Tag Archives: Palestine

Dear Mark Carney, Gaza is Starving

Dear Prime Minister Carney,

As you know, as we all know – Gaza is starving.

I urge Canada to do everything possible to stop the atrocities of mass starvation, forced removal and genocide in Gaza and in the illegally settled West Bank. Because we as a nation signed the 1948 Genocide Convention and the 1998 Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court, we are required  do everything in our power to fulfill our international obligations.

I join many Canadians asking our government for decisive action now.

  • Work actively on an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and the release of all Israeli and Palestinian captives.
  • Insist on full humanitarian access to Gaza. Demand that the Israeli ban on UNWRA be completely lifted.
  • Publicly support the role of international courts, and fully comply in holding to account those who violate international law. Recently, at a UN Human Rights Council, 50 states released a joint statement in “which they firmly rejected attempts to undermine the judicial independence of the ICC and the integrity of the Rome Statute system” – a direct statement about the US sanctions on Francesca Albanese and other ICC staff by the US. Why did Canada not speak out with so many of our allies about this? In June of 2024 and February of 2025, Canada did speak out expressing our “unwavering support for the independence, impartiality and integrity of the ICC” during similar attacks on the ICC. What has changed?
  • Enforce a comprehensive two way arms embargo. I was shocked to learn that earlier in July Canada authorized 37.2M dollars in new military exports to Israel, backing away from its previous “pause” of all new permits.
  • Withdraw from the free trade agreement between Israel and Canada, initiate investigations under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, strip charitable status from Canadian organizations found to be complicit in crimes under international law. 
  • Immediately join the 149 states who recognize the State of Palestine, and support all efforts for Palestine to be admitted as a full member of the United Nations.

Further, I have grave concerns about Bill C2 (the Strong Borders Act), which has passed the first reading in Parliament. Break this omnibus bill up, so that it can be properly and thoroughly debated in Parliament. Over 300 human rights and refugee rights groups across Canada have spoken up unanimously in the their deep concern that Bill C2 is an attack on refugee rights to seek asylum in Canada. Seeking asylum is a human right. Amnesty International writes that “Bill C2 “is congruent with the Trump administration’s vicious assault on refugee and migrant rights and its efforts to paint newcomers in a negative light. Intentionally or not, Bill C2 paints people escaping persecution and violence with the same brush as serious public safety concerns such as the flow of illegal fentanyl or weapons.”

One of our duties under international law is to provide refuge in the face of  continuing genocide and the present calls from Israel /U.S.  to rid all of Gaza of Palestinians. Canadians showed incredible solidarity with Ukrainians when our temporary visa system enabled the arrival of almost 300,000 Ukrainians. In contrast, the “special measures” visa program created for Palestinians in Gaza who have family in Canada has not seen a single person evacuated by the Canadian government through this route, although small numbers of Gazans have made it here other ways. Over 7500 Gazans have applied to come. We have blamed this abject failure on the need for biometric ID checks that are functionally impossible in what remains of  Gaza today. Other countries including Spain, Italy, France and Australia have all found ways to act. This is beyond unacceptable.

As a Canadian, I crave principled and ethical leadership on the international stage. We must, as Canadians, do everything possible to speak out and take actions to stop genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as  emphatically add our voice to strengthen the rule of law in this turbulent and violent world. If not now, when?

Sue Bland

To:

mark.carney@parl.gc.ca, Anita.Anand@parl.gc.ca

My MP – andrew.scheer@parl.gc.ca

Office of the Prime Minister, 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

Hon. Anita Anand, Foreign Affairs, 229 Wellington Street. Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6

Andrew Scheer, House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6

To read another related post, please check out https://poachedeggwoman.ca/my-heart-is-occupied/

“My Heart is Occupied” Watercolour, Ink, Pen, 8.5″ x 10.5″

 

 

 

 

My Heart is Occupied

“It may seem like it’s someone else’s children [being killed] – but there is no such thing as  someone else’s children.”   Omar El Akkad

In early May, I was reading a news article about Gaza and I could barely continue to the end. The article contained some of what you see in this painting and more – including that people from Gaza would be sent to Libya*, the latest plan from the Americans who have bankrolled this genocide. I felt like I might explode.

So, I painted.

