Huge overspend claims at DR Congo's Francophone Games under audit

Kinshasa (AFP) – Financial auditors have arrived in DR Congo to investigate this summer's Francophone Games in Kinshasa, said the event organisers on Monday after being being blamed for vast overspending.

Issued on: 30/10/2023

The Francophone Games opening extravaganza at Kinshasa's Stade des Martyrs stadium © Alexis HUGUET / AFP/File

The auditors from the International Organisation of La Francophonie (IOF) -- the French-speaking equivalent of the Commonwealth -- will stay in the central African nation for five days after landing Sunday for a mission planned before controversy over overspending erupted.

Between July 28 and August 6 the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) hosted the the Francophone Games in Kinshasa for the first time.

The international event in the impoverished central African country was considered mostly a success.

But DRC's finance minister Nicolas Kazadi on Saturday pointed to huge budget overruns, blaming the organisers for poor planning as well as changing the budget without approval.

The Games were originally meant to cost $48 million, Kazadi said, but ended up running to $324 million.

Isidore Kwandja, the director of the Games' organising committee, responded on social media that funds had been managed carefully and that the committee was "surprised" by the figure of $324 million.

The IOF had approved an operating budget of 66.9 million euros ($70.7 million), he said.

Auditors arrived in the DRC on Sunday, according to a statement released by the IOF on Monday.

© 2023 AFP

Record 6.9 million internally displaced in DR Congo, UN says

Escalating violence has pushed the number of people internally displaced within the Democratic Republic of Congo to a record 6.9 million, the United Nations said Monday.


Issued on: 30/10/2023 - 

Residents of Bambo in Rutshuru territory, 60 kilometers north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, flee as the M23 attacked the town on October 26, 2023. 

© Alexis Huguet, AFP

By: NEWS WIRES

The conflict between M23 rebels and militias loyal to the DRC's government has intensified in the eastern province of North Kivu since early October, particularly north of the provincial capital Goma.

The UN's International Organization for Migration said many people who have fled their homes but stayed within the DRC's borders desperately needed help to meet their basic needs.

"The IOM is intensifying its efforts to address the complex and persistent crisis in the DRC as the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) climbs to 6.9 million people across the country -- the highest number recorded yet," it said in a statement.

"With ongoing conflict and escalating violence, the DRC is facing one of the largest internal displacement and humanitarian crises in the world."

The M23, which has captured swathes of territory in the east since 2021, is one of several militias holding sway over much of the region despite the presence of international peacekeepers.

The IOM said that as of October 2023, about 5.6 million internally displaced people were living in the eastern provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, and Tanganyika.

"Conflict has been reported as the primary reason for displacement," it said.

In North Kivu up to one million people have been displaced due the ongoing conflict with the M23.

Independent UN experts, the Kinshasa government and several Western nations including the United States and France accuse Rwanda of backing the Tutsi-led M23, which Kigali denies.
'Storm of crises'

"As the security situation, particularly in North Kivu and Ituri, continues to deteriorate, movements become more frequent and humanitarian needs soar," the IOM said.

The UN's humanitarian agency OCHA says almost 200,000 people have fled their homes because of the fighting since October 1 in Rutshuru and Masisi territory, north of Goma, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in eastern DRC.

"For decades, the Congolese people have been living through a storm of crises," said Fabien Sambussy, the IOM's DRC mission chief.

"The most recent escalation of the conflict has uprooted more people in less time like rarely seen before. We urgently need to deliver help to those most in need."

The IOM said that on top of the large-scale humanitarian crisis in the east, other regions have experienced conflict, insecurity, and disasters such as floods and landslides.

The IOM said there was limited humanitarian access and a backdrop of security concerns.

More than two-thirds of the DRC's internally displaced people live with host families.

The IOM is involved in managing 78 displacement sites hosting more than 280,000 people, and is enhancing mental health services for residents facing psychological distress.

"But many more people desperately require assistance to meet their basic needs," it said.

Only $37 million has been received of the $100 million sought by the IOM for its DRC operations.

The organisation wants "increased resources to meet the most pressing needs of communities affected by protracted and repeated internal displacement".

UN peacekeepers have been present in the DRC since 1999. Known as MONUSCO, the peacekeeping mission is one of the largest and costliest in the world, with an annual budget of around $1 billion.

But the force is deeply unpopular due to perceptions that it has failed to curb violence, and the government wants MONUSCO to leave.

(AFP)

Former Spanish football chief banned for three years over forced kiss

The Spanish soccer official who provoked a players’ rebellion and reckoning on gender when he kissed an unwilling star player on the lips at the Women's World Cup final trophy ceremony was banned for three years on Monday by the sport's global governing body.


