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1 + # RSS Feed Report
2 +
3 + **Generated:** 2026-03-13 16:21
4 + **Feeds tracked:** 2
5 + **Articles in database:** 62
6 + **Summarized:** 62
7 +
8 + ---
9 +
10 + ## [Here’s What Parliament Ignored About HonestReporting Canada](https://www.readthemaple.com/heres-what-parliament-ignored-about-honestreporting-canada/)
11 +
12 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-03-12 | **Tags:** censorship, lobbying, journalism, propaganda, canada, media, israel, parliament, honestreporting, politics, gaza
13 +
14 + In November 2024, HonestReporting Canada (HRC)'s assistant director Robert Walker and two others were charged with mischief for alleged graffiti in Toronto, including spray painting "FUCK GAZA" on a tree planter. These charges were withdrawn in March 2025 after each person paid $1,000 to the Sick Kids Foundation. Despite this, HRC has continued to employ Walker, and Canadian newsrooms continue to accept and implement the organization's demands for changes to Israel coverage. HRC claims to have prompted at least three modifications to articles in major publications in the past week alone.
15 +
16 + On March 10, 2026, HRC's executive director Mike Fegelman spoke before a House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage study on the "State of the Journalism and Media Sectors." His written briefing contained numerous complaints about Canadian media, including claims that the CBC interviewed a guest who "spread the unfounded 'genocide' slur 12 times." Fegelman called Gaza death tolls "fabricated," portrayed reports on starvation as "unfounded," referred to media workers killed by Israel as "so-called journalists" with "connections to Palestinian terrorist groups," and alleged that "this media coverage directly contributes to a spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes."
17 +
18 + One committee vice-chair, Bloc Québécois MP Martin Champoux, critiqued HRC's methods, saying they "look like harassment" because the organization invites readers to email journalists directly. Fegelman defended the approach, stating HRC has 80,000 subscribers and would remove anyone who engages unprofessionally with journalists. Notably, no committee member asked about Walker's continued employment.
19 +
20 + Background on HRC reveals extensive connections to Israeli government interests. HRC's first executive director previously worked in PR for the Consulate General of Israel in New York. Walker previously served as director of communications for Israel's embassy in Ottawa. Israel's ambassador to Israel called HRC's work "invaluable" in 2008, and the consul general of Israel in Montreal from 2007 to 2011 referred to HRC as an "invaluable ally."
21 +
22 + In July 2023, Fegelman stated that HRC wants to "create a digital army for Israel." In October 2023, he said the group had established a "war room" to "act as Israel's sword and shield." In September 2024, HRC announced plans for a "name and shame" database of what they called "prominent, vile and hateful anti-Israel and anti-Jewish activists," hoping to "restore deterrence and procure consequences against our adversaries."
23 +
24 + Additional controversial actions include: tweeting a topless photo of an immigration lawyer in October 2024; complaining that a CBC article about KKK costumes at a Halloween dance "ignored the persecution of Jews"; using an altered, sexualized photo of a physician for a website post in December 2024; and calling a Palestinian journalist assassinated by Israel a "Hamas terrorist" in August 2025. When a Liberal MP expressed concern about Lebanese civilians killed by Israel, HRC responded by tweeting "Why don't you ask your Lebanese constituents to call on Iranian terror proxy Hezbollah to stop firing missiles at Israel and disarm?" with a winking face.
25 +
26 + The article links to several previous investigations into HRC, including pieces on their billionaire and millionaire funders, their campus media fellowship paying students to advocate for Israel, calls for journalists to report threats received after pro-Israel campaigns, and examinations of how HRC smears Palestinian journalists killed by Israel.
27 +
28 + ---
29 +
30 + ## [Carney Government Outsourced Consultation To Big Business Lobby Group](https://www.readthemaple.com/carney-government-outsourced-consultation-to-big-business-lobby-group/)
31 +
32 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-03-11 | **Tags:** labour, lobbying, canada, privy-council, bill-c5, carney-government, chamber-of-commerce, regulation, interprovincial-trade, corporate-influence
33 +
34 + When labour representatives logged into a virtual meeting in August 2025 to provide input on the Carney government's Bill C-5, they discovered the session was being facilitated not by government officials but by lobbyists from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. The invitation came from the Privy Council Office, but the actual meeting was run by Madison Coulas and David Pierce—both registered lobbyists for the Chamber, which represents big business interests across Canada.
35 +
36 + The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is an association representing businesses and local chambers nationwide, with a board comprising executives from major banks and corporations like Air Canada, Enbridge, 3M, TD Business Banking, and Sun Life Financial. Pierce, one of the facilitators, previously held six different positions in Stephen Harper's Conservative government.
37 +
38 + Labour leaders Bea Bruske (Canadian Labour Congress president) and Lana Payne (Unifor president) were invited to provide input on Bill C-5, the "One Canadian Economy Act." The legislation aimed to accelerate major infrastructure projects, reduce interprovincial trade barriers, and increase labour mobility. The bill has two parts: the "Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act," which removes some business regulations, and the "Building Canada Act," which expedites "nation-building" projects.
39 +
40 + Chris Roberts, the CLC's national director of social and economic policy, noted that while government consultations with labour groups are standard practice, having an employers' association run the meeting on the government's behalf was unprecedented. Zoë Abernethy, then senior economist at CUPE, called it strange that a corporate lobby group representing employer interests was facilitating a labour-focused consultation.
41 +
42 + The Privy Council Office acknowledged the Chamber helped organize consultations but disputed that their staffers ran the meetings. They claimed senior PCO officials led the consultations and that the Chamber didn't write any part of the Act or regulations. After labour representatives raised concerns, a follow-up meeting was held without Chamber presence.
43 +
44 + Following the August session, lobbyist Madison Coulas sent follow-up communications on behalf of the Privy Council Office, requesting feedback on a draft User Guide for implementing the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act. The email described the Act's purpose as removing "duplicative federal requirements and red tape" while safeguarding health, safety, and security.
45 +
46 + Bill C-5 removes federal regulations where provinces have comparable rules—for example, a washing machine meeting Quebec's energy efficiency standard would satisfy federal requirements. At the August meeting, the bill had already passed into law, but regulations were still being drafted.
47 +
48 + Roberts said government officials seemed unaware of all the regulations affected by the law. When labour representatives asked why unions were left to identify areas where harmonization might lower worker protections, they received no answer. The CLC subsequently urged the government to conduct proper due diligence to ensure provincial regulatory recognition wouldn't weaken federal protections for workers and the public.
49 +
50 + The final regulations, which came into force January 1, 2026, maintained federal rules for food safety, hazardous waste, road and rail transportation, and tobacco—industries where provincial standards might have created regulatory gaps.
51 +
52 + ---
53 +
54 + ## [Government Denies Unpaid Work Exists In Canadian Airlines](https://www.readthemaple.com/government-denies-unpaid-work-exists-in-canadian-airlines/)
55 +
56 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-03-10 | **Tags:** unions, labour, CUPE, wages, strike, workers-rights, airlines, flight-attendants, unpaid-work, Air-Canada, Canada-Labour-Code
57 +
58 + Six months after Air Canada flight attendants struck against unpaid work practices, the federal government has released its long-awaited study on the issue—delivering a conclusion that unions call a profound disappointment. The government's "what we heard" report finds that airline payment practices largely meet the statutory requirements of the Canada Labour Code, though Employment Minister Patty Hajdu acknowledges her department needs more data to determine if low pay for part-time and low-seniority workers violates the law.
59 +
60 + CUPE's Airline Division says the government has "concluded that the abuse of unpaid work by multi-billion dollar airlines is not a problem worth fixing." The probe was promised during last August's historic strike, when Hajdu agreed that "nobody should work for free in this country" and announced stakeholder consultations to investigate union claims that flight attendants perform dozens of hours of unpaid work monthly.
61 +
62 + The government's framing of the inquiry created a fundamental problem. Rather than examining whether flight attendants are paid their negotiated wages for all work hours, the study focused on whether their total compensation meets minimum wage requirements. Flight attendants are paid through a complex "credit-based system" including block hours for flights, minimum guarantees, and non-wage benefits like meals and per-diem allowances—not hourly or salaried wages.
63 +
64 + From the union's perspective, the unpaid work is obvious: flight attendants spend dozens of hours monthly on duties outside block hours that go uncompensated. But because union contracts include both wage rates for flight time and other monetary entitlements for ground duties, the government treated the latter as covering unpaid time rather than addressing whether flight attendants receive their negotiated hourly rates for all work.
65 +
66 + There's also ongoing disagreement about what constitutes work. CUPE argues that all time under employer control—including passing through security, travelling to aircraft, waiting during delays, boarding preparations, time at the gate, deplaning, travel between assignments, waiting for flights, transportation to hotels, and reserve time—should count as work for pay calculations. Airlines want to continue discounting much of this through various non-wage remuneration.
67 +
68 + The government's proposed solution is for airlines to conduct wage compliance self-audits, while the Labour Program brings together airline officials and union representatives to review requirements and payroll data. CUPE continues pushing for an NDP private member's bill that would ensure flight attendants receive their negotiated hourly rates for all time worked.
69 +
70 + Wesley Lesosky, president of CUPE's Airline Division, noted the absurdity: even Air Canada and Porter reluctantly offered ground duty premiums at 50 percent of hourly rates, acknowledging unpaid work exists. Yet the government maintains it doesn't exist. The report, combined with last month's lacklustre arbitrated wage settlement that workers already voted to reject, underscores that only deep organizing and collective action can win the changes flight attendants demand. The power workers demonstrated by withdrawing their labour last summer may need to be deployed again.
71 +
72 + ---
73 +
74 + ## [Will Trump chicken out of Iran invasion?](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/will-trump-chicken-out-of-iran-invasion)
75 +
76 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-03-10 | **Tags:** geopolitics, war, iran, middle-east, trump, us-foreign-policy, oil-prices, strait-of-hormuz, netanyahu, israel, revolution
77 +
78 + "Don't invade a revolution," the Times warned in autumn 1980 after Iraq—encouraged by the United States—attacked Iran. The Islamic Republic had already buried the popular, worker-driven revolution that overthrew the Shah in 1979, but under Ayatollah Khomeini the state wrapped itself in revolutionary nationalism. That founding experience of war and revolution explains why the US-Israeli assault and assassination of Khamenei's successor hasn't toppled the regime.
79 +
80 + Historian Mohsen Milani notes the Islamic Republic "was deliberately designed from the get-go to survive external attack"—it's "not a one-man show, it's been institutionalised, with multiple centres of power, with multiple layers of security and intelligence institutions." The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, close to new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei (Ali Khamenei's son), represents a key pillar of this resilience.