Partway through May, Canada, the UK and France issued a (relatively) strongly worded statement on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. Finally – something that went beyond the protracted and continued silence from  G7 countries. I could feel my body relax a little, but not completely. It is one thing to say we will take further concrete actions, including targeted sanctions  – and another thing entirely to actually do it.

I feel grief at the horrific suffering of so many Palestinians. I feel another kind of grief about the silent  and not so silent complicity of so much of the world.

In Omar El Akkad’s remarkable book One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This, he writes, “It is a disorienting thing to keep a leger of atrocity. Alongside the ledger of atrocity, I keep another.”  He lists a number of brave acts of resistance.

“Every small act of resistance trains the muscles used to do it. Even the smallest acts matter.  If we call for justice in one instance, we might do it again and again,” he writes.

Like Omar El Akkad, I keep a second ledger. Here are just a few of the people in my ledger whose actions lend me courage:

  • Sayd is about 8, a small boy who attends rallies in Regina with his family.  He is, without question,  the most passionate, the loudest yeller, the most impish and mischievous little protester around weaving in an out of the crowd, suddenly appearing right beside you with his twinkling eyes and wide smile.   Just thinking about Sayd makes me smile! Sayd brings to mind why we are out here – he keeps the children of Palestine front and centre as we bang our pots and pans a few days after food and medicine was blockaded. Sayd reminds me that “there is no such thing as someone else’s children.”

Jeff’s handmade sign, which kickstarted the UNB-SJ encampment, June 2024

  • When I was visiting Saint John last year, I met many incredible  people speaking out for Palestine, including Jeff Houlahan, a professor of biology at UNB-SJ who has since retired. What I remember about Jeff is that he was so distraught about Gaza, he painted this sign, and set up in a lawn chair outside his offices at UNB. And so began the UNB – Saint John encampment. Now,  Jeff is joining the Global March to Gaza  from Cairo to Rafa taking place in mid June. “Watching the kids protesting on campuses… was inspirational,” Houlahan says. “The courage and compassion those kids brought every day in the face of indifference left me ashamed to be sitting on the couch watching. It felt like my generation was leaving them to fight alone. Some day our children and grandchildren will ask us — what did we do when Israel was imposing a final solution on the Palestinians?” You can follow Jeff’s Journey here on Instagram by following @women._for._palestine
  • My friend Diane came to a quiet Sunday Art for Palestine when she couldn’t erase a photograph she had seen in the news from her mind’s eye. The photo was of male patients and medical staff at a hospital in Gaza, blindfolded, almost naked and standing in a line. She acknowledged this horror by painting it, making a sign that could be used by others in rallies. This coming together to share the ways our hearts break by creating art lifts my spirits.
  • I met my Irish friend, Ruth Smith at Kenosee Lake Kitchen Party where she taught violin and sang. An amazing person, Ruth is also a broadcaster, a bodyworker, a poet, a yoga teacher and retreat leader. Teaching yoga at Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem in spring 2023 opened Ruth’s eyes to what apartheid looks like in the West Bank.  Ruth is an active member of Pals for Palestine. Together with her husband, Fergall Schill, and Palestinian artists Mohammad Kahla and Abed Alqam, they recorded this beautiful song. Be sure to watch the video and listen right to the end when Ruth’s marvelous laugh will give a taste of her amazing vitality and enduring resistance. Follow Ruth on Instagram at @theruthsmith

I will stop here, but it is so heartening to realize how many people, how many anecdotes – both big and small – I could add to this list. Yelling with passion, banging pots, walking from Cairo to Gaza, singing your heart out, acknowledging the heartbreak, writing about it, creating art in response are all acts of resistance which in turn, encourage the rest of us.

My friend Carla gave me a felted heart she made. The heart was broken and partly mended. This gift touched something in me. I began a small series of tiny paintings –  about the condition of my heart. Below is Carla’s heart, and the hearts that have so far followed.

*Last mention of moving 1 million from Gaza to Libya was May 19, 2025.

Carla’s felted heart – in hawthornes, the tree that cures the heart

“Heart Weary”, Tea stains, watercolour, ink, 4″ x 5.5″

“Willow Heart”, Tea, watercolour, 3″ x 4″

“Heart in a Vise”, 4″ x 4″. “Heart in a Vase”. 2″ x 3″, Watercolour and Ink

“Heart Attack”, handmade rubber stamps, 4″ x 6″

“With Heavy Hearts”, tea, watercolour, ink, 3.5″ x 5″