Issued on: 30/10/2023 

Former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales arrives at the high court in Madrid, Spain on September 15, 2023. 

© Susana Vera, Reuters
By:NEWS WIRES


Luis Rubiales' conduct at the Aug. 20 final in Australia — and his defiant refusal to resign as Spanish soccer federation president for three weeks — distracted many people from the women's career-defining title win.

Rubiales is now barred from working in soccer until after the men's 2026 World Cup. His ban will expire before the next women's tournament in 2027.

Spanish authorities have launched a criminal investigation against Rubiales for kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips after the team's 1-0 victory over England in Sydney, and his conduct in the fallout from the scandal.

Spanish prosecutors have formally accused Rubiales of sexual assault and coercion. Hermoso said that Rubiales pressured her to speak out in his defense amid the global furor.

Rubiales denied wrongdoing to a judge in Madrid who imposed a restraining order for him not to contact Hermoso, the record goal scorer for the Spain women's team.

FIFA has said it was investigating whether Rubiales violated “basic rules of decent conduct” and “behaving in a way that brings the sport of football and/or FIFA into disrepute.”

In another incident, at the final whistle in Sydney Rubiales grabbed his crotch as a victory gesture while he was in an exclusive section of seats and Queen Letizia of Spain and 16-year-old Princess Sofía were standing close nearby.

A third incident FIFA judges cited to remove Rubiales from office during their investigation — “carrying the Spanish player Athenea del Castillo over his shoulder during the post-match celebrations” — was detailed in a ruling to explain why he was provisionally suspended.

Women's soccer has seen allegations of sexual misconduct by male soccer presidents and coaches against female players on national teams.

Two of the 32 World Cup teams, Haiti and Zambia, had to deal with such issues while qualifying for the tournament co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Even before the Women's World Cup, Rubiales — a former professional player and union leader — had been the target of unproven allegations of a sexual nature about his managerial culture, including at the national federation he led since 2018.

The Spanish players' preparation for the Women's World Cup also was in turmoil in the year ahead of the tournament because of their dissatisfaction with the leadership of their male coach, Jorge Vilda.

Vilda was supported by Rubiales to stay in the job despite 15 players asking last year not to be called up again because of the emotional pain it meant to play for the team. Three continued their self-imposed exile and refused to be selected for the World Cup.

As the Rubiales scandal continued into September, with lawmakers supporting the players, Vilda was fired by the federation's interim management.

Rubiales resigned from his jobs in soccer on Sept. 10 after three weeks of defiance that increased pressure on him from the Spanish government and national-team players.

“After my swift suspension by FIFA, and the rest of the cases building against me, it is clear that I cannot return to the post,” Rubiales said when finally giving up the federation presidency.

He also gave up his vice presidency of European soccer body UEFA which paid him 250,000 euros ($265,000) a year. One day later UEFA thanked Rubiales for his service in a statement that offered no backing to the women players.

When Rubiales resigned he said he did not want to be a distraction from Spain’s bid to host the men’s 2030 World Cup in a UEFA-backed project with Portugal and Morocco.

That bid has since been picked by FIFA as the only candidate to host the 2030 tournament in a plan that now also includes its former opponents Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. That unprecedented three-continent deal has allowed Saudi Arabia to emerge as the overwhelming favorite to host the men's 2034 World Cup.

The Morocco soccer federation that partnered with Spain on the men's 2030 World Cup later hired Vilda to coach its women's national team. The Morocco women were a standout story at their World Cup reaching the last-16 knockout round in their tournament debut.

The quick forgiveness of Vilda fueled the view that soccer administrators’ actions often do not meet their claims of zero tolerance of misconduct.

Rubiales can choose to appeal his three-year ban, first to FIFA and subsequently at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

FIFA said Rubiales has 10 days to request the full written verdict in his case which it would then publish.

“FIFA reiterates its absolute commitment to respecting and protecting the integrity of all people,” the Zurich-based soccer body said Monday, “and ensuring that the basic rules of decent conduct are upheld.”

(AP)

Two dead as Bangladesh garment workers protest low pay

Dhaka (AFP) – Thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh walked off the job in protest at low wages Monday, sparking clashes with security forces and damaging multiple factories in unrest that left at least two people dead, police said.

Garment workers protest often in Bangladesh, where the industry accounts for 85 percent of the country's $55 billion in annual exports © Munir uz ZAMAN / AFP/File

Bangladesh is one of the world's largest garment exporters, with the industry accounting for 85 percent of the South Asian country's $55 billion in annual exports, but conditions are dire for many of its four million apparel workers.