81 +
82 + Trump apparently expected the Iran war to mirror the US raid on Venezuela in January, when President Nicolás Maduro was kidnapped and replaced with the compliant Delcy Rodriguez. But according to the Washington Post, a classified National Intelligence Council report found that even a large-scale US assault would be unlikely to oust Iran's entrenched military and clerical establishment. Military officials conceded Iran was more prepared for war than anticipated.
83 +
84 + Iran has absorbed the US-Israeli bombardment while maintaining steady missile and drone strikes across the region. But US planning failed to account for Iran's geography—straddling one of global capitalism's key zones. Beyond the Gulf's role as Europe and Asia's primary oil and gas supplier, Dubai has grown into a world city of four million, benefiting as a hub of finance, aviation, and tourism due to proximity to wealthy regions.
85 +
86 + Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz—through which 20 percent of global liquefied natural gas and 25 percent of seaborne oil passes—has created what experts call "the biggest oil supply shock in history." JP Morgan's Natasha Kaneva noted that in all written history, the Strait had never been closed: "It was an unthinkable scenario."
87 +
88 + Oil prices have soared above $110 per barrel. Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman tweeted: "Oil at $110 a barrel and another Khamenei in charge of Iran. Operation Epic Fury is in danger of turning into Operation Epic Failure."
89 +
90 + The critical question is Trump's response to this failure. He might declare victory under pressure from Gulf allies—another case of TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out). Or, facing humiliation and egged on by Netanyahu, he might escalate. This represents an exceptionally dangerous moment: the implosion of global capitalism since 2007-9 is pushing the system faster toward self-destruction.
91 +
92 + ---
93 +
94 + ## [Lockheed Martin Supplies War On Iran As Canada Reviews F-35 Deal](https://www.readthemaple.com/lockheed-martin-supplies-war-on-iran-as-canada-reviews-f-35-deal/)
95 +
96 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-03-09 | **Tags:** military procurement, war, iran, canada, f-35, lockheed martin, weapons industry, carney government, operation epic fury, us foreign policy, defense contracts
97 +
98 + As the United States and Israel escalate military operations against Iran under "Operation Epic Fury," Lockheed Martin has announced plans to quadruple critical munitions production at the request of President Donald Trump. The announcement comes as Canada continues its review of a $27.7 billion contract to purchase 88 F-35 fighter jets from the American arms manufacturer.
99 +
100 + The timing is particularly fraught. Nearly half of Canadians oppose the war on Iran, while only about one-third support it, according to recent polling. Before the conflict began, a majority of Canadians already wanted to scrap the F-35 deal entirely. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the contract review in March 2025 following Trump's threats to annex Canada as the "51st state" and the launch of a trade war.
101 +
102 + Lockheed Martin occupies a central role in the current military campaign. U.S. Central Command has showcased Lockheed Martin's Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) being launched from HIMARS systems in propaganda videos. The company re-posted this footage on its official social media channels. In October, the U.S. State Department authorized Canada to purchase 26 HIMARS launchers and related equipment for $2.4 billion.
103 +
104 + Both the United States and Israel have deployed F-35s—aircraft that contain Canadian-made components—in their operations against Iran. The weapons manufacturer did not respond to questions about whether its role in supplying the war might further erode Canadian public support for the F-35 contract.
105 +
106 + Despite the ongoing review, Canada had already paid for 16 F-35s when the review was announced, and the Carney government quietly allocated funds for an additional 14 jets in February. Critics have raised several concerns: the United States maintains full control over upgrades and software updates needed to keep the aircraft operational, and spare parts remain U.S.-owned until installation—meaning any parts on Canadian soil could potentially be seized by American authorities.
107 +
108 + A February poll found that 55 per cent of Canadians view the United States as the biggest threat to their security, compared to just 2 per cent who identified Iran as the primary threat. Canadian media coverage has been criticized for giving more prominence to proponents of the F-35 deal than to critics or those favouring alternatives like Saab's offering.
109 +
110 + The human toll of the conflict continues to mount. U.S. and Israeli forces have bombed at least four schools in Iran since launching attacks on February 28. On the first day, a U.S. Tomahawk missile struck an elementary school, killing at least 186 people—the vast majority children aged seven to twelve.
111 +
112 + Prime Minister Carney has struggled to articulate a coherent position, stating Canada supported the strikes with "regret" while refusing to rule out Canadian military participation in the campaign.
113 +
114 + ---
115 +
116 + ## [Gangster imperialism comes for Iran](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/gangster-imperialism-comes-for-iran)
117 +
118 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-03-08 | **Tags:** Iran, US imperialism, Canada, Middle East, anti-war, Carney, international law, war crimes, Hegseth, Crusader ideology, regime change
119 +
120 + The US-Israeli attack on Iran represents a continuation of Western imperialist aggression that has killed nearly a million people across the Middle East since 2001. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's rhetoric—"bringing death and destruction from the sky, all day long"—reflects a Crusader mindset embodied in his tattoos ("Deus Vult" and "kafir") and his book "American Crusade." The opening salvo of Operation Epic Fury included the bombing of a girls' elementary school in Minab that killed 175 people, mostly children aged 7-12. The "double tap" strike targeted survivors and first responders. By day nine, Israel had bombed Iran's oil refineries, fuel depots, and water desalination facilities. Iran's UN ambassador reported 1,332 dead by day seven. The author argues that Western leaders have acquiesced to "gangster imperialism" that has shattered international law. Trump's actions follow a pattern of US interventions from Haiti and Chile to Libya and Congo. Iran's leadership was decapitated in the opening strikes—Supreme Leader Khamenei and senior officials assassinated. The article criticizes Canada's PM Carney for supporting the war and refusing to rule out Canadian participation. The core thesis: Western powers seek unhindered access to commodities and trade routes, not freedom for Iranians. Progressives should organize, strike, teach, write, and resist—amplifying Iranian voices rather than supporting foreign intervention.
121 +
122 + ---
123 +
124 + ## [Elbows up or hands up?](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/elbows-up-or-hands-up)
125 +
126 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-03-07 | **Tags:** sovereignty, iran, canada, foreign-policy, middle-east, trump, us-foreign-policy, israel, carney, international-law, un-charter
127 +
128 + On February 28, Mark Carney issued a statement on what he termed "Iran-related hostilities throughout the Middle East"—notably failing to call them Israel-initiated or US-initiated, despite originating in a "preemptive strike" that day. Canada "supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," the statement declared—a clear endorsement of the military action itself.
129 +
130 + The first round of strikes assassinated Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his daughter, son-in-law, grandchild, and daughter-in-law. His wife died from injuries days later. Israel boasted of eliminating 40 top Iranian commanders "in the first minute." By March 5, the death toll exceeded 1,230—more than Hamas's October 7 attack that precipitated Israel's Gaza war.
131 +
132 + Most horrific was a missile attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in Minab, killing at least 165 people, mostly schoolgirls aged seven to twelve. Israel denied involvement; the Pentagon is "investigating." Neither Carney nor Foreign Minister Anita Anand have mentioned the Minab slaughter, though they rushed to condemn Iran's retaliatory strikes as "an unacceptable escalation."
133 +
134 + This stance shocked observers given Carney's widely-acclaimed Davos address just a month earlier. There, he acknowledged "a rupture in the world order" and urged middle powers like Canada to build a new order based on values including sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the prohibition of force except when consistent with the UN Charter. He advocated "value-based realism"—"principled in our commitment to fundamental values" and "pragmatic in recognizing that progress is often incremental."
135 +
136 + The Israeli-US attack manifestly violated Iran's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the threat or use of force against any state's territorial integrity. Article 51 permits self-defense only in response to "an actual or truly imminent armed attack"—the Caroline Test requires risk be "instant, overwhelming, and leaving no choice of means."
137 +
138 + This wasn't the case. Despite Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's claim Trump had "a feeling... based on fact" that Iran would strike, officials privately told Congress that US intelligence didn't suggest Iran was preparing a preemptive strike. The nuclear weapons pretext is equally dubious—IAEA inspectors found no evidence of a systematic program to manufacture nuclear weapons, and Omani-mediated negotiations were approaching a deal when the attack came.
139 +
140 + Marco Rubio later revealed the "imminent armed attack" justifying US action was actually Israel's strike on Iran. The logic: "We knew there was going to be an Israeli action... we knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them... we would suffer higher casualties."
141 +
142 + Former Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy called out the hypocrisy: "We invoke international law when adversaries engage in unlawful actions, but abandon those same rules entirely when it's the Americans doing the bombing." The first Angus Reid poll shows 48 percent of Canadians opposed the attack versus 35 percent supporting it—with only 17 percent of past Liberal voters backing Carney's position.
143 +
144 + Spain alone among EU members condemned the US-Israeli attack outright, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez refusing use of jointly-operated bases. Facing Trump's threat to "cut off all trade," Spain's foreign minister affirmed their position "has not changed one iota." France's Macron flatly stated the attacks were "outside of international law." Britain's Starmer denied US requests for base use in initial strikes but later permitted limited "defensive" operations.
145 +
146 + Carney didn't have to endorse Trump's attack. The inevitable question: why did he? The abandonment of principle hardly serves Canada's national interest. For a country depending on law more than force for security, as Axworthy concluded, "that is not realism; it is recklessness."
147 +
148 + ---
149 +
150 + ## [Media Shrugs As Canada’s Allies Slaughter Iranian Children](https://www.readthemaple.com/media-shrugs-as-canadas-allies-slaughter-iranian-children/)
151 +
152 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-03-06 | **Tags:** military, journalism, propaganda, war, iran, canada, media, children, us-israel, civilian-casualties, human-rights
153 +
154 + On February 28, 2026, the United States bombed an elementary school in Minab, Iran, as part of its joint war with Israel against the country. The strike killed at least 186 people, the vast majority of whom were children between the ages of seven and twelve. This horrific attack on a girls' school barely registered in Canadian media, despite the fact that Canada's government has actively supported the U.S.-Israeli military campaign.
155 +
156 + Canadian media outlets that had devoted extensive coverage to the twenty children killed on October 7, 2023 in Israel have shown remarkably little interest in a single attack that killed more than seven times that number of children. The Toronto Sun published an editorial endorsing the joint attack on Iran, calling it an action against a "barbaric regime." The Globe and Mail argued that Iran cannot expect the "niceties of international law" to shield it from consequences. The National Post claimed that U.S. and Israeli forces have been "taking pains to avoid civilian casualties."
157 +
158 + A search of Canadian Newsstream found only seven standalone mentions of the school bombing across these three publications. Most were throwaway lines, including one that referred to Iranian schoolgirls as "young women." By contrast, the deaths of children on October 7 have dominated headlines continuously for years.
159 +
160 + The bombing of the Minab school made international headlines before these editorials were published, so it is reasonable to assume the editorial writers knew about it. None mentioned it. Since then, U.S.-Israeli forces have hit at least three more schools, and coverage remains sparse.
