Dave Gray-Donald
@dgrdon
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Our book "The End of This World: Climate Justice in So-called Canada" is out: @TheGrindTO publisher.
Joined September 2013
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Last Seen Profiles
The "Hands Off Rafah" rally in Toronto on Monday has become national news, denounced by politicians at all levels over a few moments outside Mount Sinai Hospital during the hours-long protest.
But what really happened? My in-depth look.
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The person dressed as Spiderman waving the Palestinian flag during the march in Toronto last night went on many elevated platforms for a few mins at a time, e.g. construction platforms, entrance to Eaton Centre, hospital entrance overhangs. I didn't see evidence of targeting.
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Pro-Palestine potest outside the AGO in Toronto, where PM Trudeau is holding a reception for fascist-friendly Italian PM Malone. MP Marco Mendicino already got an earful while entering.
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Happening now: University of Toronto Occupy for Palestine occupying the office of U of T president Gertler demanding the university divest from Israeli companies and cut ties with Israeli universities.
occupyuoft on Instagram.
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At Hot Docs tonight at the Canadian premiere of Union, which is a great film about the first successful unionization of Amazon workers, director Brett Story commented on what's happening in Gaza and called out out festival sponsor Scotiabank for financing Israeli weapons. 1/2
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Will this be on the front page of the National Post?
Lovely pro-Israeli counter protester makes throat-slitting gesture to a pro-Palestinian in
#Toronto
#TOpoli
@TPSOperations
@CBCToronto
@CP24
@CTVToronto
@CarymaRules
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If you're wondering what CIJA (Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs) is and how it was formed, here is a little summary and some articles with more info...
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My partner was followed, tackled, and wrongfully arrested by plainclothes police after attending an anti-homelessness press conference a couple weeks ago.
Recovery has been challenging, but she very bravely wrote this account of what happened.
#topoli
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Rick Mercer was just interrupted hosting the Scotiabank Giller Prize live broadcast by protesters calling out Scotiabank for funding genocide in Palestine. They also called for a ceasefire.
Camera went off the stage, music started playing.
Then Rick thanked Scotiabank.
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This was sung as a call for peace, justice and a ceasefire in
#Palestine
. This was shortly after Eaton Centre security then police pushed and knocked people over trying to arrest and remove them for singing. You can hear the song here as people were walking to the mall exit.
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The coalition Jews Say No to Genocide held a press conference this morning. Behind the speakers people held signs saying "Jews say: postering Indigo is not antisemitism" and the same poster put up earlier this month, "Heather's Pick: Funding Genocide."
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Please stop taking Trudeau's "cap on oil and gas sector emissions" as serious climate action. The cap is:
- three decades away
- won't necessarily limit oil and gas production
- doesn't apply to most emissions in the product lifecycle
Thread. 1/7
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There isn't a housing crisis in Canada,
@ricardo_tranjan
argues in this provocative 110-page book.
More accurately, we have "a poorly regulated market that extracts income from working-class people and channels it to higher-income segments of Canadian society."
Out May 2nd.
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Mulroney brought Canada into the neoliberal era, privatizing industries, deregulating, cutting taxes, attacking labour and overseeing an incredible transfer of wealth to the rich.
Many wealthy people liked Mulroney, so they're going to celebrate him and rehabilitate his image.
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Economists becoming go-to climate experts has been a disaster.
Oil & gas industry is loving it, because these economists push slow, market mechanisms over regulations directly targeting industry.
This has been used to justify not making transformative changes for like 15 years.
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A big problem with this article is non-disclosure of potential conflicts of interest between CIJA, Hillel York and Heather Reisman.
Reisman co-founded CIJA and is a major donor to Hillel Ontario and maybe CIJA. This is not disclosed when quoting CIJA and Hillel spokespeople.
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The Supreme Court just last year decided companies need to pay for this cleanup, even in bankruptcy. This is a bailout, a subsidy, plain and simple, and a legally and economically unnecessary one.
NEW: PM announces $1.7 billion for orphan well cleanup
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Trudeau really went from "no relationship is more important" to, basically, "two weeks of some rail delays and no effort on my part is all the patience than I have for this."
#Tyendinaga
#Wetsuweten
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@MelissaLantsman
@JustinTrudeau
These are canisters for colored smoke, which are used at many protests. Why would you assume or accuse that this a suicide bomber costume?? Just because this is a Palestine solidarity rally?