Police said at least 10,000 workers left their shifts and staged protests in Gazipur, the country's largest industrial city, where a six-storey factory was torched, leading to one of the two fatalities.

Another 7,000 protested in the central towns of Ashulia and Hemayetpur, authorities said.

Ashulia garment union leader Mohammad Ibrahim disputed the police figures, saying there were more than 100,000 protesters.

The worst violence erupted on a highway north of the capital Dhaka to Mymensingh, where at least 4,000 workers clashed with police, blocked the road and set fire to a pick-up truck, officers told AFP.

"One garment worker was injured during the clashes, and he died as he was taken to a hospital," said Sarwar Alam, chief of the industrial police unit in Gazipur.

"They hurled rocks at our officers like rain. Some policemen were injured during the clashes. We fired tear gas and sound grenades to disperse the workers."

In Gazipur, workers targetted plants which they claimed did not allow workers to join the demonstrations, torching a factory at Konabari, police and a fire service official said.

"One worker of ABM Fashions died from suffocation after the fire spread to the first three floors," Gazipur fire service chief Abdullah Al Arefin told AFP.

"We rescued another worker alive," he added.

Police said at least 40 factories were damaged after protesters smashed windows and damaged furniture.

Mahbubur Rahman, police chief of Bangladesh's industrial regions, told AFP authorities were talking to union leaders to peacefully resolve the protests.

'Basic needs'

Bangladesh is home to around 3,500 garment factories, where clothing for some of the world's largest retailers and brands is made, but the basic monthly wage for workers is just 8,300 taka ($75).

Protests erupted over the weekend after the powerful manufacturers' association offered a 25 percent raise, ignoring union demands for a new monthly minimum basic wage of 23,000 taka -- nearly a threefold increase.

The South Asian country of nearly 170 million has overtaken its neighbour India in per capita income, with the garment industry at the centre of its impressive growth over the past two decades.

But wage protests pose a major challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 2009. A resurgent opposition has challenged her rule as she readies for elections due before January.

Her government set up a panel this year to set a new minimum wage.

Unions say that garment factory owners -- who include ministers and influential lawmakers -- have played a role in fixing the minimum wage during past negotiations.

"The workers have been badly impacted by a cost of living crisis, and the cost of food has skyrocketed," said Taslima Akter, the head of the Garment Sramik Samhati union.

"If you take into account inflation and the depreciation of the taka against the dollar... the manufacturers were offering less than what a worker got in 2017 when the basic minimum wage was fixed."

Major brands including Gap, Levi Strauss, Lululemon, and Patagonia wrote a letter to Hasina this month calling for a "successful conclusion" to wage negotiations.

"The consultations should seek to raise the minimum wage to a level that corresponds with a wage level and benefits that are sufficient to cover workers' basic needs and some discretionary income," the companies wrote on October 13.

Protests over wages and shoddy safety conditions often erupt in Bangladesh.

In 2006, protesters torched at least 16 factories in wage protests that left several people dead.

Major wage and safety protests also erupted in 2013, after the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building, which left at least 1,134 people dead.

Issued on: 30/10/2023 - 

© 2023 AFP

 Climate scientist Saleemul Huq, who emphasized helping poor nations adapt to warming, dies at 71

Saleemul Huq, a pioneering climate scientist from Bangladesh who pushed to get the world to understand, pay for and adapt to worsening warming impacts on poorer nations, died of cardiac arrest Saturday. He was 71.

“Saleem always focused on the poor and marginalized, making sure that climate change was about people, their lives, health and livelihoods,” said University of Washington climate and health scientist Kristie Ebi, a friend of Huq’s.

Huq, who died in Dhaka, directed and helped found the International Centre for Climate Change and Development there. He was also a senior associate and program founder at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London and taught at universities in England and Bangladesh. He was an early force for community-based efforts to adapt to what climate change did to poor nations.

Queen Elizabeth II bestowed the Order of the British Empire on him in 2022 for his efforts.

“As a dual Bangladeshi and British citizen, I have been working for two decades to enhance collaboration between the universities and researchers in both countries to tackle the twin global challenges of poverty eradication and dealing with climate change,” Huq said in receiving the honor.

Huq published hundreds of scientific and popular articles and was named as one of the top 10 scientists in the world by the scientific journal Nature in 2022.

“Your steadfast dedication to those impacted by climate change, even until your last breath, coupled with your advocacy for the poorest and most vulnerable, has crafted a legacy that stands unparalleled,” Climate Action Network’s Harjeet Singh posted in a tribute on X, formerly known as Twitter.