161 +
162 + Canadian editorial boards endorsed a war that killed more than 150 children in a single strike within its first 24 hours, and did not even acknowledge the victims as they did so. This double standard reveals a hierarchy of concern where some children's deaths merit endless coverage and political outrage while others are barely worth mentioning. The contrast undermines claims that Canadian media apply consistent moral standards to the deaths of children in war.
163 +
164 + ---
165 +
166 + ## [Mark Carney’s Stance On Iran Throws His Davos Doctrine Into Question](https://www.readthemaple.com/mark-carneys-stance-on-iran-throws-his-davos-doctrine-into-question/)
167 +
168 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-03-06 | **Tags:** Iran, international law, sovereignty, Davos, Mark Carney, Canada foreign policy, UN Charter, Middle East war, Alex Neve, Amnesty International, ICC
169 +
170 + Prime Minister Mark Carney's position on the American-Israeli war on Iran has exposed deep contradictions in his widely praised Davos speech, where he declared Canada would be both "principled and pragmatic" in foreign policy.
171 +
172 + Carney's stance on Iran has shifted repeatedly across his public statements. He initially expressed support for the war without acknowledging that many legal scholars view it as illegal under international law. Days later, he told reporters that Canada's support was given "with regret," stating: "We take the world as it is, not as we wish it to be." He acknowledged that the American-Israeli attacks appeared "inconsistent" with international law, while simultaneously affirming support for ending Iran's nuclear program and what he called its "decades-long process of state-sponsored terrorism." Most recently, Carney declined to rule out Canadian military participation in the conflict.
173 +
174 + This muddled messaging has drawn sharp criticism from experts in international law. Alex Neve, former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, argues that Canada is attempting to say two contradictory things simultaneously, thereby saying nothing meaningful at all. The government expresses concern without actually calling out violations, maintains support without conditions, and ultimately fails to articulate what Canada actually stands for.
175 +
176 + The inconsistency becomes particularly stark when examined against Carney's January speech at Davos. There, he outlined a vision of Canadian foreign policy grounded in "fundamental values: sovereignty and territorial integrity, the prohibition of the use of force except when consistent with the UN Charter, and respect for human rights." The "principled" commitment to these values was supposed to be balanced by a "pragmatic" recognition that progress is incremental and that Canada must engage "with open eyes."
177 +
178 + Mark Kersten, an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice who has authored a book on the International Criminal Court, notes that the Davos speech was deliberately open to interpretation. Listeners who understood it as a commitment to uphold international law were correct—but so were those who interpreted it as signaling that Canada would pursue narrow self-interest. The current approach to Iran tries to satisfy both interpretations and ends up satisfying neither: expressing support for military action while belatedly noting consternation about its illegality.
179 +
180 + Both Neve and Kersten reject the notion that defending international law is merely a principled stance divorced from practical concerns. The prohibition on using military force against other nations is arguably the most foundational principle of the United Nations—the very reason for its creation. It's not an abstract ideal but the bedrock of the post-World War II international order.
181 +
182 + Kersten points out that defending international law is now directly in Canada's self-interest. With Trump threatening Canadian sovereignty, Canada may soon need to call upon allies and the international community to stand with its territorial integrity. That appeal becomes far weaker if Canada has spent the preceding months refusing to stand with others facing similar threats. The principle of respecting borders and prohibiting aggression is not simply a value to uphold—it's a practical necessity for Canada's own security.
183 +
184 + Neve frames the situation even more bluntly: at a moment when principled leadership matters enormously, Canada is capitulating to a "might is right" world being forged by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. Rather than exercising the influence available to a middle power with a reputation for supporting international institutions, Canada is abandoning that position.
185 +
186 + The fundamental tension in Carney's "principled and pragmatic" framework has now been laid bare. When principle and pragmatism come into conflict, pragmatism wins—but dressed in language that pretends principle still matters. Support for an illegal war is offered with "regret," acknowledgment of legal violations comes without consequences, and the overall message communicates that Canada will ultimately align with power rather than law.
187 +
188 + This approach has consequences beyond any single conflict. Canada's credibility as a defender of the rules-based international order—already damaged by years of inconsistent applications of human rights standards—risks further erosion. When Canada eventually needs the international community to take its own sovereignty claims seriously, it may find that its earlier choices have weakened the very foundations it needs to stand upon.
189 +
190 + ---
191 +
192 + ## [Amazon ‘Breached’ B.C. Labour Code By Denying Pay Increase](https://www.readthemaple.com/amazon-breached-b-c-labour-code-by-denying-pay-increase/)
193 +
194 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-03-04 | **Tags:** collective bargaining, labour rights, Amazon, Unifor, unionization, British Columbia, Labour Relations Board, workers' rights, first contract, YVR2, anti-union tactics
195 +
196 + The British Columbia Labour Relations Board has ruled that Amazon violated the provincial Labour Code by denying scheduled pay increases to workers who unionized. The decision follows a complaint filed by Unifor Local 114, which certified a bargaining unit of approximately 800 workers at Amazon's Delta, B.C. facility (known as YVR2) in July 2025. Amazon had granted pay increases to all workers in the region except those who had unionized—a clear act of retaliation.
197 +
198 + This ruling will likely result in more than $1 million in back wages for the affected Amazon workers. Unifor national president Lana Payne emphasized that no worker should be punished for exercising their legal right to join a union, and the decision sends a clear message that Amazon is not above the law.
199 +
200 + The practice of withholding pay increases or other compensation from newly unionized workers is relatively common, though unlawful. Starbucks previously employed similar tactics against unionized workers in B.C. Employers typically argue that labour law prohibits changes to pay or working conditions until a collective agreement is settled, which they claim prevents them from extending pay increases to new union members. While technically true, labour boards have consistently held that increasing pay for non-union workers while denying it to bargaining unit members constitutes retaliation.
201 +
202 + Unifor has also charged Amazon with breaching several other provisions of B.C.'s Labour Code, though the Board has yet to consider these additional allegations. Local 114 gave Amazon notice to bargain in October 2025, following the company's continued efforts to resist the union and repeal its certification. Worker surveys identified workload, speed-ups, and favouritism as the most pressing issues at the facility.
203 +
204 + The path to unionization has been contentious. After an intense two-year organizing campaign, B.C.'s Labour Board granted a remedial certification last July, finding that Amazon had gone on a hiring spree to dilute union support while intimidating and coercing workers against organizing. In September, Unifor conducted site visits at the facility—a right granted by the Labour Board's certification decision. Amazon then attempted and failed to overturn the Board's decision, and has now filed for judicial review at the B.C. Supreme Court.
205 +
206 + Formal bargaining commenced in December, but little progress has been made. Unifor now intends to seek mediation to expedite a first collective agreement. The B.C. Labour Relations Code permits unions to seek mediation and arbitration to secure a first collective agreement, and this may prove necessary given Amazon's resistance.
207 +
208 + The workers at YVR2 remain the only unionized Amazon employees in Canada. In January 2025, Amazon shuttered its Quebec facilities in response to a successful union drive, eliminating roughly 300 unionized positions at a Laval warehouse. Quebec's arbitration provision for first contracts is actually stronger than B.C.'s, and rather than face an imposed collective agreement in Canada's most labour-friendly province, Amazon chose to close operations and outsource to subcontractors.
209 +
210 + The challenges ahead remain immense. Amazon's anti-union efforts will continue, and overcoming its wealth and power will require a multi-pronged strategy. A first collective agreement at YVR2 could be the key to expanding unionization to other Amazon facilities across the country. While favourable labour laws provide some leverage—including card-check unionization and remedial certification—they are no substitute for mass organizing and worker power. If Unifor and the Delta workers succeed, the labour movement may finally gain the foothold needed to bring Amazon to heel across Canada. Organizing Amazon has long been described as an existential question for organized labour.
211 +
212 + ---
213 +
214 + ## [Documenting 25 Years Of Media Fearmongering On Iranian Nukes](https://www.readthemaple.com/documenting-25-years-of-media-fearmongering-on-iranian-nukes/)
215 +
216 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-03-03 | **Tags:** journalism, propaganda, war, iran, nuclear-weapons, media-criticism, canada, military-intervention, foreign-policy, disinformation, middle-east
217 +
218 + Davide Mastracci documents a quarter-century of Canadian media predictions about Iran's imminent acquisition of nuclear weapons—predictions that have consistently proven false. Following Prime Minister Mark Carney's February 28 statement supporting the US-Israeli attack on Iran, The Maple reviewed Canadian media coverage from 2001 to 2026 and found an unbroken pattern of claims that Iran was merely "weeks," "months," or "years" away from obtaining nuclear weapons.
219 +
220 + The article presents a chronological collection of quotes from major Canadian publications including the National Post, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, and others. From 2001 claims that Iran would "gatecrash the Nuclear Club" within years, through 2003 warnings that Iran could have a nuclear weapon "by the end of 2005," to 2026 editorials declaring Iran "on the verge of the point of nuclear no return," the pattern has remained remarkably consistent.
221 +
222 + Key observations emerge from this documentation: editorial boards and columnists have repeatedly presented Iran's nuclear capability as imminent across multiple decades, with estimates ranging from "weeks" to "a few years"—yet none of these predictions have materialized. Meanwhile, sanctions and military actions justified by these fears have killed thousands and contributed to the impoverishment of millions of Iranians.
223 +
224 + The article serves as a critical media analysis, highlighting how fearmongering rhetoric about Iranian nuclear weapons has persisted despite evidence to the contrary, and questioning the credibility of such claims when they have failed so consistently over time. The pattern raises important questions about media accountability and the role of uncritical reporting in manufacturing consent for military intervention.
225 +
226 + ---
227 +
228 + ## [Iran: Beyond empire and theocracy](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/iran-beyond-empire-and-theocracy)
229 +
230 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-03-03 | **Tags:** solidarity, anti-imperialism, authoritarianism, democracy, war, iran, canada, left politics, theocracy, middle east, diaspora
231 +
232 + The United States and Israel have launched a major military offensive against Iran, triggering regional retaliation and pushing an already fragile geopolitical order into open war. These strikes arrived even as nuclear negotiations were reportedly advancing, raising urgent questions about why diplomacy was abandoned for force.
233 +
234 + The war is being narrated as necessity, as deterrence, as moral intervention. But history counsels caution when American bombs are framed as benevolence. The Canadian government has issued statements that signal alignment with Washington, framing Iran as the primary threat to regional peace while sidestepping Israel's central role in the escalation. This reinforces the same alliances and geopolitical logic that have shaped Western engagement in the Middle East for decades—undermining Ottawa's "independent middle power" posturing.
235 +
236 + Allowing Israel to act with impunity in the region has led to broader and more devastating consequences. What comes next remains uncertain. What is clear is that the left must resist the narrowing of political imagination to only two possible futures.