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Great to see journos calling for the release of Amber Bracken and Michael Toledano, arrested yesterday covering the RCMP raid on Wet'suwet'en territory!
Would be great if journalists also call for release of the other 13ish people arrested in RCMP's act of colonial theft/war.
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Every national politics journalist in Canada is asking the federal government why it took part in bombing cities in Yemen last night, right? Right?!
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I was curious, why would people call for a boycott of Cafe Landwer? Is it about the political actions of the business (e.g. is it a Zionist business, as protesters said on Saturday), or is was it targeted simply for being Jewish-owned? Here's what I found.
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The person dressed as Spiderman during the rally climbed on at least eight structures along the protest route. these included:
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From my recollection of being there and from researching afterwards, I can find no evidence that people were prevented from entering or exiting the Mount Sinai Hospital building, a claim which has been made or insinuated by many.
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Based on seeing them over the course of a couple hours, it looked like they identified the highest places they could climb to, went up there, waved the flag, then came down to rejoin the rally and then found a next spot and repeated.
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Remember those 2021 arrests in Toronto around the Lamport encampment eviction & after, when cops put out "wanted" photos? Here's a thread 🧵 on what happened since.
Might be relevant to the wave of 15-ish arrests in Toronto this month related to Palestinian solidarity actions.
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The directors of Yintah (amazing film about Wet'suwet'en resistance to the Coastal Gaslight pipeline) today called out Hot Docs' sponsor Scotiabank for financing the company that built the pipeline, TC Energy, and also Israeli weapons maker Elbit Systems.
#HotDocs24
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Canadian oil & gas companies have been announcing their Q2 (April - June) financial results. Here are the profits of the big Cdn players🧵
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Perfect Globe and Mail tweet. No notes.
Consumers may grumble, but these oligopolies are great for investors
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Loblaws and its subsidiaries are so profitable that if it were a worker co-op all 200,000 employees could have had a $6,795 raise (pre-tax) in 2018.
Most of that money instead went to shareholders, like the Weston family.
Math in next tweet.
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From my memory, the protest was in front of the hospital for around 15 minutes in its nearly four hour duration.
Stopping this thread now and encouraging you to read the full article, which includes more about the rally and the denunciations.
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Really sad to see so many good journalists being laid off at the Globe & Mail. Just a reminder though that this is all about a supposed $10 million operating loss, and G&M owner the Thomson family is rich enough ($41 billion) to cover that loss every year for over 4,000 years.
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Isn't it ironic that tonight while a Progress Toronto fundraiser party happens celebrating "progressive" leaders, featuring a keynote from Mayor Olivia Chow, a few subway stops away Toronto city staff and police are conducting an encampment eviction, don't ya think?
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Hi
@globeandmail
, why did you not tell readers this contributor:
- Had been a TransCanada director for approx 13 years, ending this spring?
- Is advisor to an investment firm w large oil&gas holdings?
- Is a former Conservative staffer who set up the Harper admin?
???
#cdnpoli
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Seeing
@WEMovement
contracted by the Canadian government to deliver $900 million in programs reminds me: this organization denied me media access on six occasions to
#WEday
events to report for
@briarpatchmag
, including the most recent one in MTL with Sophie Trudeau. 1/
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Note: There's a dangerous antisemitic narrative about Jews plotting to unduly influence governments. That's not what is happening here; Canadian Jews are not acting as one to exert influence. One faction of the community effectively took control of this major institution.
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Looks like MP Housefather and others in Canada saw how successfully the media narrative in the US was shifted away from complicity in slaughter in Gaza and towards "culture war" terrain on university campuses, and they're trying to recreate that shift here.
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@marcusbgee
You say there is no genocidal intent on the side of Israeli leadership, which begs the question: did you read the document?
In South Africa’s suit charging Israel with genocide there are 9 pages documenting expressions of genocidal intent from Israeli officials, including the most senior ones.
It’s shocking to see it all in one place. I can’t even fit it all, but here’s a preview.
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Could you point to any cases of threats, assaults or antisemitism last night,
@marcomendicino
? Some attendees had "shame," "genocide supporter" etc yelled at them while trying to enter. I didn't see or hear of any physical violence (or threats of it) on them, no injuries.