For years, one of Huq’s biggest goals was to create a loss and damage program for developing nations hit hard by climate change, paid for by richer nations that mostly created the problem with their emissions. United Nations climate negotiators last year approved the creation of that fund, but efforts to get it going further have so far stalled.

Huq, who had been to every United Nations climate negotiations session, called Conferences of Parties (COP), started a 20-year tradition of a special focus on adapting to climate change, initially called Adaptation Days, said Ebi. He did it by bringing a rural Bangladeshi farmer to the high-level negotiations to just talk about her experiences.

That’s now blossomed into a multi-day event and focuses on adaptation, said former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official Joel Smith, a friend of Huq’s.

At those COPs, Huq was so busy, talking to so many people, that his friends and colleagues used to joke when they couldn’t find him at his makeshift office that “Saleem is everywhere ... he’s just not here,” Ebi said. People swarmed him to talk at the negotiations.

“I fear the developing countries have lost an incredible voice,” Smith said.

It wasn’t just what Huq did, but how he worked, with humor, persistence and calmness, Smith said.

“I never saw him get upset,” Smith said. “I never saw him raise his voice. There was an equanimity about him.”

Smith and Ebi said Huq also fostered a program of countless young scientists from the developing world, who he would help connect with others.

“Much of the nature of the negotiations today has to do with the all the scientists from least developed countries who went through Saleem’s training program,” Ebi said.

Huq leaves his widow, a son and daughter.

___

Follow Seth Borenstein on X, formerly known as Twitter at @borenbears

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press

NS

Housing group brings renters' troubles with corporate landlords to review panel

© Provided by The Canadian Press

HALIFAX — A national housing advocacy group delivered about 400 stories of renters' difficulties in dealing with large corporate landlords to federal offices in 10 Canadian citiestoday.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, held rallies in cities including Toronto, Halifax, Vancouver and Ottawa as they provided the testimonials to Liberal MPs and to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.

The tenantsdescribe how after their rental units were taken over by real estate investment trusts or large companies, they often faced higher rents, and — in some instances — poor maintenance.

The group made the deliveries as their national spokesperson, Tanya Burkart, joined with other advocate groups providing testimony toan online federal review panel that is examining the impact of rental housing being bought up by large investment firms.

The testimonials were also providedin Augustto the federal review panel, which will report to the federal housing minister next year.

According to a summary of reports prepared for the Federal Housing Advocate, released last year, financial firms began consolidating ownership of family housing in the late 1990s, and an estimated 340,000 suites are now owned by the largest financial firms in the country.

The report, by Martine August, says institutions hold an estimated 20 to 30 per cent of multi-family rental units, "with consolidation increasing each year."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2023.

The Canadian Press

Protesters condemn Quebec plan to double tuition for out-of-province students

MONTREAL — Protesters who oppose Quebec's plan to double tuition for out-of-province students said Monday the provincial government hasn't offered any evidence that the move will protect the French language.

Many participants at the protest in Montreal, which stretched for around two city blocks, wore purple, the colour of Bishop's University, the province's smallest English-language university and the only one located outside Quebec's biggest city.

Sophia Stacey, president of the student association at the Sherbrooke Que., school, says she worries about Bishop's ability to survive without out-of-province students — who make up almost a third of its 2,900-person student body.

“Even if Bishop's does survive, what's at risk is the diverse identity that's made Bishop’s what it is for the past 180 years,” she said in an interview. 

Stacey, who moved to Quebec from Medicine Hat, Alta., said part of the reason she decided to study at Bishop’s was to improve her French.

“You walk through campus, you hear people speaking in French. Although it’s an English university, we're giving out-of-province and international students the tools and the environment they need to learn French while they're studying here,” she said. 

One of her fellow students, Kendra Buchner, carried a sign that read — in French — "I love Quebec, but Quebec doesn't love me."

Related video: How Quebec's public sector labour dispute could affect you (cbc.ca)  View on Watch

The Bishop's drama student is doing a minor in French. She said she fell in love with Quebec during an exchange program and decided to study in the province, but doesn't know if she will stay after graduation. Government policies, such as the proposed tuition increase and last year's language law reform, have made her feel increasingly unwelcome. 

"To hear (Higher Education Minister) Pascale Déry say, 'We're tired of people going back to their home province after they're done their education,' but what reasons are you giving us to stay? You're essentially driving us out," she said in an interview. 

She said she also worries about how francophone students from Ontario, New Brunswick and other parts of the country will be able to study in Quebec after tuition rises next year from about $9,000 to around $17,000.