237 +
238 + This war is being framed as a choice—empire or theocracy, intervention or clerical rule—but that framing is a false dichotomy. Iran's political life is far richer and more complex than these binaries suggest. Before the current war, Iran was already in crisis: the rial had plummeted, inflation had surged, and demonstrations over collapsing currency values expanded into broader unrest against the political system. Shopkeepers, workers, students, and others took to the streets demanding economic justice, basic freedoms, and an end to government repression.
239 +
240 + These protests were not orchestrated from abroad. They were born of lived experience—of repression, economic precarity, and political suffocation. But war does not liberate these movements. It suffocates them.
241 +
242 + In 1979, a broad coalition of workers, students, feminists, socialists, and Islamists rose up to overthrow the Shah. What followed was not pluralistic democracy but the consolidation of power by one faction that criminalized dissent and eliminated its former allies, giving rise to the Islamic Republic. The Iran-Iraq war accelerated this consolidation. The narrowing of political space reshaped Iranian society and contributed to the departure of millions.
243 +
244 + The lesson is not that revolution is futile. It is that authoritarianism thrives in moments of violence and instability. The collapse of a regime does not automatically produce democracy. Liberation movements can be co-opted. Broad coalitions can harden into singular authority. The language of freedom can be weaponized to justify new forms of oppression.
245 +
246 + Western imperialism is not the only danger. The Islamic Republic has long policed women's bodies, crushed labour organizing, silenced ethnic minorities, and imprisoned dissidents. It has conflated divine authority with political legitimacy and narrowed the pluralism that democratic life requires. To oppose clerical rule is not to endorse foreign intervention—that false equivalence is precisely the trap to sidestep.
247 +
248 + Some well-funded monarchists in the diaspora are positioning dynastic restoration as democratic rescue. But the Shah's rule was not a golden age of pluralism. It was a surveillance state sustained by repression. The revolution of 1979 happened for a reason. That it hardened into another authoritarian order does not justify romanticizing the regime it replaced.
249 +
250 + Empire, monarchy, and theocracy differ in aesthetics. But they converge in structure. Each centralizes authority and tramples human rights in pursuit of ideological agendas. Each treats dissent as destabilizing rather than constitutive of the political experience.
251 +
252 + Anti-imperialism and anti-authoritarianism are not competing commitments. They are inseparable. To condemn Western imperialism while excusing domestic repression is indefensible. To condemn clerical repression while endorsing imperial violence is equally indefensible. The Canadian left must hold both lines—opposing this war unequivocally, opposing sanctions that punish civilians while entrenching ruling elites, and resisting the quiet normalization of escalation without sliding into apologetics for authoritarian rule.
253 +
254 + We do not have to choose between two terrible options. Other possibilities exist—but they must be determined by Iranians within the country, not imposed from abroad. What has been most radical and alive in Iran has not come from above. It has come from below: from women challenging compulsory veiling, from workers organizing under threat, from students demanding accountable governance, from ordinary people saying "enough." Those movements do not need foreign bombs. They need political space and solidarity that does not come attached to missiles or sanctions or hidden agendas.
255 +
256 + Too many Iranians have already died under authoritarian rule—their lives must not be used to justify someone else's self-serving agenda. A different future remains possible: plural, feminist, labour-rooted, and self-determined. It will not be delivered by empire, inherited through bloodline, or imposed by clerical rule. It must be built by Iranians themselves.
257 +
258 + ---
259 +
260 + ## [Foreign bombs won’t bring Iranian freedom](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/foreign-bombs-wont-bring-iranian-freedom)
261 +
262 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-03-03 | **Tags:** Iran, sanctions, Israel, imperialism, democracy, war, human-rights, US-foreign-policy, regime-change, Middle-East, Pahlavi
263 +
264 + On February 28, the United States and Israel launched a joint military assault on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and initiating a campaign of regime change. Three days in, more than 780 Iranians have been killed, including 175 children at a primary school. Over 50 people in Lebanon have died as Israel expands the war to Beirut. Gaza is under full blockade again, its borders closed to food and humanitarian supplies.
265 +
266 + As bombs fall on Iranian cities, Donald Trump describes this as an opportunity for Iranian freedom. Some in the diaspora have cheered, laying roses at US embassies. Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah, declared Iranians were "forever in debt" to American service members. But the political machinery preparing an American-backed monarch's return cannot be ignored—a monarch whose father repressed dissent, ruled for elites, suppressed regional resistance, and granted imperial access to Iran's resources.
267 +
268 + The US record of intervention reveals that freedom and human rights are repeatedly invoked to justify wars serving American strategic interests. From Guatemala to Chile to Iraq, promises of liberation have been followed by death, destruction, and foreign control. These wars benefit defence contractors and energy corporations while driving up costs of oil and essentials for ordinary Americans. Trump's pledge to redevelop Gaza into the "Riviera of the Middle East" illustrates the pattern.
269 +
270 + Iran has a deep democratic tradition. In 1953, democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown in a CIA- and MI6-orchestrated coup after nationalizing the country's oil industry. Western powers reinstated Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to secure their interests. Western capital prospered while Iranian inequality deepened. In 1979, a popular revolution toppled the monarchy, but theocratic leadership crushed leftist and oppositional forces.
271 +
272 + Benjamin Netanyahu told Iranians: "Your suffering and sacrifices will not be in vain. The help you wished for has now arrived." But Israel's objective in overthrowing Iran's Islamic regime has long been bound up with consolidating regional power, given Iran's military capabilities and support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah that resist Israeli dominance. Equating Israel's regional agenda with Iranian freedom is specious.
273 +
274 + Regime change will not be swift or bloodless. With roughly 190,000 active personnel and a sprawling paramilitary and economic network, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is embedded in Iran's infrastructure. External attack is consolidating regime support as the country rallies under siege. As former Israeli government advisor Daniel Levy noted, Israel is more interested in regime and state collapse—they want Iran to implode.
275 +
276 + Reza Pahlavi advocates an ethnonationalist, strongly pro-capitalist vision welcoming Western corporate interests back into Iran and realigning foreign policy away from Palestinian solidarity. Iranians revolted against this system in 1979, demanding political freedom, economic redistribution, and an anti-imperialist core. His prominence among the diaspora has been amplified by Western media, lobbying groups, and political actors that suppress the truths of the past and narrow the political spectrum until only far-right options appear viable.
277 +
278 + Last December, as Iran's currency plunged and food prices surged, protests spread across the country. Workers, students, pensioners, and rural families filled the streets demanding survival—not calling for foreign bombs. Those same communities will bear the brunt of war. The wealthy have exit routes, dual passports, capital that leaves quietly. The working poor and much of the middle class cannot.
279 +
280 + If the goal is Iranian freedom, strategy must align with that goal: stop the bombardment; end broad sanctions that collectively punish civilians; support independent labour, feminist, student, and minority organizing without military conditions. History is consistent: sustainable freedom is built by people who organize, strike, write, teach, and resist—not by foreign jets, sanctions regimes, or crowns. Iranians deserve more than a choice between destruction and dictatorship.
281 +
282 + ---
283 +
284 + ## [Daniel Ellsberg speaks to us as the war on Iran continues](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/daniel-ellsberg-speaks-to-us-as-the-war-on-iran-continues)
285 +
286 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-03-02 | **Tags:** anti-war, nuclear-weapons, daniel-ellsberg, pentagon-papers, whistleblowing, civil-disobedience, conscience, truth-and-consequence, nonviolent-resistance, moral-courage, iran-war
287 +
288 + When Daniel Ellsberg died in 2023, the world lost a singular voice of moral clarity. Five decades earlier, he had leaked the top-secret Pentagon Papers to expose official lies behind the Vietnam War. For the rest of his life, he never stopped advocating for peace and warning of nuclear annihilation. Now, a new book brings his voice back.
289 +
290 + "Truth and Consequence: Reflections on Catastrophe, Civil Resistance, and Hope" presents Ellsberg's private writings spanning 50 years—jottings and musings that reveal his innermost thoughts. His son Michael Ellsberg and longtime assistant Jan R. Thomas curated the collection from a vast archive of personal papers.
291 +
292 + The book's themes—catastrophe, civil resistance, hope—feel urgently relevant as the war on Iran unfolds. At the heart of Ellsberg's reflections lies the tension between individual conscience and blind obedience to authority.
293 +
294 + "Don't delegate conscience," he wrote. "Most people conform and accept. A minority protest, withdraw. A tiny minority resist, take risks."
295 +
296 + The temptation to obey powerful men passively and unquestioningly proved overwhelming for most. Ellsberg understood this from painful personal experience. After releasing the Pentagon Papers in 1971, he faced potential life imprisonment and became a pariah. Former colleagues at RAND Corporation—once friends—avoided him. Some were afraid even to shake his hand or receive his calls.
297 +
298 + His education at Harvard had prepared him for obedience, not moral courage. "The function of an education at an elite university is to learn inattention and passivity," he wrote in 1976, "to learn to disconnect your daily work from the moral values of your family upbringing—sharing, love, trust, mutual dependence—and be part of maintaining a system of inequality, privilege, unnecessary suffering, war, and risk of extinction."
299 +
300 + He came to see clearly what elite institutions demanded: the abandonment of ordinary human decency in service of power. "I have fallen out of love with the State and its Establishment," he reflected, "and I have regained a hopeful affection in the democratic ideal, process, and people who are untouched by power—those outside the base of the existing pyramid of obstruction, power, and privilege."
301 +
302 + Ellsberg had helped plan nuclear war as a strategic analyst under President Kennedy. He understood with visceral clarity what radioactive Armageddon would mean. "In this era of the potentially imminent extinction of most of life on Earth, there is now a moral dimension to every aspect of how one spends one's life," he wrote. "The foundation of all morality is that we must now live with awareness of the mortality of our species and the vulnerability of the Earth and all life."
303 +
304 + The future, he insisted, is not somewhere we're headed—it's something we create daily. "If we continue to prepare and plan for thermonuclear war, that is what we are going to get."
305 +
306 + After the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg embraced nonviolent civil disobedience as his primary method of resistance. He saw it as uniquely powerful for raising the question: What can I do to change this situation? He believed that deliberate obstruction leading to arrest could force issues into court and public consciousness—illegality, criminality, constitutionality, danger.
307 +
308 + "I have never before shrunk from violence—from imagining it, planning it, preparing for it," he wrote. "I have wanted, and I have gained, the respect of violent men. Now I want the respect of gentle women, gentle men, and children."
309 +
310 + By 2006, he had been arrested nearly 70 times in civil disobedience actions—roughly 50 focused on nuclear weapons at facilities like Rocky Flats, the Nevada Test Site, and Livermore Nuclear Weapons Design Facility.
311 +
312 + During the Gulf War 35 years ago, Ellsberg wrote in his journal: "There is a time when silence is a lie, when silence is complicity, and when silence betrays our troops, our country, and ourselves. We owe it to our troops, as well as to other potential victims of this war, to speak the truth about ourselves: what we believe, what we reject, and what we want."
