Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Canadians to avoid “entrenching division” Monday as tensions escalate in the Middle East and at home over the Israel-Hamas conflict.
In an address to the House of Commons, Trudeau again stated that Canada supports Israel’s right to self-defence while adding that international law must be upheld in Gaza — where the humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating.
The prime minister then turned his attention to the domestic front, where emotions have been running high since Oct. 7 — when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,300 people, including a number of Canadians. According to the latest figures, three Canadians are still missing in the region.
In a statement last week, the RCMP said it’s aware of threats on social media directed at Canada’s Jewish community. Police across the country have either issued warnings or intensified patrols.
Trudeau issued a warning about the threat of antisemitism and Islamophobia, adding that Jewish and Muslim parents alike are wondering whether their kids are safe at school.
“Unrest is being felt in ways big and small. Canadians are deeply worried, no matter their background,” he said.
WATCH Canada’s humanitarian aid going to civilians, not Hamas, says Trudeau
Canada’s humanitarian aid going to civilians, not Hamas, says Trudeau
11 hours ago
Duration 1:55
Featured VideoPrime Minister Justin Trudeau rose in the House of Commons to offer an update on the Israel-Hamas war and said Canada will commit to providing humanitarian aid to civilians.
Trudeau urged Canadians to remember that “the Canadian idea of liberty is inclusive freedom, expansive freedom.
“Remember, it’s a short path to walk from mistrusting your neighbour to entrenching division.
“Let’s remember who we are as Canadians, and what we stand for here, and around the world.”
21 Canadians in West Bank have crossed into Jordan: Joly
Earlier in the day, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced the first bus had departed the West Bank bringing Canadians to safety in Jordan. Her office said 21 Canadians were on board.
It’s part of an effort to get Canadians out of an increasingly volatile situation. Trudeau said 10 Canadian Armed Forces flights have departed Tel Aviv so far, carrying about 1,300 passengers.
The government also has directed all non-essential staff working at Canada’s embassy in Tel Aviv to leave Israel, sources have told Radio-Canada.
Following reports that the war could spread to the northern border, Joly also has urged Canadians in Lebanon to consider leaving while commercial flights are still available.
I am elated to announce that the first group of Canadians have now safely crossed from the West Bank into Jordan. Thank-you to our teams in Ramallah, Amman, Tel Aviv and Ottawa, who worked around the clock to make this happen. <a href=”https://t.co/w2Y6he0LoL”>pic.twitter.com/w2Y6he0LoL</a>
During a briefing to reporters over the weekend, Global Affairs Canada said it expects to use two buses to evacuate Canadians from the West Bank. Officials said about 250 people have asked for Canada’s help leaving the territory.
The West Bank, a Palestinian territory that Israel has occupied since 1967, has become a temporary home for hundreds of people from Gaza who were either working in Israel or visiting family in the West Bank when Hamas militants attacked Israel.
Canada calls for humanitarian access to Gaza
Trudeau said it’s vital that civilians in Gaza receive food, fuel and water. The territory has endured unrelenting death and destruction from Israeli bombing since the the conflict began more than a week ago.
“Canada fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself in accordance with international law. And in Gaza, as elsewhere, international law, including humanitarian law, must be upheld by all,” he said.
“Even wars have rules.”
Gaza has had no electricity for five days now, leaving its hospitals and water services in dire straits as its foods supplies diminish. Joly recently called the Gaza Strip “one of the worst places on Earth right now to be living in.”
Authorities in Gaza say at least 2,808 people have been killed so far by the Israeli strikes — a quarter of them children — and about 10,850 have been wounded.
A road blockade near the Qalandiya refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank. (Jean-Francois Bisson/CBC)
After calling for those living in Gaza to evacuate to the south, Israel is now imposing a full blockade and is preparing a ground invasion into Gaza to destroy Hamas.
Israel also has told villages in a strip of territory near its border with Lebanon to evacuate. In an address to Israel’s Knesset on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and its Iranian benefactor not to “test us in the north.”
‘Hamas can only be destroyed’: Poilievre
As more details of the five Canadians killed emerged, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called Hamas’s incursion “also an attack on Canadians.”
“Every innocent human life, Palestinian or Israeli, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or otherwise, is of equal precious value,” he said to applause.
“All of us must do everything in our power to preserve this precious life and minimize the suffering of innocent civilians.”
There’s ‘no negotiating’ with Hamas, says Poilievre
Featured VideoAddressing the House of Commons, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the federal government needs to call on Hamas to ‘immediately release all hostages.’
In his own address to the chamber, Poilievre called on the government to free Canadians believed to be among the nearly 200 hostages being held captive by Hamas.
“There can be no negotiating with Hamas. Hamas can only be destroyed,” he said
Speaking for the NDP, MP Heather McPherson urged the Canadian government to call for a ceasefire.
“The only solution is a political solution. There is no military solution to this conflict,” she said.
She ended her emotional speech with words of appreciation for Israeli and Palestinian medical and aid workers struggling to save lives.
“There’s a light in this darkness,” she said. “We see you and we stand with you.”
House meeting for a ‘take note’ debate
The House will meet later Monday for a “take note” debate — a form of Parliamentary procedure that asks members for their views on an issue or aspect of public policy.
Such debates were used to discuss the future of peacekeeping in the former Yugoslavia in 1994, the Iraq war and Canada’s deployment in Afghanistan.
In his afternoon speech, Poilievre said his party will call for a number of possible actions and previewed one: designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity.
The federal government lists a branch of the IRGC, its expeditionary Quds Force, as a terrorist entity, but has not designated the whole militia group as a terrorist entity under Canada’s Criminal Code — despite mounting calls for it to do so.
“Canada must criminalize the IRGC,” Poilievre said. “Terrorists must be kicked out and this organization must be a criminal entity.”
Canada already has designated Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
