Shopping for human rights

 Passed yesterday in the House : 

"That, given Canada and Israel share a long history of friendship as well as economic and diplomatic relations, the House reject the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which promotes the demonization and delegitimization of the State of Israel, and call upon the government to condemn any and all attempts by Canadian organizations, groups or individuals to promote the BDS movement, both here at home and abroad."

Liberals and Conservatives - Yes - 229 votes

NDP and Bloc - No - 51 votes

You can see how each MP voted at the link at top or watch them vote here : "Opposition Motion : Israel"

137 Liberals out of 184 voted in favour, 44 Liberals skipped the vote, and only 3 voted against it : Larry Bagnell, Nick Whalen, and Rene Arsenault.

92 Cons voted in favour while 7 skipped the vote.

Elizabeth May last week : "I will not be supporting it, but I want to make it very clear that the Green Party and I personally do not support the BDS movement." She also skipped the vote.

What's this crap about "demonization and delegitimization of Israel"?

Does everyone get that BDS is basically about shopping?

We're talking about making shopping choices to apply pressure to support Palestinian human rights here. 

And now we're being condemned by our government for what we think about making those choices?   Unbelievable.

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Update : Scott Vrooman : Parliamentary debate on Israel boycott misses the point





Real News Network : Brace Batchoun of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East :

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Patrick Martin, Globe & Mail : Parliament votes to reject Israel boycott campaign

Antonia Zerbisias, Al Jazeera : Canada jumps on the anti-BDS bandwagon
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Cons struggle to find their opposition feet

"They're stealing all our best shit," wailed CPC MP Remplestiltskin from her parliamentary selfie twitter account, rattling off all the HarperGov ideas embraced by the Liberals since they formed a majority government in October :

Saudi arms deal - check
TPP signed - check
Return of the F35 bid - check
Keystone XL pipeline - check
Energy east pipeline - check
Voted for C-51 - check
Canadian Wheat Board stays ditched - check
Investor-state dispute mechanism ISDS - check and check
CIRDI mining company catspaw reconfirmed - check
Covered for CSIS in torture cases - check
Voted against all measures for Palestine at the UN - check

"And you just know they're going to vote in favour of our motion condemning BDS in the House next week," she fumed, although she allowed this has in fact always been Justin Trudeau's position. 

"The Conservative Party worked very hard for ten years to remake the Canadian brand and it's like the Liberals stole all our best ideas and stuck their own name on them."

A Liberal source who spoke on background thinks his CPC colleague is over-reacting.
"There's lots of other Con ideas left the official opposition can raise in the House," he said. 
"New wars, for instance. While Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan says Canada could soon join a military coalition to return to Libya, we haven't said we're going to actually bomb any new countries so there's that."

"Look on the bright side," he continued. "Remember 18 months ago when that delegation of Liberal and Conservative MPs and senators went to Jerusalem and sang O Canada at the Canada-Israel Solidarity Rally during Day 23 of Operation Protective Edge? 

Remember how rewarding it felt to be Conservatives and Liberals working together in support of Israel's collective punishment of Palestinians?"

"Sunny ways are here to stay," he quipped. "Better get used to it."

 Rempelstiltskin™ : the Salamander

Greenwald/Fishman @The Intercept : Greatest Threat to Free Speech in the West: Criminalizing Activism Against Israeli Occupation
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Libby Davies gets smeared

G&M : Harper wants NDP to fire deputy Libby Davies for criticism of Israel

CBC : Calls for NDP MP to resign after Israel comments

Star : Libby Davies in hot water for anti-Israel comments

What a complete load of bollocks.

We expect this kind of shoving to the front of the line to defend Israel from imaginary threats from Harper but what's your excuse, Bob Rae? Rae :

To deny the state of Israel's right to exist

Except she didn't.

and to propose an international campaign of boycotts, divestments and sanctions against a legitimate member of the world community for over 60 years

And she didn't do that either.

Bob, don't you at least have staff who can do a modicum of research for you into what Libby Davies actually said before you try to outsteve Steve on Israel? Your behavior actually proves her point made in the vid below that people are afraid to even discuss this for fear of being branded anti-Semitic.

That she should be required to apologise for this at all, much less be threatened with being fired, is, to turn Rae's own words against Libby back on him :

to reveal a level of hostility and ignorance that is truly breathtaking

Watch it for yourself ...



Layton defended Libby on Power Play tonight and she stood beside him in the House today. Good because the NDP have not shown much courage on the issue of Palestine.
Libby Davies has nothing to apologise for.

More from Cliff at Rusty Idols.