313 +
314 + Those words echo now. The book's publication coincides with another war demanding moral courage from those who witness it. Ellsberg's private writings—raw, searching, unguarded—offer both practical wisdom and existential clarity for anyone struggling with the question: What should I do?
315 +
316 + His answer remained consistent across decades: Find the environment where you can show moral courage now. Find the strength to do what is right, without knowing what the effects may be.
317 +
318 + ---
319 +
320 + ## [Why These Iranian-Canadians Strongly Oppose U.S.-Israeli Aggression](https://www.readthemaple.com/why-these-iranian-canadians-strongly-oppose-u-s-israeli-aggression/)
321 +
322 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-03-01 | **Tags:** Iran, Canada, anti-war, Israel, imperialism, Mark Carney, U.S. foreign policy, oil, Persian Gulf, protests, war
323 +
324 + This article reports on Iranian-Canadians who protested in downtown Toronto against the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign on Iran. At the demonstration, speakers condemned the attacks, including a strike on a girls' school that initially killed 80 children (later reports raised the death toll to 148). Amirhossein Azizafshari, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, argued the war is about power and resources, not democracy, citing historical U.S. interference in Iran including the 1953 coup that overthrew democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh after he moved to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (now BP).
325 +
326 + Demonstrators drew parallels to recent U.S. actions in Venezuela, where they noted the immediate seizure of oil infrastructure after the kidnapping of President Maduro. Shayan, another Iranian-Canadian, expressed concern that many Iranians believe "it can't get any worse" when it could become significantly worse, pointing to Iraq where U.S. invasion killed over 210,000 civilians.
327 +
328 + The article also addresses Iranian-Canadians in Richmond Hill who celebrated the bombings. Azizafshari attributed this to influence from U.S. government-funded media like Voice of America's Farsi service. Interviewees criticized Prime Minister Mark Carney's support for the bombing campaign, noting the contradiction with his Davos speech calling for middle powers to work together rather than allowing hegemonic powers to impose their agenda.
329 +
330 + The article concludes by noting that Iranian state media confirmed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a strike on his office.
331 +
332 + ---
333 +
334 + ## [The struggle of Kurdish journalist Omer Cakir](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-struggle-of-kurdish-journalist-omer-cakir)
335 +
336 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-27 | **Tags:** journalism, torture, canada, human-rights, kurdish, turkey, refugee, political-prisoner, asylum, persecution, pkk
337 +
338 + Omer Cakir, a Kurdish writer and former child prisoner, was arrested at age 15 for protesting Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish civilians. He spent 13 years in Turkish prisons across two separate incarcerations, enduring torture, sexual abuse, and systematic violence. His story exemplifies the broader system of repression that criminalizes Kurdish identity and political dissent through Turkey's sweeping anti-terror laws.
339 +
340 + As a child in Adana, Cakir witnessed everyday racism against Kurds and learned early that his identity was treated as inferior by the Turkish state. The 2007 Turkish assaults on Iraqi Kurdistan pushed him and his high school friends to protest. Police surrounded them one December night, and Cakir was taken into custody. At the police station, he was tortured for hours before transfer to Kürkçüler E-Type Prison, where he spent two nights being systematically tortured while naked. He was then sent to Adana Pozantı Children's Prison for over three years, where he witnessed dozens of children being raped, harassed, and subjected to severe torture. The sustained physical and psychological violence pushed him to thoughts of suicide.
341 +
342 + Kurds in Turkey, estimated at 20 million people, have faced systemic repression for over a century. Beginning with the founding of the Turkish republic in 1923, Turkish nationalism sought to create a single nation defined by one language, one identity, and one culture. Kurdish identity was treated as a threat, with public use of Kurdish language and culture banned. Protests, cultural expression, journalism, and even music became grounds for arrest.
343 +
344 + Released in 2010, Cakir faced constant harassment, police raids, and death threats. He was arrested again and sentenced to 10 years. In prison, he educated himself, reading books, writing essays, and ultimately producing three books. One was confiscated and banned. His sentence was extended for "lack of remorse" when he refused to apologize. After finally being freed in July 2021, police raided his home within a month, threatening his family at gunpoint.
345 +
346 + Cakir fled Turkey in August 2021, traveling through Mexico and the US before reaching Canada. He slept on the streets for two months, not knowing the language or anyone. The Kurdish community in Toronto and some Christian communities eventually helped him find housing and submit his immigration file. But more than three years later, his asylum request remains stalled due to a security investigation over alleged links to the PKK, a designated terrorist organization. Yet Cakir was a child during his 13 years in prison. The timing makes such connections implausible.
347 +
348 + A potential development emerged in 2025 when the PKK declared a ceasefire following leader Abdullah Öcalan's call to lay down arms. Turkey formed a peace process commission, though the government brands it "Turkey Without Terrorism" rather than a peace process, maintains military operations against Kurdish groups in Syria, and continues strict control over its Kurdish population.
349 +
350 + Cakir cannot return to Turkey, where he would face indefinite imprisonment or worse. Turkey remains among the world's top jailers of journalists. His story raises urgent questions about Canada's refugee system: if safety and freedom are values Canada claims to uphold, what responsibility does it bear when survivors of persecution are left in limbo for years?
351 +
352 + ---
353 +
354 + ## [The Crown Corporation Quietly Promoting Military Exports To The U.S.](https://www.readthemaple.com/the-crown-corporation-quietly-promoting-military-exports-to-the-u-s/)
355 +
356 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-02-26 | **Tags:** Canada-US relations, Israel, arms trade, human rights, military exports, CCC, defence policy, Crown corporation, DPSA, Project Ploughshares, Carney government
357 +
358 + The Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), a Crown corporation founded in 1946, continues to facilitate billions of dollars in military exports to the United States despite increasingly strained Canada-U.S. relations and growing public concern about American belligerence. The article reveals a stark contradiction between Prime Minister Mark Carney's campaign rhetoric that the era of deepening defence ties with the U.S. was "over" and the CCC's ongoing promotion of military trade, including a recent webinar where staff applauded how "Canadian innovation strengthens U.S. defence readiness."
359 +
360 + The CCC operates as the designated contracting authority for U.S. military purchases of Canadian goods under the Defence Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA), first signed in 1956. In 2024-25, the CCC signed contracts worth $2.1 billion through the U.S. DoD prime contractor service—nearly double the previous year—with about $1 billion in goods shipped through the DPSA. The agreement allows U.S. DoD to treat Canadian companies as domestic suppliers, with most sales not requiring Canadian export permits.
361 +
362 + The article documents troubling instances where Canadian military exports to the U.S. have been used in ways that contradict Canadian policy or international law. A Project Ploughshares report found Canadian L3Harris Wescam sensors were used by Americans for airstrikes in the Caribbean. The CCC also signed a $78.8 million contract amendment for artillery propellants destined for the U.S. that named Israel as an end user—despite the Liberal government claiming it would stop military exports Israel could use in Gaza.
363 +
364 + The CCC's internal human rights committee identified 99 cases of Israeli war crimes yet still claimed risks from the propellant shipment were "appropriately mitigated." There is tension between the CCC's deal-making mandate and Global Affairs Canada's responsibility for human rights compliance. The CCC receives $13.8 million annually from Parliament and claims to sign $150 in export contracts for every dollar received.
365 +
366 + The piece contextualizes this within historical patterns: the CCC facilitated Canadian participation in Reagan's "Star Wars" program despite Mulroney's public opposition, supplied military goods during the Iraq invasion despite Canada not deploying troops, and brokered the controversial $15 billion Saudi arms deal. A coalition report identified hundreds of shipments of Canadian F-35 components and other military materials to U.S. facilities supplying Israel, prompting an NDP MP's bill for tighter export regulations that the Liberals oppose partly due to fears of upsetting the U.S.
367 +
368 + The article concludes by noting the government's mixed messages: while Carney promises trade diversification and a $6.6 billion "Buy Canadian" defence plan that would increase exports by 50%, there's no commitment to reducing military exports to an increasingly hostile neighbour.
369 +
370 + ---
371 +
372 + ## [Higher education on the chopping block in New Brunswick](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/higher-education-on-the-chopping-block-in-new-brunswick)
373 +
374 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-26 | **Tags:** austerity, canada, new-brunswick, higher-education, budget-cuts, universities, privatization, public-funding, liberal-government, education-policy, mount-allison
375 +
376 + New Brunswick's Liberal government under Susan Holt is considering slashing 10 percent of the province's higher education budget while simultaneously freezing tuition. The move represents a major assault on venerable institutions that was nowhere to be found in the government's election platform.
377 +
378 + The proposed cuts would amount to roughly $50 million from the budgets of the province's four universities, manufacturing a needless crisis. Additional stunning proposals include privatizing Mount Allison University and merging St. Thomas University into the University of New Brunswick.
379 +
380 + This issue extends beyond economics. Despite being colloquially dismissed as "the drive-through province," New Brunswick is important to Canada and the world. The province's business leaders have ranked among the country's richest, and it serves as a significant site of resource extraction. Yet the wealth generated has never been fairly shared with residents. Defunding the post-secondary sector would ensure this imbalance is never addressed.
381 +
382 + The fiscal rationale is questionable. As recently as September 2024, the previous Conservative government of Premier Blaine Higgs reported a $500 million surplus. The Holt government now claims a $1.3 billion deficit. Yet somehow funds are still being found for the private sector. In a move characteristic of disaster capitalism, $54.3 million has been allocated to seven companies for tariff relief, including $45 million to Irving Paper, a firm that laid off 140 workers just last year.
383 +
384 + The timing is particularly baffling because New Brunswick's universities are currently thriving. In Maclean's national university rankings, Mount Allison is Canada's top-ranked primarily undergraduate institution. In Time magazine's inaugural university rankings, UNB placed first in Atlantic Canada and 14th nationally, ahead of institutions like Western, Queen's, and Ottawa. Some argue that small liberal arts universities like St. Thomas are best positioned to adapt to artificial intelligence and teach the next generation. Slashing funding when institutions are succeeding makes little sense.
385 +
386 + New Brunswick already suffers from underfunding in higher education. The province lacks research in social sciences and humanities that would support public policy, a legacy of Liberal Premier Frank McKenna's cuts in the 1980s and 1990s. Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council invested a third as much in New Brunswick as in Nova Scotia on a per capita basis. This underfunding has serious consequences: local governments and the province depend on outside consultants for policy advice.
387 +
388 + As higher education expert Alex Usher observed, these proposals won't actually save money. Merging STU and UNB will lead to higher wages for faculty and staff. Privatizing Mount Allison with a large start-up endowment will take a huge bite out of the budget. These proposals read more like sabotage than problem-solving.
