Association which all three MPs, and Levitt, support entirely.  The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism (IHRA-WDA) is designed to silence criticism of Israel and of Zionism by equating this criticism with antisemitism.​ 

In mid-March 2024, Canada’s House of Commons passed a motion to push the international community to work toward a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.  Liberal MPs Antony Housefather, Ben Carr and former federal cabinet minister Marco Mendicino were the only three Liberals who voted against the non-binding motion  to condemn Israel.   

Item: Two Liberal and three Tory MPs (including three Jewish MPs) went with 60 Jewish leaders to Israel in Nov. 2023—weeks after Oct 7.   Anthony Housefather, a Liberal MP who is Jewish went on the trip. He said, “I want to make sure that it is clear to Israelis that Canadians support them,”

Melissa Lantsman, a Tory front bench MP who is Jewish, wanted to see Trudeau present a more consistent position that supports Israel’s “right and obligation” to defend itself. 

“Since 2011, Canada has voted ‘no’ to at least 149 UN resolutions– making it Israel’s biggest backer after the US.”

The Breach

Item: Canada’s voting record at the UN has been mixed.  According to The Breach “Since 2011, Canada has voted ‘no’ to at least 149 UN resolutions – making it Israel’s biggest backer after the United States.”

This, in fact, runs counter to Canadian policy which officially recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination, and favours a two-state solution.  Also Canada does not recognize permanent Israeli control of the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.   Early last Dec., the US vetoed a motion for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza; a few days later Canada joined 153 countries to vote in favour of a non-binding United Nations resolution that called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Israel’s war on Gaza. This is the first time Canada broke rank.

Item: Then there is the not so little issue of 22% of current MPs—73 Members of Parliament—in the 44th parliament that just ended—who have gone on free trips to Israel, courtesy of CIJA (the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs). In fact, according to The Globe and Mail in the last 50 years, more than 800 MPs have taken free trips to Israel.  Donations to CIJA are tax deductible, so Canadian taxpayers are helping to pay for the MPs’ free trips. The value of each trip is more than $12,000 and MPs are allowed to bring their partners (for free also).  To read more about the “Junkets to Genocide” see my blog here. There is ample evidence that MPs, university presidents, professors as well as other decision-makers who go on these free trips tend to favour Israel and support initiatives and laws that are friendly to Israel. And at the very least, the junketeers will remain silent in the face of Israel’s human rights violations.

Item: there is the important matter of pro-Israel charities based in Canada.  HESEG (the lone soldiers’ fund) created by Indigo CEO Heather Reisman donates loads of money to non-Israeli soldiers who fight with the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) in Israel.  There are a myriad of other “charities” that donate funds to assist Israel to fight Palestinians, to force them off their land,to build illegal settlements and  to contribute to killing them.  Most have charitable status thanks to the CRA (Canada Revenue).  This means that any Canadian who donates to the charities such as HESEG and the JNF (the Jewish National Fund), for example, reduce the amount of their taxable income. This means the wealthy donors  don’t pay what they could so the Canadian government is foregoing the revenue.  Our government is spending money so (usually) the wealthy can give to Israel.  

Item:  Then there is the matter of weapons, and sending arms to Israel.  Israel could not last a day in pulverising Palestinians if not for weapons sent by the US, Canada and other NATO allies.  On June 17, there were reports that during Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week in Jerusalem, Netanyahu “had demanded that the frequency of US arms shipments return to the level immediately after October 7.”

For a brief moment, the US was reluctant to supply Israel with the usual 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs.  This was because the world had seen them used to destroy thousands of Palestinian homes in Rafah, and kill tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.   

Canada supplies weapons to Israel

Item: The Canadian situation is even more ludicrous than the one in the US.  It is clear that Canada authorized a vast amount of military exports to Israel after Oct. 7.  In Feb. 2024, Alex Cosh of The Maple wrote that the Trudeau government approved at least $28.5 million (Canadian) in new permits for military export to Israel during the months following Israel’s “killing rage in Gaza”. 

“Describing genocide as an ‘extremely fluid’ situation is an obscene first, even for career bureaucrats expert in nonsensical doublespeak.”

Andrew Mitrovica, in Al Jazeera

The Canadian government insisted the approval was for non-lethal military goods—which is unbelievable.  In mid-March, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly had stopped approving new permits for export due to an “extremely fluid” situation in Gaza. As Canadian columnist Andrew Mitrovica writing for Al Jazeera noted, “Describing genocide as an “extremely fluid” situation is an obscene first, even for career bureaucrats expert in nonsensical doublespeak.” 

So last time I checked, our problem of foreign influence in Canada is not especially India or China.  In fact saying those countries are nefarious schemers is tinged with racial bias.  But, unlike those brown and yellow folks, the people of Israel are just like us – they are “western”, they dress like us, live like us and, according to our former prime minister Paul Martin, “Israel’s values are Canada’s values,”  meaning that settler colonialists of a feather flock together.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Liberals’ chorus has chimed in: Justin Trudeau insists “We stand with Israel.”  as does the deputy PM, Chrystia Freeland who says “Canada stands with Israel”.  Melanie Joly, minister of foreign affairs, says “We stand by Israel.”

Who are among the power-brokers in Ottawa?

Let us look at who really exerts power in Ottawa. Some in Ottawa are telling us – look over there, look at India and China who are wielding influence in Canada.  But it is just like throwing one ping pong ball down the hallway and also one down the basement stairs.  Diego will go after the one easiest to get to. 

Photo at the top: A Palestinian boy stands by a shattered window at a UN school sheltering displaced people which was damaged during Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, June 2024 (Credit: Eyad-BABA/AFP).
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