MP Anthony Housefather speaks in a committee hearing in May 2024.

Written by: Marthad Umucyaba

Canadian parliament’s “Justice and Human Rights” committee hearings (1, 2, 3) in May exposed politicians’ desperation to crack down on the rebelling pro-Palestine student movement. Timing is key, because Canadian politicians are trying to do this before the rigged, NATO-controlled international legal system gets used against them. The main tools will be the forced invocation of the hate crimes provision of the Criminal Code, using the pro-Israeli IHRA definition of “anti-semitism”, and a push to force the universities to adopt the IHRA definition of “anti-semitism” to “encourage” expulsions.

The leading cast of politicians trying to jail the students, before they get jailed by the international courts themselves, include infamous Zionist politicians Anthony Housefather, Melissa Lantsman, and Marco Mendicino. The most extreme ensemble of Zionist organisations were assembled to establish the pretext, including B’nai Brith, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center. A noted feature of the “Justice and Human Rights” Committee hearings was the extreme push to make anti-Zionism and the refusal to acknowledge or recognise “Israel” into a “criminal offence” (May 23, 8:56:15-8:57:35).

A noted demand by the extreme Zionists was for “no more Laith Marouf” (May 23, 8:40:06-8:40:16). The Canada Files has a regular series co-hosted by Aidan Jonah and Free Palestine TV’s Executive Director, Laith Marouf, titled “Canada and Palestine: The War on Zionism”.

The “recommendations”

The politicians at the centre of the “Justice and Human Rights” committee, namely MPs Anthony Housefather and Melissa Lantsman, were tailoring the committee witness invites to only include Zionists and their supporters. No pro-Palestinian guests were invited. There were “neutral” guests, such as the Presidents of the University of Toronto, McGill University (with such a “neutral” President who is begging the police to crack down on their encampment), University of British Columbia, and Concordia University, during the May 27 meeting, in order to make sure that the Presidents were still “filing injunctions” against the encampments, accusing pro-Palestinian protesters of “anti-semitism”, and suspending and expelling protesting students to the Zionist MPs’ satisfaction.

Naturally, due to the clear bias of the “Justice and Human Rights” committee, all of the proposals were pro-colonial proposals for state repression. Some of the recommendations included withholding federal funds for any university that refuses to adopt the IHRA definition for anti-semitism, using the pro-Israel IHRA definition to define a hate crime, declaring opposition to the existence of Israel as “illegal hate speech”, and registering Samidoun – an organization that organizes in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners - as a terrorist organisation, along with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps - a military division of the Iranian government – which would lead to the inevitable unfair persecution of Iranian immigrants. The University of Toronto, notably, declared (May 27, 12:47:38-12:48:00) they wouldn’t adopt the IHRA definition, knowing they’re the most endowed University in Canada, which means they couldn’t be blackmailed using federal funding.

Anthony Housefather and Melissa Lantsman’s Zionism and racism

In all three meetings, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs were mentioned. All of the Zionists interviewed about this aspect wanted their white supremacist project in the Middle East to be a “protected subject”. Melissa Lantsman, as well as the person she interviewed, Dr. Ted Rosenberg, the vocal Zionist ex-medical professor, also wanted the end of affirmative action programs, particularly in the medical field, under the false pretext that affirmative action programs in Canada were allowing visible minorities, such as Arab Muslims, Palestinians, Muslim Africans, and the indigenous to enter the Medical programs without meeting the regular requirements (May 23, 10:11:45-10:14:58). This is a racist dog whistle blown by the Conservative party when they declare their tacit intent to entrench racial caste in the job market.

The truth is that before affirmative action, visible minorities and Indigenous medical student applicants were passed over on applications even when they met the requirements. Even currently, there is no indication that affirmative action has even been effective at diversifying the demographics of doctors in Canada, despite the incentives in federal funding granted to medical schools that accept minorities who meet the requirements. This “call” to end affirmative action is a clear demonstration of the racist nature of the Zionist camp.

MP Marco Mendicino and MP Anthony Housefather were also shameless in their explicit racism towards the Palestinians. As examples of “anti-semitism”, Mendicino and Housefather repeatedly accused Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian resistance of raping prisoners and committing mass rape on the October 7th Al-Aqsa Flood - a narrative debunked by Electronic Intifada and the Grayzone - with no evidence presented. MPs Mendicino and Housefather then repeatedly condemned anyone who refused to accept the baseless accusation in every meeting, and Melissa Lantsman, showcasing her disdain for international law, repeatedly denied the Palestinians’ right to self-defence against Israeli aggression (May 27, 12:42:45-12:43:13).

