Canada's Complicity with U.S./Zionist Genocide

Official Canada Refuses to Meet with UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, visited Canada at the beginning of November as part of a speaking tour of North American universities. She had also been scheduled to meet with government officials including Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and to speak to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee but the invitations were withdrawn without explanation before she arrived in Canada.

Albanese held a press conference on November 5 on Parliament Hill at which she stated: "It is not lost on me that despite the urgency of the current moment, with a few important exceptions, the political leadership in this country chose to either not meet me or withdraw invitations to meet me. What are they fearing?"

At the press conference Albanese stated she was "snubbed" by both Global Affairs Canada and the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. Neither the Prime Minister's Office nor the Minister of Foreign Affair's office responded to media inquires for an explanation for the cancellation of these meetings.

Prior to her arrival, Zionist forces in Canada and Israel carried out what can best be described as hate propaganda, demanding that the Canadian government refuse to allow Albanese entry to Canada. The National Post carried an article on November 1 penned by Arsen Ostrovsky, a lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum, a Zionist NGO based in Israel, in which he wrote: "If the Canadian government is serious about tackling the unabated surge in Jew-hatred, it will deny entry to this unrepentant anti-Semite and terror apologist, masquerading as a UN official."

At the November 5 press conference Albanese noted as well, "It is clear to me that the Canadian people want more clarity, integrity and concrete action from their government on the atrocities we all see unfolding in Palestine, in Gaza."

The same government of Canada which gives standing ovations in the Parliament to a Ukrainian Nazi collaborator who was a member of the Waffen SS will not meet with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It will not discuss how to get humanitarian aid to the people of northern Gaza where the worst human rights catastrophe is taking place as a result of U.S./Zionist policy and actions.

While in Ottawa Albanese meets with members of the Canada-Palestine Parliamentary
Friendship Group, November 5, 2024

This is the kind of democracy Canada espouses today which justifies genocide under the banner of high ideals. Official Canada's refusal to meet with an official appointed by the UN Human Rights Council gives the lie to Canada's shameless self-promotion as a democracy, champion of human rights and of rule of law.

Albanese speaks at McGill University in Montreal, November 4, 2024

In contrast, the Canadian and Quebec people welcomed Albanese. At McGill University, the meeting had to be moved from the Faculty of Law to a ballroom at the Student Union building and had a standing-room only audience. She spoke at the University of Ottawa to a sold-out gathering. In Toronto an event at the University of Toronto on November 7 was sold out, attended by 500 people.

University of Ottawa, November 5, 2024

In response to the attacks by the U.S./Zionist lobby against Albanese, 30 international Jewish organizations, including, from Canada -- Independent Jewish Voices (Canada), If Not Now Canada and the United Jewish People's Order -- issued a joint letter on November 5 which stated in part:

"Ms. Albanese has been under relentless attack from politically motivated organizations like 'UN Watch,' which have been waging toxic smear campaigns to silence her and to harm her human rights mandate. Those organizations have one objective: shielding the Israeli government from international criticism and legal accountability.

"Regrettably, representatives of some Western governments have been giving a strong tailwind to these smear campaigns, by accusing Ms. Albanese of anti-Semitism. We reject such allegations, which are unfounded and recklessly incite against Ms. Albanese, at the risk of endangering her personal safety.

"Speaking out in defence of more than two million civilians in Gaza whose lives are existentially threatened, including by deliberate starvation, Ms. Albanese has been denouncing the political collusion and military complicity of Western governments in Israel's annihilation of Gaza. Instead of stopping Israel's war crimes, some of those governments are attempting to silence the messenger."

The joint letter ends: "We commend the exceptional moral steadfastness of UN Human Rights Rapporteur Albanese amid the unspeakable suffering of the Palestinians and in the face of the malign attacks against her and her UN mandate."

Ms. Albanese's most recent report issued October 1, entitled "Genocide as Colonial Erasure" can be found here.

UN Special Rapporteur Albanese receives standing ovation at her visit to the University of Toronto, November 7, 2024.

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This article was published in

Friday, November 15, 2024

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/ITN2024/Articles/TI54511.HTM

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