In Quebec City, Premier François Legault defended the plan to increase tuition for undergraduate and professional master's degrees precisely because it will limit the number of students at English universities. 

While anglophones make up nine per cent of Quebec's population, he said, 25 per cent of students in the province attend English-language universities and he said he fears that percentage will rise at a time when, he argues, the French language is declining. 

"I think that these proposals are reasonable and I think that the three anglophone universities must appreciate that getting 25 per cent of all university students in Quebec is a lot and maybe it's a bit too much," he told reporters. 

English was heard most often at Monday's protest, but francophone student groups have also opposed the proposed increase.

Catherine Bibeau-Lorrain, the president of Union étudiante du Québec, a student group with 93,000 members from 11 student unions, all of which, except for Bishop's, are at francophone schools, said the issue is one of accessibility, not language. 

"A student cannot pay around $20,000 for their studies, it's not viable and it does not encourage students to come study in Quebec, and to, after, maybe work in Quebec," she said.

Many out-of-province students fall in love with Quebec's culture and language — and learn French, increasing the number of French-speakers, Bibeau-Lorrain said.

Provincial government officials have said the tuition hike would help correct an imbalance between the French and English university networks, created by the higher number of out-of-province students at English schools. But Bibeau-Lorrain said Déry has not presented any figures to show that French-language universities will actually benefit from the new measures. 

Lisa Bornstein, an urban planning professor at McGill University, said many of her students stay after graduation; while some go on to teach, others work as planners or for community organizations, giving back to the province that supported their education. 

"If the amount of money that our departments and universities retain falls, it means our money to give scholarships for all students changes, we can't support them the same way, and that means that the schools become schools for the wealthy," she said. "That's a tragedy." 

Bornstein said she — and her students — regularly collaborate with colleagues from francophone universities.

"I understand the need and desire to make sure that people who are in our programs learn French, but increasing access to learning French seems like a much more sensible approach, rather than restricting the numbers of people who come in," she said. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2023. 

Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press

Enforcing Ontario government’s witch-hunt, York University threatens pro-Palestinian student associations with de-registration

William Grant

WSWS.ORG

The Canadian ruling elite’s efforts to witch hunt and intimidate into silence any and all critics of Israel’s brutal genocide against the population of Gaza is having a chilling impact on university campuses. At multiple institutions, including York University in Toronto, student associations and clubs have been threatened with de-registration for expressing support for the Palestinian people and condemning Israeli war crimes.

This campaign of vilification reached a new peak when Ontario Colleges and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop denounced by name students and academics from the floor of the provincial legislature as “anti-Semites” and “supporters of terror.” Previously, she had demanded on behalf of the province’s hard-right, Doug Ford-led Progressive Conservative government that York and other government-funded universities take action against student groups voicing support for the Palestinian people’s right to challenge Israeli dispossession and repression.    

It is within this climate that the administration at the province’s second largest post-secondary institution, Toronto’s York University, has felt emboldened to threaten several student representative bodies for their defence of the Palestinians. On October 12, the York Federation of Students, York University Graduate Student Association and the Glendon College Student Union issued a statement condemning Israel’s illegal and bloody suppression of the Palestinian population. The statement declared that “Recently, in a strong act of resistance, the Palestinian people tore down and crossed the illegitimate border fence erected by the settler-colonial apartheid state of so-called Israel” and that “These resistance efforts are a direct response to the ongoing and violent occupation of Palestine.”

For any honest observer of the treatment of the Palestinians by Israel, these statements would not be controversial but an acknowledgment of fact. Gaza has been declared an “open-air prison” since 2007, where millions are terrorized by the Israeli military. These dire conditions are tolerated because Israel remains a critical outpost of American power in the Middle East. So long as the United States remains the global hegemon of world capitalism, then Israel can continue to act with impunity in terrorizing the Palestinian population.

However, the student groups’ statement directly challenged the ruling-class narrative of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, which the entire political establishment and corporate media have universally denounced as the “terrorism” and the act of “terrorists.” York University administrators therefore responded swiftly with bureaucratic threats. On October 13, the university administration issued a statement threatening to remove recognition of the three York student unions unless they retracted their pro-Palestinian declaration.

Rather than address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the York administration arbitrarily framed the statement as being antisemitic. “We call upon the executives of the York Federation of Students, York University Graduate Student Association, and the Glendon College Student Union to immediately clarify that they firmly reject any acts of violence or discrimination against Jewish students or other members of the community, and to reaffirm their commitment to non-violence and the safety of all of their members,” it asserted.