Disgusting antisemitic protestors swarmed, threatened and assaulted members of the Italian-Canadian community at an official event last night at the AGO in downtown Toronto.
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In 2002, Netanyahu visited Concordia U and a riot broke out.
Opinions of the Canadian public and government were shifting against Israel, and in recognition of Palestinians' plight.
Heather Reisman (Indigo) and husband Jerry Schwartz (Onex) felt something needed to be done.
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Part two of the video.
Also, I asked Hot Docs a few weeks ago if they had pressured Scotiabank to divest from Elbit, and Hot Docs did not respond. See:
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Notable statement today from Toronto police re the viral video from Zara/Eaton Centre.
"It was our officers using their best judgement in de-escalating that situation, keeping somebody who was antagonistic to the protestors apart."
First time they've said he was antagonistic.
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CIJA doesn't have open elections, and it's difficult to get info about its internal workings.
Commentators note the group is almost in lock-step with Israel's ruling conservative Likud party. It advocates, often successfully, for the Canadian government to be the same.
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If there's an eviction, Saxe should get a lot of the blame, but don't forget Chow. We'd all be howling about Tory if this happened in his time. Chow has been in for over four months, and now large-scale forced evictions are about to happen again for the first time since 2021?!
MY LATEST: Toronto confirms plans to clear Kensington Market encampment on Friday morning
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CIJA, founded around 2004, was not always the most prominent org claiming to represent Jewish interests in Canada.
The Canadian Jewish Congress, founded in 1919, long held that position, had internal elections, and rigorous debates on policy positions. It was a Zionist org.
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In 2015, Israel-based Cafe Landwer built a cafe in Jerusalem on top of a historic Islamic cemetery, part of a development that destroyed the cemetery where contemporaries of Muhammed may lie.
Article: Cafe built over Jerusalem Islamic graves sparks anger
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Several people in the Jewish community referred to this as a "hostile takeover."
The CJC closed in 2011, having been absorbed by CIJA.
CIJA focuses largely on pro-Israel, Zionist advocacy and lobbying. As Paul Weinberg writes, it acts "like a corporate public affairs firm."
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Six Toronto city councillors signed this, meaning 19 didn't or at least haven't yet, and neither has the mayor. Those who did/didn't pretty closely aligns with who did/didn't vote for the police budget increase amendment last month.
Freedom of assembly and expression are protected rights under Sec. 2 of the Charter.
The CCLA, OIPRD, and legal precedent have confirmed the absolute right to peaceful protest.
These rights must be protected as part of our democratic system, especially in challenging times.
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No. This is dangerous nonsense. For at least four reasons:
- Carbon capture technologies are unproven, incredibly risky bets
- Industry is not significantly investing in decarbonization
- Scope 3 emissions from BURNING FOSSIL FUELS
- Emissions intensity has gone up!
Short🧵
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Giller Prize gala interrupted again while winner being announced.
Very notable that during a literary event there is no mention from official speakers about Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, which is supported by Canada, and financed by sponsor Scotiabank.
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There are many opinions about CIJA in the Jewish community.
Several Jews I know completely disavow it.
Others, like Andrew Cohen in the article "Canadian Jews need to ask lobby group some tough questions," take issue with parts of it.
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Throwback to Jan 2019 with Quillette editor Jon Kay saying it's weird that
@briarpatchmag
& similar mags have lots of people working on fact-checking.
Fastforward to yesterday when Quillette published a fully made up story, then had to retract it in its entirety hours later.
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According to Toronto Life, "Shocked into action, Schwartz and Reisman summoned a group of fellow philanthropists," and they convened the "Israel Emergency Cabinet."
In
@CDN_Dimension
: "The New Israel Lobby in Action"
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Q3 profits of Canada's largest oil and gas companies have been reported:
Suncor $2.565 billion*
CNRL $2.814 billion
Imperial Oil $2.03 billion
Cenovus $1.609 billion
Tourmaline $2.098 billion
That adds up to over $11 billion. In Q3 of 2021, that figure was $5 billion.
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Packed house in Toronto for the launch of Harvesting Freedom. I believe it's the first memoir by someone working in Canada through the Temporary Foreign Worker program. The program was established in the 1960s and includes many farm workers, working with almost no rights.