389 +
390 + Significant backlash has prompted some backpedaling from the Holt administration, with claims that the merger and privatization plans are off the table. However, Holt has not retreated on the broader budgetary issue. The budget is set to be tabled on March 17, leaving time for the government to reverse course and remember that investing in education was central to its mandate.
391 +
392 + ---
393 +
394 + ## [Mental illness and the moral boundaries of MAiD](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/mental-illness-and-the-moral-boundaries-of-maid)
395 +
396 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-26 | **Tags:** Canada, ethics, MAiD, mental health, healthcare, disability rights, autonomy, palliative care, social policy, poverty, healthcare access
397 +
398 + Canada's federal government is considering whether to expand Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) to include those suffering solely from mental illness. When MAiD was introduced in 2016, it was limited to patients with grievous and irremediable medical conditions whose deaths were reasonably foreseeable. The 2021 amendment removed the foreseeable death requirement, creating two tracks: Track 1 for terminal conditions (accounting for 95.6% of 2024 MAiD cases) and Track 2 for severe, incurable non-terminal conditions. The planned expansion to mental illness was originally slated for 2023, then delayed to 2024, and now to 2027.
399 +
400 + Two ethical frameworks justify MAiD. Autonomy-based arguments hold that patients should determine their end-of-life trajectory—particularly relevant for degenerative conditions like ALS, where capacity diminishes over time. Well-being arguments contend that intolerable suffering can override life's value, making medically-assisted death a mercy. The Supreme Court's Carter decision invoked this reasoning when it ruled that a total prohibition violated Section 7 of the Charter.
401 +
402 + Mental illness presents unique challenges. Since mental illness is rarely fatal, MAiD applications would rest primarily on claims of intolerable suffering. But clinicians rely heavily on patient self-reporting, making it difficult to establish whether suffering is truly intolerable or untreatable. Someone in severe depression may experience their anguish as unbearable in the moment, yet discover later that their condition responds to therapy or medication. The question of whether applicants would need psychiatrist approval—rather than a general physician—remains unsettled.
403 +
404 + More troubling is the structural context. Canada's public health care rarely covers mental health services; therapy and medication are often prohibitively expensive without workplace benefits. A person with a treatable condition could qualify for MAiD simply because they cannot afford care. This has already happened: a 66-year-old quadriplegic man in Québec sought MAiD after a hospital stay left him injured from lack of a therapeutic mattress. A homeless St. Catharines man applied for MAiD because he couldn't find housing—he withdrew after a GoFundMe secured him an apartment. A Toronto woman with chemical sensory disorder chose MAiD when she couldn't find suitable housing, denied government assistance while the state facilitated her death.
405 +
406 + These cases reveal a grim pattern: governments denying adequate care and social support, then offering death as an alternative. Critics worry MAiD is becoming a cost-saving measure—cheaper than palliative care, social assistance, or robust public health funding. If mental illness becomes grounds for MAiD, expect applications rooted in poverty, homelessness, or profound loneliness—sources of distress that are addressable through social and economic policy, not medical intervention.
407 +
408 + The expansion of MAiD to mental illness would be unconscionable without first guaranteeing universal access to mental health care. A choice made when all better alternatives have been foreclosed cannot be called autonomous. MAiD affirms individual agency and belongs in a robust health care system—but only with meaningful safeguards that ensure the decision is genuinely voluntary, not driven by systemic failure.
409 +
410 + ---
411 +
412 + ## [Canadian Media Gives American Fighter Jets More Favourable Coverage](https://www.readthemaple.com/canadian-media-gives-american-fighter-jets-more-favourable-coverage/)
413 +
414 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-02-24 | **Tags:** Canada, Carney, media bias, F-35, Lockheed Martin, military procurement, defence spending, fighter jets, Trudeau, NORAD
415 +
416 + An analysis by The Maple reveals that Canada's major media outlets have given disproportionately favourable coverage to the $74 billion F-35 fighter jet deal with Lockheed Martin. Examining 55 articles from CBC News, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and National Post, researchers found that champions of the deal were quoted 41% more often than critics. Six of the pro-deal sources were current or former military officials, six worked for Lockheed Martin or its suppliers, and four were affiliated with think-tanks receiving Lockheed Martin funding. The media bias contrasts sharply with public opinion, where 62% of Canadians in a March poll wanted to scrap the entire deal. The article details significant concerns about the purchase: the jets are among the most expensive ever made, the $74 billion lifetime cost, software dependency on the US (who could withhold updates), and vulnerability to US interference amid Trump's annexation threats. Perhaps most alarming for Canadian operations, an F-35 crashed in Alaska in January 2025 after hydraulic lines clogged with ice at -18°C—the pilot spent 50 minutes on the phone with Lockheed Martin engineers who couldn't fix the problem. Lockheed Martin maintains the jets are suitable for Arctic conditions, citing use by Norway and Denmark. The procurement decisions have been influenced by leaked DND documents and PR campaigns from both the US ambassador and Canadian military, while Prime Minister Carney's government now appears to be scaling back to purchasing just 30 F-35s rather than the original 88.
417 +
418 + ---
419 +
420 + ## [Empire in a heating world](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/empire-in-a-heating-world)
421 +
422 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-24 | **Tags:** imperialism, geopolitics, war, Ukraine, Russia, climate change, Putin, EU, energy, NATO, environment
423 +
424 + This essay marks the four-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, examining its devastating consequences for Ukraine, Russia, the EU, and the planet. The author notes that Putin expected a quick victory, but the war has caused an estimated 1.5 million dead and wounded combined, severe Ukrainian personnel shortages, and a demographic collapse that has reduced Ukraine's population by 17 million since independence.
425 +
426 + The war has transformed Ukraine into one of the most mined countries on Earth, with approximately 10 percent of its fertile black soils now poisoned by munitions. Russia's occupied Donbas faces forced Russification policies and de-Ukrainianization of everyday life.
427 +
428 + The author argues that Western Europe's policy of "change through trade" with Russia built short-term geopolitical peace on long-term planetary damage. While the EU eventually moved to end Russian hydrocarbon imports, it doubled down on natural gas from other petrostates and deepened dependence on U.S. LNG rather than accelerating a decisive turn toward renewables.
429 +
430 + The essay connects the war to broader failures on climate action. Global arms-production supply chains now feed the battlefield, geopolitical rivalry has hardened blocs, and cooperation on arms control and curbing greenhouse gas emissions has largely stalled. The EU has prioritized rearmament over climate goals.
431 +
432 + The author criticizes the "game of geopolitics" as a cult, arguing that major states focus on short-term primacy while destabilizing planetary systems. The essay contrasts Obama's 2008 rhetoric about "the rise of the oceans beginning to slow" with the reality of increased U.S. oil production during his presidency, framing Putin's invasion as a dark counterpoint that has unleashed both fast and slow violence on the world.
433 +
434 + Gerard Toal is author of "Oceans Rise Empires Fall: Why Geopolitics Hastens Climate Catastrophe" (Oxford University Press, 2024).
435 +
436 + ---
437 +
438 + ## [Shedding light on the CUPW labour conflict](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/shedding-light-on-the-cupw-labour-conflict)
439 +
440 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-24 | **Tags:** unions, labour, canada, cupw, postal-workers, strike, workers-rights, public-services, canada-post, collective-bargaining
441 +
442 + André Frappier, a former CUPW activist, responds to Alex Passey's earlier critique of the Canadian labour movement with a nuanced defense of CUPW's recent actions. The article contextualizes CUPW's struggle within the union's long history of defending public services and advancing broader social demands.
443 +
444 + Frappier details the unprecedented government intervention against CUPW during the 2024-2025 dispute. In June 2025, Minister Patty Hajdu ordered a forced vote on Canada Post's final offer under subsection 108.1(1) of the Canada Labour Code—the first such intervention in Canadian labour history. The union mounted a massive mobilization campaign, with 70% of members rejecting the employer's proposal on an 80% turnout (approximately 40,000 members). Later, in December 2025, then-Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon used sections 107 and 108 of the Canada Labour Code to suspend the legal strike and create an Industrial Inquiry Commission.
445 +
446 + The author argues that Passey's criticism—that CUPW "meekly followed" the back-to-work order—oversimplifies the situation. Defying back-to-work legislation requires careful calculation of power relationships, especially when CUPW has been specifically targeted by government and employers. The federal government has imposed back-to-work legislation on CUPW six times (1978, 1987, 1991, 1997, 2011, 2018), demonstrating sustained hostility toward the union.
447 +
448 + Frappier agrees with Passey's call for unified labour action but emphasizes that isolated offensive actions by individual unions are insufficient. He advocates for the Canadian Labour Congress to convene a general assembly of trade unions to build common strategy, citing the historic October 14, 1976 general strike when over one million workers protested federal wage and price controls as a model for coordinated action.
449 +
450 + ---
451 +
452 + ## [Liberals To Blame For CUPE’s Subpar Air Canada Settlement](https://www.readthemaple.com/liberals-to-blame-for-cupes-subpar-air-canada-settlement/)
453 +
454 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-02-23 | **Tags:** labour, workers rights, CUPE, Air Canada, Liberal government, union, collective bargaining
455 +
456 + Note: This article's content was not available in the RSS feed. The article examines the role of the Liberal government in a CUPE union settlement with Air Canada that fell short of workers' expectations. More details would require fetching from the original URL.
457 +
458 + ---
459 +
460 + ## [The overlooked minority—again](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-overlooked-minorityagain)
461 +
462 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-22 | **Tags:** Canada, education, racism, Black Canadian history, slavery, Africville, segregation, curriculum, Viola Desmond, underground railroad, Nova Scotia
463 +
464 + This essay examines why Black Canadian history remains largely invisible to most Canadians despite 30 years of efforts to raise its profile. The author, who wrote a 1996 Canadian Dimension article on the same topic, reflects on the persistence of historical amnesia about Black presence in Canada spanning over 400 years.
465 +
466 + The article highlights significant cultural contributions that have documented Black Canadian experiences: Sylvia Hamilton's documentaries, George Elliott Clarke's literary works, Lawrence Hill's novels including "The Book of Negroes," and Cecil Foster's history of Black porters. Academic research has also expanded, with recent works by Robyn Maynard, Desmond Cole, and others. Yet these efforts haven't translated into widespread public knowledge.
467 +
468 + The author identifies a particular gap: the 200-year period when slavery was practiced in Canada (from the early 1600s to the early 1800s). Canadians typically respond to this history in three ways: diminishing slavery's impact by suggesting it was "slavery lite," quickly pivoting to celebrate Canada as the terminus of the Underground Railroad, or dismissing it entirely by treating Black Canadians as recent immigrants.
469 +
470 + The essay traces how Black communities faced demolition under "urban renewal": Africville in Halifax, Little Burgundy in Montreal, Hogan's Alley in Vancouver, and Rooster Town outside Winnipeg. While figures like Viola Desmond have gained recognition, the broader context of segregation and community destruction remains poorly understood.