This attempt to frame a condemnation of Israel and support for the Palestinian people as antisemitic is a textbook example of right-wing efforts to delegitimize criticism of Zionism, an inherently anti-democratic and exclusivist ideology. Considering York University is invested in arms manufacturing and fossil fuels and sits upon masses of real estate and student housing, its administration is behaving like any other capitalist business in rallying around the banner of imperialism and endorsing Israeli war crimes.

The university administration feels capable of proceeding with such aggression because it is part of a comprehensive onslaught on democratic rights organized by the entire ruling elite. Governments at all levels and corporate media outlets incessantly denounce criticism of Israeli war crimes as “anti-Semitic” and support for “terrorism.” The New Democratic Party joined this campaign by throwing Sarah Jama, a member of the Ontario provincial legislature, out of the party’s caucus last week for a statement defending the Palestinians. Jama has been censured in the legislature by the Ford government, preventing her from speaking until she renounces and deletes her statement, and issues an “apology.”

Hundreds of students attended Wednesday's rally opposing the university administration's campaign of intimidation and censorship

Student reaction has been swift in condemning the actions of the university as it attempts to stifle free speech on campus. Student groups like the Graduate Political Science Student Association (GPSSA) have organized meetings that have been attended in record numbers to draft statements supporting the right to free speech and academic integrity and condemning the genocide in Palestine.

Last Wednesday, delegates from student associations, union representatives, and participants from the student body met in front of Vari Hall to stage a rally in defense of academic freedom and to denounce the anti-democratic university administration. The rally was well attended with hundreds of students present. There was a heavy presence of York University security at the event, with many private security guards monitoring the crowd. The event itself was peaceful with speakers making numerous expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

This is a powerful current running through the youth and working class. The sympathy for a people being brutally oppressed and murdered is proving difficult to stamp out. While all the media conglomerates and state resources of the American and Canadian states and their allies are mobilized to turn public opinion against the Palestinians, they are having a remarkably difficult time. Conditions have changed in the last twenty years that make previous media blitzes like those surrounding the 2006 Lebanon war far less effective. Trust in media and the state is low as their lies collide with reality. Workers are told the economy is doing well and will bring them prosperity, and that the liberal “rules-based order” values human rights. But this runs up against reality and experiences. The hot-poker of deteriorating social conditions is giving students and workers the same experiences and conditioning the same reaction to the actions of the imperialist states—revulsion.

But this struggle cannot remain limited to the student unions, nor confined to the campuses. To combat the genocidal attack on the Palestinian people requires confronting global capitalism and great questions of history. Above all, it demands a turn to the working class, the decisive revolutionary force in society, whose struggles for social and economic improvements that have already seen millions strike around the world this year must be unified with the burgeoning movement against war.

Students must understand that the struggle against censorship developing at York University is not an isolated event. Rather, it is part of a wider global struggle against anti-democratic attacks by university administrations and capitalist governments targeting democratic and socialist leaning students. Just last week, the administration at Humboldt University in the German capital of Berlin blocked the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) from holding a meeting on Israel’s genocide on the spurious basis that student clubs cannot express opinions about “general political events.”

York students need to look to the working class and expanding their struggle internationally, imbuing it with democratic-egalitarian and socialist political content. To that end, students should join the IYSSE and build clubs at their universities. They must look beyond the parochial interests of the student associations and look toward organizing an independent movement of the working class on an international basis. Only by involving the broader working class can capitalism be confronted. 

To take up this fight, contact us at iysseincanada@gmail.com

Toronto protesters rally in support of Gaza ceasefire as Jewish community holds vigil

With thousands attending a pro-Palestinian rally in Toronto, hundreds gathered for a vigil in the northern part of the city for Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. Ahmar Khan reports. 

 “Ceasefire now”: Rally in support of Gaza fills downtown Toronto as Israel steps up ground offensive

Thousands from across the GTA gathered at Nathan Philips Square in solidarity with Palestinians on Saturday, as the Israeli government stepped up its ground offensive in Gaza.

Protesters were calling for a ceasefire, as well as more action from the Canadian government, as tensions continue to climb amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The rally began in Pickering and made its way to Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square, causing rolling road closures along the way.

Lexy Benedict has more. 

 

Members of Jewish community rally in Toronto against Israeli military actions in Gaza

Hundreds of protestors gathered outside of the Consulate General of Israel in Toronto early Monday, Oct. 23, to demonstrate against the killing of thousands of Palestinians in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Some 1,400 people were killed and another 200 were taken hostage during the Oct. 7 incursion. It’s estimated that more than 5,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the beginning of the latest conflict. 