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If anyone has inside info on what's happening with the Liberals and UNRWA funding, email The Grind at info[at[thegrindmag[dot]ca
There was supposedly going to be an announcement yesterday on resumption of funding but that was cancelled. Trudeau deflected when asked today.
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Not in article but:
- Liberal MP and parl sec of foreign affairs Rob Oliphant told a constituent defunding UNRWA was "political" and "opportunistic"
- Minister Hussen got yelled ar about exactly this while unsuccessfully trying to get into that reception at the AGO on Sat
Ottawa is resuming funding to UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Palestinians, CBC News has learned. The government paused funding in January after Israel alleged that 12 employees of UNRWA were involved in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
.
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As Reg Whitaker writes:
"During the first Gaza war in 2008, Reisman and Schwartz were so incensed by faint criticism of Israeli actions issuing from a few Liberals that the pair publicly decamped to take up residence with the Harperites."
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I'll just leave a few more articles.
First is Reg Whitaker's account from a few years ago of CIJA's formation, "The strange tale of Canada’s Israeli lobby."
The conclusion is notable, copied below.
READ:
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Reisman and Schwartz and others were close with Paul Martin (PM from 2003-2006) and successfully pressured him to get Canada to take stronger pro-Israel positions. Then...
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Cohen in 2018 noted that CIJA gets the bulk of its estimated $8 to $11 million of annual funding through Jewish Federations of Canada, and was of the opinion that donors to the Federation should be allowed to opt out of funding CIJA.
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He writes "if CIJA’s hardline stance on Israel remains, urge the federation to allow its donors to opt out of funding CIJA. Let them designate funds to other charities. If CIJA wants to advocate for Netanyahu, let it do so as an independent agency, with its own resources."
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This article has so many examples it could be broken into like seven separate, significant articles.
Article: 'Chilling effect': People expressing pro-Palestinian views censured, suspended from work and school
By
@brish_ti
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CIJA is very different from the Canadian Jewish Congress. (The Congress was absorbed by CIJA and folded).
Paul Weinberg wrote in 2015 that CIJA "discarded the CJC’s social justice themes."
And...
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If she hadn't called me and been on the phone when police jumped her, no one would have known for hours that police had kidnapped her off the street.
As she writes, "This act by the Toronto police was terrifying, traumatizing and frankly, disgusting."
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Freeland didn't show, cops said she isn't coming. Crowd slowly leaving the area.
Outside a Yorkville restaurant where Deputy Prime Minster
@cafreeland
and MP
@YaaraSaks
are scheduled to hold a dinner for supporters, protestors are standing at entrances and singing. A dozen or so cops on scene, at least six cruisers.
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Quoting from David Noble in
@CDN_Dimension
:
Over the next year, "through the facilitation of the United Israel Appeal Federation, which funded both the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and the Canada-Israel Committee (CIC)...
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... the Emergency Cabinet morphed into the CIJA. Chaired by Larry Tanenbaum, Brent Belzberg and Stephen Cummings, CIJA eventually brought both the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and the Canada-Israel Committee (CIC) under its effective control."
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I'm not going to try to document all CIJA has done. Others have done that, including misquoting people in a couple recent videos, effectively whipping up their supporters, media, politicians, etc into a frenzy in taking aim at pro-Palestinian supporters.
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Footage
BREAKING: Protestors disrupt
@scotiabank
’s Giller Prize Ceremony this evening. Scotiabank is funding the genocide of the Palestinian people through its $500 million stake in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer.
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Heard astronaut Chris Hadfield on CBC radio just now, turns out he has bad, billionaire-loving politics.
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Downtown Toronto today.
Scotiabank offices shut down, a bank that’s invested $500 million in Israel’s Elbit Systems. this makes it the largest foreign shareholder in the weapons contractor, directly profiting off of genocide and occupation
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One day sit-in currently happening outdoors on the Toronto Metropolitan University campus, calling for divestment from Israel. Talks and activities scheduled til 10 pm.
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Trudeau on Global News on Tuesday: "The police need to be arresting people who are engaged in acts of violence or breaking the law, whether it is a sound ordinance or a trespassing."
Ottawa police yesterday:
Palestinians and allies have been protesting for 11 weeks straight here in
#Ottawa
and have not once had issues when it came to "noise" but yesterday
@OttawaPolice
and
@OttawaBylaw
issued THREE separate tickets citing the noise bylaw for $490!!