Moreover, MPs Mendicino, Housefather, and even Lantsman never once mentioned the documented sexual violence by IDF soldiers against Palestinians or even their sexual violence against fellow IDF soldiers, which has been reported regularly by the United Nations. According to them, the Arabs must get the lynch mob, regardless of whether there is evidence or not, while the White European Jews have the right to conquest of Palestinian women without reserve, as is believed by prominent Israeli Rabbi, Colonel Eyal Karim.

Analysing the “rising anti-semitism”

The two categories of events that are highlighted to mention a “rise in anti-semitism” are the alleged bigoted statements by protesters and the alleged increase in hate crimes. One of these recent ‘hate crimes’ was immediately blamed on Muslim immigrants with no evidence by Premier of Ontario Doug Ford. It should also be noted that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was infamous for initiating false flags during the war of aggression against Afghanistan in order to justify the continued occupation. Moreover, the alleged bigoted statements came from anecdotal testimonies of the witnesses without an alleged perpetrator being mentioned.

The statistics from the three committee meetings, essentially suspect due to the known phenomenon of the RCMP manufacturing a narrative in Canada to suit geopolitical goals, belie the real persecution of the Muslim population in the country. Muslims in Canada catch unfair flack for their supposed consistent anti-semitism problem.

The real consistent anti-semitism comes from elsewhere. Look towards Israel’s carpet-bombing campaigns, the illegal settlement activities, and the colonial imposed state on the Indigenous Semites in the region. Israel itself is above all anti-Semitic. That’s the irony of making “anti-Zionism” a criminal offence due to it being “anti-Semitic”. It’s an inherent contradiction.

What’s next?

“We, hopefully, together will find a way to wrest our displeasure with the ICC because if they’ll do this to Israel, we’re next. This group tried to come after our soldiers…yeah, you can clap all you want to! [addressing anti-Israel spectators] They tried to come after our soldiers in Afghanistan but reason prevailed. So, at the end of the day here, what I hope to happen is that we level sanctions against the ICC for this outrage to not only help our friends in Israel but protect ourselves over time.”

Senator Lindsey Graham at a US Senate Appropriations Committee (5:08-5:37)

A word of congratulations is in order to the reader, if they either think that Hamas was justified in launching Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, if they don’t recognise Israel, or even if the reader simply believes that Israel is committing war crimes in the Gaza strip. You, in Canada, have been made into an enemy of the state, because you oppose your colonial state’s support for the Israeli colonial state. You are now an enemy of NATO, the colonial state of Canada, and the war criminals at the helm of the Canadian state apparatus.

The ultimate reason, and the most simple, is that there is now a battle to decide:

whether you will relent, stop protesting, and allow the state to consolidate itself as a defensive measure against any future international prosecutions,
whether you will get arrested as a political prisoner first, or;
whether the politicians will ultimately have to wear the cuffs in the face of public pressure they were unable to clamp down on.

Israel’s genocide is a turning point in the illusion of western democracy and the ‘rules based’ international (white supremacist) order. The BRICS nations have skilfully used what was once a completely rigged international system against the NATO axis. And it will be a debilitating blow to the system whether the courts pass a fair judgement on Israel’s genocide or not. The insistence on NATO to continue its ethnic cleansing plan despite the clearly criminal implications, and the fact that the trap has been well prepared and set up by the regional enemies in the Axis of Resistance for a long time, means they are now caught in a situation where NATO states will have to drop the democratic pretence internally, in order to stand any chance of survival.

Will you now, made to be an enemy of the state, understand the race against time and the historical significance of your struggle? Do you now understand that it's either you going to jail or them? If so, then congratulations are in order once again. You are on the cusp of making history in a way that your enemies fear most:

“We’re told…that students are just expressing their right to free speech, venting their moral outrage...I’d like to remind them that after World War One, German students were also outraged by injustice and poverty. Russian students were outraged by the exploitation of workers. Chinese students were outraged by authority during the cultural revolution, and the Graduates…the…Khmer Rouge, no less, were outraged by capitalism and Western colonialism. Where did this end? Now the students are outraged by Zionism.”

Dr. Ted Rosenberg, resigned Zionist professor, May 23 “Justice and Human Rights” Committee Meeting (9:39:36-9:40:10)

Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.

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Marthad Shingiro Umucyaba (formerly referred to as Christian Shingiro) is a Rwandan-born naturalized Canadian expat. He is known for his participation in Communist/anti-imperialist national and international politics and is the radio show host of The Socially Radical Guitarist.

He is also a freelance web developer in Hong Kong, China, striving to provide “Socially Radical Web Design at a socially reasonable price”.

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