The demonstrators, who identified themselves as members of the Jewish community, expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian people and their opposition to Israeli military operations in Gaza.  

Monday’s protest in Toronto is one of several that have taken place across Canada. On Monday in Winnipeg there were pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies. In Vancouver, police kept a vigil for rallies on the weekend, including one at the art gallery calling for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. 

Meanwhile, many Jewish organizations in Canada, including B'nai Brith and the Jewish Federations of Canada have offered support to Israel in its war on Hamas launched after the Oct. 7 attack. 

Meanwhile, many Jewish organizations in Canada, including B'nai Brith and the Jewish Federations of Canada have offered support to Israel in its war on Hamas launched after the Oct. 7 attack. “Israel and its people are under attack by murderous terrorists, and neither Canada nor the world can be silent in the face of this depravity,” Michael Mostyn, B’nai Brith Canada’s Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement. “There can be no equivocation. Israel not only has the right to defend itself, it has the duty to defend itself, and must do so.”

In addition, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Israel has a right to defend itself in accordance with international law. 

The Israeli mission in Toronto was the scene of a similar rally last Wednesday to protest the levelling of a Gaza hospital that killed an estimated 500 people on Oct. 17. Canada is now  the third Western ally to back Israel's claim that its forces were  not behind the blast at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital on Oct. 17.

Protestors at Monday’s Toronto rally at the intersection of Yonge and Bloor streets in Toronto called on the Israeili government to implement an immediate ceasefire and “end genocide” in Gaza.

About 500 demonstrators were at the rally, saying they were against Zionism, racism and the “occupation” of Gaza by Israel. Some protestors waved and wore Palestinian flags.

Hamilton Rabbi David Mivasair,  who immigrated to Canada 28 years ago, urged Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to stop attacking Gaza.

“I am here as a Jewish person,” Mivasair told New Canadian Media. “I have a special moral responsibility to do everything I can. Then, as a Canadian and living in a democracy I want my government to know that I and other Jews are against this genocide.” 

Mivasair criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, too.

“We do not understand who the Canadian government thinks they are working for. Who do they represent? Who are they doing this for? It is not for us. So, we came today to get that message across,” Mivasair said..

Mivasair was recently arrested with hundreds of Jewish protesters while calling for an end to the violence in Gaza at a U.S. government building in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.

Mivasair said that bombing hospitals, schools, and people's homes is a war crime.

“Eighty percent of the people in Gaza are the descendants of people who were expelled from their own homes, right in 1948. They lived all over Palestine, and villages and neighbourhoods and towns and cities and the Jews expelled them and took their home,” he said.

Mivasair called on the Canadian government to “stop tax receipts for illegal charitable donations that are going to support settlers, or millions of dollars in charity go to support settlements in the West Bank.”

A convoy of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid which were waiting to cross the border entered Gaza on Saturday while more than 150 others were still waiting as of Oct. 22..

Demonstrators shouted slogans at Israel's Consulate, calling for humanitarian aid to be delivered for Palestinians in southern Gaza.

“This is not what Judaism teaches, the death of Palestinians will never be in the interest of Jewish safety,” said Surya Cantor, a Jewish supporter and a community organizer in Toronto.

“It is a politic of supremacy, and it is not about religion,” added Cantor who grew up in a Zionist home and a Zionist community.

Cantor said that cutting off the basic needs of millions of people, such as food, water, electricity, and medication is “a crime.”

“Israel is committing apartheid,” Cantor said.

The crowd sang chants for “the freedom of Palestine.” Cantor also prayed while speaking to the crowd using a microphone.

Sadie, a Jewish demonstrator whose last name is being withheld due to safety concerns, said: “I do not believe in Zionism, I do not believe in the State of Israel.”

“They cannot say that they are speaking for the Jewish people when they murder Palestinians,” she added.

Meanwhile, on X, formerly known as Twitter, Trudeau on Sunday reaffirmed his support for Israel's right to self-defence, in accordance with international law.

The crowd protested against Trudeau’s message.  

“Canada should call for [the end of] Israeli apartheid and Palestinians [must have the] right to return to their own lands, but first ceasefire now,” Sadie said.

Asked if the current military campaign was self-defence, Sadie said, “Many governments keep saying that Israel has the right to defend itself and of course, it is sad to lose any lives. However, Israel has occupied Gaza for 75 years. This is colonial genocide, and it cannot be taken out of its historical context. This is not a one-time event.”

As of the 2021 Census, nearly 700,000 people in Canada described themselves as Arab, while 45,905 said their cultural origin is Palestinian. Another 282,015 are of Jewish origin, according to the latest census tables. 