This suppression is unacceptable.
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Given this, and that on Sat the speaker called it an "Israeli Zionist" business, and I didn't see/hear anything about Judeaism in the clips, it seems the boycott call was political and aligns with BDS, and there isn't evidence it targeted a Jewish business for being Jewish.
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@DeborahLyonsSE
Are you not happy that a leader who spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories was barred from entering one of Canada's preeminent cultural institutions?
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After she stood at the press conference with a sign, plainclothes police followed her onto the subway, two stops, out of the subway, then with eight police on scene they jumped her, pinned her to the ground and arrested her, making outrageous claims.
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Suncor's results come out later today, will add.
These profits are from only three (3) months of operation. They're major increases from last year, buoyed by high oil & gas prices. Even with these profits, the companies continue to ask prov & federal governments for more money.
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I'll leave it there. Open to corrections, additions, etc.
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There is also this paper about the UofT scandal involving Justice David Spiro, which gets into the history of CIJA.
"On the Cromwell Report: Spiro and External Influence" by Dr. Anver M. Emon
You can download the PDF here:
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Why doesn't
@CBCNews
just remind viewers tonight that the Ottawa light rail is a P3 involving SNC-Lavalin? Seems like at a time when good public transit is so important, it's worthwhile to explain who's responsible for things going (so to speak) off the rails?
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Very noticeable that many in the crowd started booing when it became clear what was being protested.
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If there is evidence that this was motivated by another factor or was violent, it's important to look at that. And I can understand people are concerned and may feel threatened, especially in the heightened media context. But we should seek to portray things accurately.
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He quotes former CJC president Bernie Farber, "There is no longer a Canadian Jewish Congress, but the community is still finding ways [to speak out], maybe not through its official body."
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If you have footage or a first hand account of the Palestine Land Day rally in Toronto today, please get in touch. May cover it for
@TheGrindTO
. Reply and I'll get in touch, or email info
@thegrindmag
.ca
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If the $16M in bonuses went to workers instead of execs, 300 people (half those laid off) could be paid $53,300.
Adrienne Arsenault asked CBC and Radio-Canada President Catherine Tait if executives will receive bonuses as 600 jobs (10% of staff) will be lost. Tait says it’s unclear, but doesn’t say no.
Execs made $16M in bonuses last year.
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A bit of an update on CIJA from May 2023, by Paul Weinberg. Article: "Is the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs losing influence?"
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Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) is a non-violent movement calling on people to not economically support Israel and Israeli business "until [Israel] complies with international law by meeting three demands" which you can read here.
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In 2008 and 2009, the company which owns Cafe Landwer, Federman & Sons, was a "Cooperating Organization" with the Herzliya Conference, an Israeli national security conference that the Israeli government is heavily involved in. I don't see record of involvement since.
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Interesting this decision came before the
@readthemaple
article exposing these permit approvals from the fall, which govt had previously tried to hide.
Also, how many military exports from Canada continue going the U.S. for use in weapons which are then sent to Israel?
#StarExclusive
: Trudeau government has paused non-lethal military exports to Israel over human rights concerns: sources
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Long story short: despite all the arrests (at least 34) related to the Lamport Stadium eviction and the protests after at 14 Division and at a later press conference against police repression, there were no convictions. Just a lot of withdrawn charges and absolute discharges.
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Israel and its supporters claim BDS is antisemitic, while other Jewish groups such as
@IndJewishVoices
support BDS, saying Zionists are "falsely accusing it of antisemitism" and conflating valid criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
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Hi
@globeandmail
@SylviaStead
, why do you to continue publishing Derek Burney op-eds without disclosing he was a TransCanada director for 13 years until April and was paid over $200k by the company in the last year, even when he addresses topics directly relevant to the company?
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Toronto police in the Eaton Centre yesterday also quickly gave a trespass notice to protestors sayung they had 5 mins to leave or they would be arrested. Probably over 100 cops at the mall. Photo is of when protestors had moved to the exit.
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@EmmaMci
I see nothing wrong with people knowing these mostly invisible connections in the media, and I don't see the article implying what you say. The author has previously, in cases like the Kay's, pointed out how one helped the other get an in, but doesn't do that with you.
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