471 +
472 + The 2020 protests following George Floyd's death exposed these historical gaps, with media often framing anti-Black racism as purely American. The author cites a 2021 workshop where Toronto-area teachers, including some from Nova Scotia, were encountering Maritime Black history for the first time.
473 +
474 + Hope lies in the model of Indigenous education, which has made progress through decades of advocacy. Some provinces are developing new curriculum, with Ontario planning compulsory Black Canadian history content for 2026. The eight-part documentary series "Black Life: Untold Stories" (2023) and other resources offer comprehensive coverage of all four centuries of Black presence in Canada.
475 +
476 + The author concludes that after 400 years, it's time for all Canadians to recognize Black Canadian stories as integral to the national narrative.
477 +
478 + ---
479 +
480 + ## [Poking the eco-socialist bear](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/poking-the-eco-socialist-bear)
481 +
482 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-19 | **Tags:** Avi Lewis, feminism, NDP leadership, eco-socialism, labour politics, Alberta politics, Indigenous rights, resource extraction, petro-masculinity, climate justice, just transition
483 +
484 + This article examines a social media controversy in the Canadian NDP leadership race that exposes ongoing tensions between eco-socialist and traditional labour factions within the party. The dispute began when Leigh Phillips, a geologist and self-described "Promethean," attacked leadership candidate Avi Lewis on X (Twitter), accusing him of disregarding blue-collar workers and promoting "eco-austerity." Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, amplified these attacks while endorsing rival candidate Rob Ashton.
485 +
486 + The author, Laurie Adkin, contextualizes this within a decade-long conflict. In 2016, McGowan, alongside Premier Rachel Notley and the NDP caucus, opposed the Leap Manifesto—an eco-socialist platform initiated by Lewis and Naomi Klein. The piece argues that an "anti-green" faction remains entrenched in the NDP, willing to use caricature and the construction of "class enemies" to discredit the eco-left, even borrowing right-wing tactics that paint environmentalists as hypocrites for using modern technology.
487 +
488 + Adkin draws on research documenting the gendered and racialized violence associated with remote industrial work camps ("man camps"), including the disproportionate impact on Indigenous women. She critiques Phillips for using the anti-feminist tactic of accusing those who raise these well-documented concerns of "vilifying blue-collar male workers." The article notes that Indigenous communities occupy difficult, constrained positions relative to extractive industries, and challenges the assumption that Indigenous workers' employment in these sectors means their interests align with continued extraction.
489 +
490 + The piece connects this infighting to broader patterns of petro-masculinity and violence in Alberta, mentioning that Notley's government required unprecedented police protection, and that opponents distributed violent imagery targeting both Notley and Greta Thunberg. The author points to the early agenda of Alberta separatist leaders, which includes eliminating "gender politics," and critiques the Alberta government's devaluing of predominantly female caring labour.
491 +
492 + Adkin asks whose interests are served by framing the eco-left's agenda as a plot to destroy blue-collar jobs, and calls for solidarity across multiple experiences of oppression rather than playing "the right's game of pitting one group against another." She urges those who feel entitled to define what a working-class party "should be for" to take seriously both ecological limits and the intersecting forms of oppression that eco-feminist analysis centers.
493 +
494 + ---
495 +
496 + ## [Scotiabank Divests From Israeli Arms Company Following Public Pressure](https://www.readthemaple.com/scotiabank-divests-from-israeli-arms-company-following-public-pressure/)
497 +
498 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-02-18 | **Tags:** Israel, activism, Scotiabank, Elbit Systems, divestment, Gaza, BDS, arms trade, Giller Prize
499 +
500 + Scotiabank's subsidiary 1832 Asset Management has divested all remaining shares in Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturer, following more than three years of sustained public pressure from activists. The Canadian bank had previously been the largest foreign shareholder in Elbit, holding an estimated $500 million stake as reported by The Intercept in 2023. The divestment represents a major victory for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and anti-arms trade campaigners who organized protests, sit-ins, and national days of action.
501 +
502 + The campaign intensified significantly after Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023. One particularly notable action was the protest at the Giller Prize gala in November 2023, where activists stormed the stage with a banner reading "Scotiabank Funds Genocide." The protest led to criminal charges that were ultimately dropped, and the Giller Prize later cut ties with Scotiabank in February 2025, ending a 20-year sponsorship relationship.
503 +
504 + Michael DeForge, a graphic novelist involved in No Arms In The Arts, told The Maple that Scotiabank's investment in Elbit became an unsustainable liability. The campaign drew attention to Scotiabank's arts sponsorships, which the bank had used for positive publicity. The divestment came after 1832 Asset Management significantly reduced its stake throughout 2024 before dissolving all remaining shares in the most recent reporting period.
505 +
506 + The divestment highlights how sustained activist pressure can shift corporate investment decisions, even when companies deny that public pressure plays a role. It also demonstrates the growing effectiveness of coordinated campaigns linking corporate sponsorship and investment to human rights concerns.
507 +
508 + ---
509 +
510 + ## [The Time Has Come For Sectoral Bargaining](https://www.readthemaple.com/the-time-has-come-for-sectoral-bargaining/)
511 +
512 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-02-17 | **Tags:** NDP, Avi Lewis, federal election, unions, organizing, workers rights, collective bargaining, sectoral bargaining, labour policy
513 +
514 + As the federal NDP leadership race heads toward the March 27-29 convention in Winnipeg, there is growing momentum within the party for sectoral bargaining as a central labour policy reform. Leadership candidate Avi Lewis has made expanding sectoral bargaining a key plank of his platform, while local electoral district associations are pushing similar resolutions for debate.
515 +
516 + Jules Côté, who ran as the NDP candidate for Mission—Matsqui—Abbotsford and now serves as EDA president, told Class Struggle that affordability concerns from voters prompted her to consider how to expand access to unionization and collective bargaining. Her platform ideas included sectoral bargaining, constitutionalization of workers' rights, and giving workers the right to take over closing firms.
517 +
518 + Canada's current labour relations system was built for large industrial workplaces characteristic of the post-WWII economy. Today's economy, dominated by small workplaces, franchised establishments, and contracted work, leaves most private-sector workers shut out of collective bargaining. Even successful organizing drives at companies like Starbucks have struggled to win contracts, let alone extend union coverage beyond individual stores.
519 +
520 + As the Mission—Matsqui—Abbotsford resolution puts it, "Our current system of decentralized collective bargaining results in uneven and fractured representation, leaving most workers without a strong voice and living in precarity." The resolution argues this system "has allowed for the erosion of the labour movement and the loss of many hard-won gains."
521 +
522 + Sectoral bargaining, in contrast to Canada's decentralized system, would allow unions to negotiate contracts covering entire industries, occupations, or regions. Evidence from countries with sectoral systems shows they encourage higher union coverage, greater income equality, and higher overall employment. The policy could fundamentally transform Canadian labour relations and help address the decades-long decline in union density and worker power.
523 +
524 + ---
525 +
526 + ## [Trump threatens midterm elections](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/trump-threatens-midterm-elections)
527 +
528 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-17 | **Tags:** Trump, authoritarianism, democracy, ICE, Minneapolis, 2026 midterms, election interference, Steve Bannon, voter suppression, Democratic Party, mass mobilization
529 +
530 + This article analyzes growing concerns that the Trump administration may attempt to undermine or disrupt the November 2026 U.S. midterm elections, which threaten Republican control of Congress. Clarke traces Trump's pattern of casting doubt on electoral results and documents recent statements suggesting his authoritarian proclivities pose a fundamental threat to democratic processes.
531 +
532 + Trump has told House Republicans that "Republicans have been so successful that when you think of it, we shouldn't even have an election"—a statement he framed with explicit awareness that calling for cancelled elections would invite "dictator" accusations. More recently, he declared Republicans "should take over voting in a number of places and nationalize elections," using false claims about noncitizen voting to justify federal intervention.
533 +
534 + The article examines how presidential powers and state-level cooperation could enable election disruption. While the Constitution requires a new Congress be sworn in January 3, state governors and legislatures could theoretically move elections during major disasters. Arizona's Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is already preparing scenarios and legal responses to potential interference.
535 +
536 + Clarke highlights the "now or never" mentality among Trump's inner circle. Steve Bannon told a conservative audience that if Democrats win in 2026 and 2028, "some of them will go to prison, including him," and called for "more intense action—we're burning daylight." Bannon has explicitly called for ICE agents to "surround the polls come November," citing debunked claims of mass undocumented voting—a tactic that would intimidate voters and potentially invalidate the electoral process through chaos and confrontation.
537 +
538 + The author frames this threat within Trump's broader authoritarian agenda, which presents exceptional measures as necessary responses to manufactured crises. Trump has characterized his "enemy from within"—Democratic opponents like Nancy Pelosi—as "more dangerous than China, Russia and all these countries" and called them "sick" and "evil." This rhetoric demonizes not just radicals but mainstream political opposition.
539 +
540 + Clarke contrasts the timidity of Democratic Party leaders, who distance themselves from calls to abolish ICE and work to fund the agency "with strings attached," with the powerful street mobilizations in Minneapolis and elsewhere that have challenged ICE through disruptive community action. He argues that a decisive confrontation between oligarchic authoritarianism and working-class resistance is developing, with the midterms as a potential flashpoint.
541 +
542 + ---
543 +
544 + ## [Integration or independence?](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/integration-or-independence)
545 +
546 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-13 | **Tags:** US imperialism, Canadian sovereignty, economic nationalism, foreign ownership, Mel Watkins, Waffle Manifesto, NAFTA, socialism, Kari Polanyi Levitt, economic dependence, trade policy
547 +
548 + This article situates Canada's current crisis of sovereignty in response to Trump's tariff threats and annexation rhetoric within a much longer socialist tradition of critiquing Canadian economic dependence on the United States. Özsu argues that the shock many Canadians express at U.S. "betrayal" reflects a willful ignorance of both the brutal realities of American imperialism and a century of warnings about continental integration.
549 +
550 + The piece documents how the U.S. has "browbeat[en] friend and enemy alike"—facilitating mass killings from Indonesia to Bangladesh, bankrolling genocides from Guatemala to Gaza, causing millions of deaths through the "War on Terror," and plundering the world through economic coercion and dollar supremacy. If Trump is an aberration, it's mainly that he doesn't bother to disavow any of this.
551 +
552 + Özsu traces Canadian socialist engagement with sovereignty questions through several key moments: Mel Watkins' 1968 report on foreign ownership (which found foreigners owned over half of Canadian manufacturing, approaching 100% in key sectors); the 1969 Waffle Manifesto calling for an "independent socialist Canada" that would confront US corporate capitalism and Canadian elites who had "opted for a junior partnership"; Kari Polanyi Levitt's 1970 classic "Silent Surrender"; and Mel Hurtig's decades of advocacy for economic nationalism.
