Council of Canadians Poetry Recital

On February 4, about 60 Londoners met at the Central Branch of the London Public Library to participate in “A Town Hall on the Future of Canada”, hosted by the Council of Canadians and the London and District Labour Council.  Speakers on organized labour, public health, the environment, and social justice and militarism presented the ongoing and interrelated crises facing people living in Canada today. But they also presented an alternative vision based on community connection and a call to action to change the trajectory of the Canadian state and its continual onslaught of policies and legislation against the working…

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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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“Six of us, stuffed into one ambulance, to go to a hospital. When we got there, it was sheer chaos”: A Harrowing Story of Getting Shot in Gaza

The following is a partial transcription, edited for brevity, of a talk given at King’s University College on February 24th, 2025 by Tarek Loubani, a Canadian doctor who has been involved in humanitarian medical missions in Gaza. Dr. Loubani recalls the time he was targeted and shot by Israeli forces while treating peaceful protestors during the Great March of Return protests of 2018-2019. He discusses how Israeli forces deliberately target Palestinian medical infrastructure and prohibit medicine and medical practitioners from entering Gaza. I was shot in 2018 in Gaza. When I was shot, and I kind of fell to the…

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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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“I wanted to share this moment with them”: Londoners gather in bittersweet celebration for long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza

On the frigid afternoon of Sunday, January 19th, people of all ages gathered in Victoria Park to share a glimpse of hope that came with the commencement of ceasefire in Gaza earlier that day after  470 relentless days of genocide.  Despite the biting cold, the long-awaited Gaza ceasefire announcement was the silver lining in the dark – “the bare minimum” as one speaker from  the Canadian Palestine Social Association (CPSA), who organized the event, said. The relief was welcomed but bittersweet. The brutal assault on Palestinians by Israeli forces has, to date, claimed the lives of approximately 46,707 people and…

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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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