_____

Nur Dogan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, New Canadian Media

NAKBA 2.0

An Israeli ministry, in a 'concept paper,' proposes transferring Gaza civilians to Egypt's Sinai  

(IS A DESERT)

The document’s authors deem this alternative to be the most desirable for Israel’s security.

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli government ministry has drafted a wartime proposal to transfer the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million people to Egypt's Sinai peninsula, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians and worsening tensions with Cairo.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office played down the report compiled by the Intelligence Ministry as a hypothetical exercise — a “concept paper.” But its conclusions deepened long-standing Egyptian fears that Israel wants to make Gaza into Egypt's problem, and revived for Palestinians memories of their greatest trauma — the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of people who fled or were forced from their homes during the fighting surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.

“We are against transfer to any place, in any form, and we consider it a red line that we will not allow to be crossed," Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said of the report. “What happened in 1948 will not be allowed to happen again."

A mass displacement, Rudeineh said, would be “tantamount to declaring a new war.”

So far more than 8,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, have been killed since Israel went to war against Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack.

AIMED AT PRESERVING SECURITY FOR ISRAEL

The document is dated Oct. 13, six days after Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel and took over 240 hostage in an attack that provoked a devastating Israeli war in Gaza. It was first published by Sicha Mekomit, a local news site.

In its report, the Intelligence Ministry — a junior ministry that conducts research but does not set policy — offered three alternatives "to effect a significant change in the civilian reality in the Gaza Strip in light of the Hamas crimes that led to the Sword of Iron war.

The document’s authors deem this alternative to be the most desirable for Israel’s security.

The document proposes moving Gaza’s civilian population to tent cities in northern Sinai, then building permanent cities and an undefined humanitarian corridor. A security zone would be established inside Israel to block the displaced Palestinians from entering. The report did not say what would become of Gaza once its population is cleared out.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report. But Egypt has made clear throughout this latest war that it does not want to take in a wave of Palestinian refugees.

Egypt has long feared that Israel wants to force a permanent expulsion of Palestinians into its territory, as happened during the war surrounding Israel's independence. Egypt ruled Gaza between 1948 and 1967, when Israel captured the territory, along with the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The vast majority of Gaza's population are the descendants of Palestinian refugees uprooted from what is now Israel.

Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, has said a mass influx of refugees from Gaza would eliminate the Palestinian nationalist cause. It would also risk bringing militants into Sinai, where they might launch attacks on Israel, he said. That would endanger the countries’ 1979 peace treaty. He proposed that Israel instead house Palestinians in its Negev Desert, which neighbors the Gaza Strip, until it ends its military operations.

Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said the paper threatened to damage relations with a key partner.

“If this paper is true, this is a grave mistake. It might cause a strategic rift between Israel and Egypt,” said Guzansky, who said he has consulted for the ministry in the past. “I see it either as ignorance or someone who wants to negatively affect Israel-Egypt relations, which are very important at this stage.”

Egypt is a valuable partner that cooperates behind the scenes with Israel, he said. If it is seen as overtly assisting an Israeli plan like this, especially involving the Palestinians, it could be “devastating to its stability."

QUESTIONS OF LEGITIMACY — AND OTHER POSSIBLE DESTINATIONS

Egypt would not necessarily be the Palestinian refugees' last stop. The document speaks about Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates supporting the plan either financially, or by taking in uprooted residents of Gaza as refugees and in the long term as citizens. Canada’s “lenient” immigration practices also make it a potential resettlement target, the document adds.

At first glance, this proposal “is liable to be complicated in terms of international legitimacy,” the document acknowledges. “In our assessment, fighting after the population is evacuated would lead to fewer civilian casualties compared to what could be expected if the population were to remain.”

An Israeli official familiar with the document said it isn't binding and that there was no substantive discussion of it with security officials. Netanyahu’s office called it a “concept paper, the likes of which are prepared at all levels of the government and its security agencies."

“The issue of the ‘day after’ has not been discussed in any official forum in Israel, which is focused at this time on destroying the governing and military capabilities of Hamas,” the prime minister’s office said.

The document dismisses the two other options: reinstating the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority as the sovereign in Gaza, or supporting a local regime. Among other reasons, it rejects them as unable to deter attacks on Israel.

The reinstatement of the Palestinian Authority, which was ejected from Gaza after a weeklong 2007 war that put Hamas in power, would be “an unprecedented victory of the Palestinian national movement, a victory that will claim the lives of thousands of Israeli civilians and soldiers, and does not safeguard Israel’s security,” the document says.

Amy Teibel, The Associated Press