Features

Young Israeli dissidents: “Do anything you can to stop the genocide”

On Tuesday, March 18th, an Al Jazeera article by Maram Humaid from Gaza begins:  “It wasn’t a nightmare, it was real. The war had returned just like that, without warning. The clock read 2:10am when we woke up in terror to the deafening sound of air strikes. A violent noise shook everything around us. My daughter, Banias, woke up screaming in fear: “Baba! Mama! What’s happening?” For the last four days, Al Jazeera notifications stormed phone screens.  At least eight Palestinians killed, including children, as Israel carries out “extensive” air attacks on the Gaza Strip – follow live Dozens of…

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“A small window into dehumanization”: Palestinian-Canadian doctor on the destruction of healthcare in Gaza

“Do you know how hard a kid fights when you bring a needle to their face and start cutting into it? Do you know how much strength they suddenly have? You can’t believe where it even comes from? Can you believe the screams that they deliver, when you try to suture them up? It’s crazy, it’s haunting. Truly, truly haunting,” says Palestinian-Canadian doctor Tarek Loubani. “The Israelis were always selective about painkillers. They’d never let painkillers through.” Loubani remembers suture rooms in Gaza full of wailing children. Half of Gaza’s population are children; they are the majority of those injured…

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“Where Olive Trees Weep”: Roots of injustice and resilience in the West Bank  

“I felt anger towards what the people on the screen were going through. Anger that this injustice – all of this – is still happening. Anger that all of this exists,” says Western University student Kamil Zerdoumi after viewing a film screening of Where Olive Trees Weep at King’s University College on November 29th, 2024. “It made me more aware of this huge, huge imbalance between [the] rights that Israelis and Palestinians have, and made me more fervent in Palestinians getting more rights and equal treatment and more justice, and less forgiving in any attempts to try and be a…

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“We’re all related”: Remembering Elder Dan Smoke

Elder Dan commemorated the Kanehsatake resistance by supporting the planting of a white pine — a traditional symbol of union and healing — in Victoria Park, London, in 1971. The red, white, black and yellow coloured bands on the tree represent the Colours of Man; the blue represents Father Sky; the green represents Mother Earth; and the purple represents the Creator. Photo by Rebecca Bartkiw.

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“The world is a relative”: How language can heal the Earth 

On Thursday, October 17th, Potawatomi botanist Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer gave a talk at Centennial Hall on how Indigenous teachings encompass protection and love of the Earth. Indigenous languages hold a worldview where the land and all beings are relatives; this inherently disallows destruction of the Earth.  “If the world is a relative, there are boundaries on what can be taken,” says Kimmerer. “There are guidelines on what we consume… Use everything you take. Take only what is given. Understand them as gifts, not commodities. Corporate messages confuse us about what we need and what we want.”  Her voice was…

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Abortion Rights in Canada: Here to stay? 

On Thursday, October 24, an abortion rights protest clustered at the intersection of Southdale Road West and Notre Dame Drive. Five protesters stood in a line. Three raised familiar abortion rights signs that read “Honk for pro-choice”, “Safe and legal abortion is pro-life”, and “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries”.  The remaining two held more specific signs.  “Go home, Abby” read one. “Hellenic centre hosts RACIST,” read the other.  The abortion rights advocates were protesting the Hellenic Community Centre’s decision to serve as a venue for a fundraiser featuring American anti-abortion spokesperson Abby Johnson. The fundraiser was organized by 4LifeLondon…

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“From the river to the sea, from the cedar to the olive tree”: Stories of Lebanon and Palestine

“There is nothing that will compare to that childhood,” says Lebanese-Canadian PhD student Amer El-Samman, who grew up in the port city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon. He remembers the city as huge, bright, and authentic. It boomed with up-and-coming Internet cafés while remaining lush with old towns infused with unique, intergenerationally-preserved customs. The people were tolerant. Ways of life were passed down with “care, affection, and stability”. All religions lived side by side; El-Samman remembers sects of Muslims and Christians, and a Jewish family in his grandmother’s town who were a “remnant of a once sizable population before the…

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Israeli violations of international law go down the ‘memory hole’ in Western reporting: former UN Special Rapporteur

U.S. shields State of Israel from consequences for repeated violations, says legal scholar Michael Lynk Originally published at NB Media Coop on November 9, 2023 Israel violates international law with impunity because of unconditional U.S. support and highly skewed journalism that routinely ignores Israel’s record of human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. That’s according to a Canadian legal scholar who served as a senior United Nations official examining human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “Israel is, as an occupier, in serious breach of international human rights law, international humanitarian law — which are the laws of war and…

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‘If you do nothing, that amounts to supporting the status quo’: Activism for Palestine and how to sustain it

Originally published at NB Media Coop on December 27, 2023 Solidarity movements for Palestine flare worldwide at an unprecedented level. Over 80 countries have seen rallies rich with Palestinian flags, protests that fill the air with chants of ceasefire, and candlelit vigils that honour the martyred Palestinian people. David Heap, a professor of linguistics and an advocate of universal human rights, offers his insights on effective activism and shares his experiences. He believes all forms of activism are important, that the risk lessens as more people advocate, and that sustaining activism relies on compassionate support networks. He emphasizes that abstaining from…

Read More‘If you do nothing, that amounts to supporting the status quo’: Activism for Palestine and how to sustain it