Canada's next national elections are due by late next year, and for many, they can't come soon enough. The Conservative opposition has a dynamic and popular young leader who has proven himself quite skilled at filleting Justin Trudeau's liberal government, handling a hostile press, and offering an appealing alternative governing vision for voters. The Conservatives have built a massive polling lead, and are projected to perform far better than they did in 2019, in which a slim 'popular vote' victory resulted in a loss under the country's parliamentary system. Under the current trends, Trudeau's opposition is on track to crush the current government at the polls when the elections are held. The Prime Minister himself is deeply unpopular, registering a pitiful 25 percent favorability rating in a recent survey. But Trudeau and the Liberals aren't going down without a fight. With anti-Semitism rampant in the streets -- quite literally -- the current government appears desperate to harness that bigotry for their political advantage. In two separate votes within the last week, Trudeau's team moved to restore funding to Hamas-infiltrated UNRWA, while also cutting off military aid to Israel:
Canada will restore funding to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians, weeks after the agency, known as UNRWA, lost hundreds of millions of dollars in support following Israeli allegations against some of its staffers in Gaza. Canada was one of 16 countries that temporarily halted future payments. Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development, said Canada has been reassured after receiving an interim report from the United Nations investigation of Israel’s allegations...The Canadian government is due to contribute $25 million Canadian ($19 million) to UNRWA in April and did not miss a payment as a result of the pause.
The 'pause' was a fleeting, useless public relations ruse. They didn't even skip a single payment, despite the evidence discussed below. Here's the second shoe that dropped:
Canada plans to halt arms sales to Israel, its Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told The Toronto Star after the Canadian Parliament passed a non-binding motion that called on the government to do so. Her statement was confirmed on Tuesday by the Foreign Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Robert Oliphant. Last week, Canada said it had paused non-lethal military exports to Israel since January and after Monday’s non-binding parliamentary motion on the matter, it has now declared that it would stop all such sales...Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while asserting Israel's right to defend itself, has taken an increasingly critical stance over the IDF’s military campaign to destroy Hamas in Gaza, after the terror group attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7, killing over 1,200 people and seizing another 253 hostages. Canada is the first major Western ally to so clearly announce a halt to its arms sales to Israel, a move that comes amid growing domestic public pressure among opponents of Gaza in other countries for their governments to follow suit. The parliamentary vote came one week after Joly visited Israel...United Nations experts issued a call in February for member states to stop selling arms to Israel, warning that they risked violating international law in doing so.
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Some "ally," siding with virulently anti-Israel "United Nations experts" over the democratic, pluralistic Middle Eastern nation that was attacked with medieval savagery by an implacable, genocidal enemy late last year. A pro-Palestinian statehood resolution also sailed through, over united Conservative opposition -- with at least one dissenting liberal wondering whether he still has a home within his party:
[The motion] easily carried the House of Commons, with only the staunchly pro-Israel Conservative caucus, three Liberals and an Independent MP voting nay. The final vote count was 204 in favour and 117 voting against. MP Anthony Housefather, one of the Liberals who voted no, said Canada's Jewish community is feeling "demoralized and intimidated" as it grapples with a spike in antisemitism. In a speech to the Commons, Housefather said the motion "rewards Hamas," because it creates "a false equivalency between the State of Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas." "Canada should be standing with Israel. Canada should be defending the right of Israel to fight back against a terrorist organization. We should not be passing motions that make a terrorist organization equivalent to a democratic state," he said..."I truly felt last night that a line had been crossed," Housefather said. "When my party members cheered and gave a standing ovation to Heather McPherson and the NDP, I started reflecting on whether or not I belonged. I didn't feel like some MPs — or a lot of MPs — understood the existential threat that Israel faces.
The Trudeau government has obviously decided that the coalition of hardcore leftists and illiberal Islamists must be placated and pandered to for electoral reasons, while the very real fears (and votes) of Jews are of less value. More Democrats appear to making a similar calculation here in the United States, as well. Over the weekend, one of Maryland's US Senators ran interference for UNRWA on national television, as the left-led chorus for restoring its funding grows louder:
Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen says claims that "UNRWA is a proxy for Hamas are just flat-out lies."
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 17, 2024
UNRWA employed a dozen people involved with the 10/7 terrorist attack on Israel, has been complicit in storing Hamas weapons, and runs schools that teach kids to hate Jews. pic.twitter.com/IvxTgZq6vS
UNRWA schools indoctrinate Palestinian children with vile anti-Semitism and are used as weapons depots. UNRWA's Gaza headquarters sits directly above a Hamas data center, providing it with electricity. Hamas tunneling beneath this location was an open secret for years. Numerous UNRWA employees openly and gleefully celebrated the October 7th Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians. According to Western intelligence reports, hundreds of them are associated with terrorist organizations. And based on damning evidence, a number of UNRWA workers actively took part in the attack, or assisted Hamas in its aftermath. UNRWA is a disgraced, discredited, viciously anti-Israel hate organization shot through with terrorism sympathy and literal terrorists.
Van Hollen calls it a "flat-out lie" to describe these realities as UNRWA serving as a 'proxy' for Hamas. That word may be parsed, but the nature of the relationship is clear and deeply disturbing. Not a cent of taxpayer money should ever flow to this group again, but global momentum is moving towards a restoration of funding, with security 'assurances' and a new vetting 'audit' agreement acting as a fig leaf. I'll leave you with an example of what Israel is up against (terrorists based out of hospitals), and the sorts of cretins Democrats are trying to appease for domestic political reasons:
The IDF releases footage showing troops of the Navy's Shayetet 13 commando unit battling Hamas operatives inside Gaza City's Shifa Hospital.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 18, 2024
According to the IDF, some 20 gunmen were killed by troops in the area of the hospital. pic.twitter.com/ww3h5b1zU7
This is the same guy who actively cheered 10/7. Biden keeps going out of his way to try to appease people like this and this is how they reward those efforts. Seems like a bad strategy. https://t.co/ycIzYkCCmX
— AG (@AGHamilton29) March 19, 2024
These are the monsters on whose behalf so-called "progressives" routinely throw hate rallies and parades. Sick:
I heard testimony tonight from a Nova festival survivor who escaped and hid from the terrorists in a bike shop bathroom in Be'eri. On the other side of the door she heard Hamas torturing people for hours—men, women, children, the elderly. She heard people screaming, people…
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) March 20, 2024
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