553 +
554 + The author cites Greek-French theorist Nicos Poulantzas, who identified Canada as a potential "exemplar" and "borderline case" of neocolonialism. In 1988, NDP leader Ed Broadbent argued that Canada should use its resource wealth for "manufacturing and exporting our goods all over the world" rather than remaining "hewers of wood and drawers of water"—a critique of continental integration that preceded the crucial free trade election that brought in NAFTA.
555 +
556 + Özsu argues that the fundamental issue of Canadian sovereignty, with its "mammoth implications for workers," was marginalized as Canadians came to view continental integration as both beneficial and inevitable in the post-Cold War era. He concludes that Canada's strong socialist tradition of questioning economic and political sovereignty must be reinvigorated: "It is high time that Canadians cultivated more voices of this kind—and that they began to listen to them in earnest."
557 +
558 + The piece serves as both historical primer and contemporary polemic, suggesting the left offers the most coherent framework for understanding and responding to the current crisis of Canadian sovereignty.
559 +
560 + ---
561 +
562 + ## [A Mossad-Linked Israeli Org Is Trying To ‘Shut Down’ The Maple](https://www.readthemaple.com/a-mossad-linked-israeli-org-is-trying-to-shut-down-the-maple/)
563 +
564 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-02-11 | **Tags:** Israel, censorship, Shurat HaDin, lawfare, media freedom, The Maple, Mossad, press freedom, journalism
565 +
566 + Shurat HaDin (SH), an Israeli lawfare organization with documented ties to Mossad, is attempting to shut down The Maple by demanding payment processors cut off services to the Canadian independent media outlet. On January 25, SH tweeted that it had "issued urgent legal notices to Stripe, Apple Pay, and all major credit card networks demanding they cut off services" to The Maple. The organization has also written to Toronto Police, the OPP commissioner, and Ontario's attorney general calling for a criminal investigation.
567 +
568 + SH's founder Nitsana Darshan-Leitner has publicly acknowledged working with Mossad. In a 2024 tweet, SH said it "led a Mossad operation against terror money." In a video clip, Darshan-Leitner told an interviewer: "We were approached by the Israeli Mossad... and they said, 'Let's collaborate.'" A 2017 Reuters article detailed how Darshan-Leitner had "regular briefings" with Israeli intelligence.
569 +
570 + SH has previously sued UNRWA, filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Al Jazeera, and launched legal challenges against BDS supporters. The organization boasts that its mission is "bankrupting terrorism one lawsuit at a time."
571 +
572 + The Maple has not been contacted by any payment processor or law enforcement agency regarding SH's campaign. The outlet has published extensive reporting on Israel-Palestine, including breaking stories on Canadian arms sales to Israel, media criticism, investigations into the Israel lobby, and coverage of repression faced by pro-Palestine voices in Canada.
573 +
574 + SH's campaign represents a concerning escalation in efforts to silence critical journalism about Israel, using financial pressure and law enforcement complaints as tools of censorship. Darshan-Leitner told the Canadian Jewish News that even opening an investigation would "serve as a red flag for others" — revealing the chilling effect SH intends to create.
575 +
576 + ---
577 +
578 + ## [Conflict gold and ‘chequebook diplomacy’](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/conflict-gold-and-chequebook-diplomacy)
579 +
580 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-11 | **Tags:** humanitarian crisis, Sudan, civil war, gold, RSF, UAE, Darfur, Hemedti, conflict minerals, African politics, resource curse
581 +
582 + Sudan's devastating civil war, now entering its third year, is being fueled by gold—and the foreign powers who want it. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has consolidated control over Sudan's western territories near Libya, Chad, and South Sudan, using intimidation and extortion to dominate mining communities. Gold has become the paramount resource sustaining both sides of the conflict, with Sudan being Africa's third-largest gold producer. The UAE plays a central role: 97% of Sudan's gold exports go there, and evidence mounts that Emirati actors are financing and arming the RSF through front companies and supply chains. The RSF has established a parallel government (unrecognized internationally) while committing atrocities including massacres, mass rape, and the recruitment of child soldiers. The conflict has deep roots: systemic neglect of Darfur and Kordofan, unfulfilled promises from the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement, and a resource-driven power struggle. The RSF recently seized the crucial Heglig oil field in South Kordofan, threatening both Sudan's and South Sudan's economies. The Sentry has identified over a dozen companies linked to RSF leader Hemedti, ranging from gold traders to logistics firms operating across Dubai. Canada's role is noted: former mining company Orca Gold (now Perseus Mining) operated in Sudan despite political turmoil, and Prime Minister Carney signed a deal with the UAE in November for CA$70 billion in Gulf investment, with critics noting Canada's silence on Sudan and its growing ties to a key RSF backer. The humanitarian toll is staggering—famine grips regions, refugees face deportations, and drone attacks have killed over 100 civilians in Kordofan. The war is ultimately about resources: who controls Sudan's gold, oil, and mineral wealth, and which foreign powers benefit from the chaos.
583 +
584 + ---
585 +
586 + ## [Iran and the distorted accusation of ‘campism’](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/iran-and-the-distorted-accusation-of-campism-a-reply-to-junet)
587 +
588 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-10 | **Tags:** Iran, foreign policy, US imperialism, Canada, intervention, Middle East, anti-war
589 +
590 + Yves Engler responds to accusations of 'campism' regarding the Iran situation, arguing that Western leftists who criticize foreign intervention in Iran are not supporting the Iranian government but rather opposing US-Israeli regime change efforts. He documents extensive US and Israeli involvement in destabilizing Iran through sanctions, funding opposition groups, and arming protesters. Engler argues that Canadian critics ignore Ottawa's role in the crisis and that the 30,000 death toll figure lacks credible evidence. He proposes concrete steps including restarting diplomatic relations, removing Iran from terror lists, and apologizing for the 1953 coup. The article warns against supporting another US-Israeli war in the Middle East.
591 +
592 + ---
593 +
594 + ## [Canadians must support Cuba against Trump’s barbaric siege](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/canadians-must-support-cuba-against-trumps-barbaric-siege)
595 +
596 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-10 | **Tags:** Cuba, sanctions, US foreign policy, humanitarian crisis, solidarity, Latin America, Carney
597 +
598 + Owen Schalk details the Trump administration's escalation against Cuba, including an executive order threatening tariffs on any country supplying oil to the island. With 77% of Cuba's oil imports cut off, the country faces potential humanitarian collapse affecting hospitals, electricity, and food distribution. Schalk documents the 60-year history of US economic warfare against Cuba and the explicit goal of regime change expressed by US officials. The article criticizes Prime Minister Carney's silence on the issue and calls on Canadians to support Cuba through solidarity organizations, donations, and tourism. Despite the crisis, Cuba continues its medical internationalism, with Cuban doctors serving worldwide.
599 +
600 + ---
601 +
602 + ## [Top-Paid CEOs Made More In 33 Hours Than Workers Will In 2026](https://www.readthemaple.com/top-paid-ceos-made-more-in-33-hours-than-workers-will-in-2026/)
603 +
604 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-02-09 | **Tags:** inequality, CEO pay, CCPA, income gap, wealth distribution, wages, corporate profits, compensation
605 +
606 + The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' annual CEO pay report reveals another record-breaking year for executive compensation, with Canada's 100 highest-paid CEOs earning an average of $16.2 million in 2024 — beating the previous record from 2022 by $1.3 million. By 9:23 AM on January 2, these CEOs had already earned what the average worker will make all year.
607 +
608 + Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke became the highest-paid CEO in Canadian history with $205.47 million in total compensation, surpassing the previous record holder from Valeant Pharmaceuticals by $22.6 million. The minimum required to make the top-100 list rose to $7.2 million, up from $6.9 million the previous year.
609 +
610 + The disparity between executive and worker pay continues to widen dramatically. Top CEOs now make 248 times what the average worker earns, up from 246 times in 2022 and 170 times in the late 2000s. In the 1980s, CEOs earned approximately 40-50 times the average worker's pay. This trajectory reflects Canada's decades-long neoliberal turn and its consequences for income distribution.
611 +
612 + Between 2020 and 2024, average worker salaries grew 15 percent (from $57,024 to $65,548), while average CEO pay ballooned by 49 percent or $5.2 million. As the report dryly notes, "inflation is easy to absorb with a $5 million raise."
613 +
614 + CEO compensation is overwhelmingly paid in bonuses and stock awards — 84.3 percent in 2024 — while workers receive wages or salaries. This "performance-based" pay tends to vary in only one direction: up. The report connects soaring CEO pay to skyrocketing corporate profits, highlighting how gains from economic growth flow overwhelmingly to those at the very top.
615 +
616 + ---
617 +
618 + ## [Cancelling billionaires](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/cancelling-billionaires)
619 +
620 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-09 | **Tags:** wealth tax, inequality, billionaires, Piketty, G20, taxation, economics, social democracy
621 +
622 + Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks argue for a wealth tax targeting billionaires, tracking the historical precedent of progressive taxation in the early 20th century that created the middle class. They highlight Thomas Piketty's research and Gabriel Zucman's proposal for a 2% annual tax on billionaire wealth, which has received significant support at the G20 level. The article documents how billionaire wealth has risen from 3% to 14% of world GDP since 1987. Despite resistance from the US and Canada, the authors see momentum building, pointing to Sweden's historical transformation from an oligarchy to a social democracy as evidence that dramatic change is possible through political action.
623 +
624 + ---
625 +
626 + ## [Doly Begum’s defection strengthens the case for Avi Lewis](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/doly-begums-defection-strengthens-the-case-for-avi-lewis)
627 +
628 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-09 | **Tags:** social democracy, NDP, Avi Lewis, Canadian politics, federal election, leadership race, neoliberalism
629 +
630 + Colin Bruce Anthes analyzes Doly Begum's defection from the Ontario NDP to the federal Liberals, arguing it strengthens Avi Lewis's case for federal NDP leadership. The author contends that Begum's move highlights the need for a clearer left alternative to neoliberalism, as the NDP has struggled to differentiate itself from the Liberals. Lewis's grassroots fundraising is outpacing other candidates, and Anthes argues that the federal party should lead with bold vision rather than moderating for provincial accommodation. The piece situates the NDP leadership race within broader global patterns of social democratic parties failing to offer alternatives to neoliberalism.
631 +
632 + ---
633 +
634 + ## [Trump pushes Cuba toward catastrophe](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/trump-pushes-cuba-toward-catastrophe)
635 +
636 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-07 | **Tags:** US imperialism, Cuba, humanitarian crisis, solidarity, blockade, Venezuela, BRICS, oil sanctions
637 +
638 + A roundtable discussion among Canadian Network on Cuba members about Trump's oil blockade of Cuba. The participants detail how Venezuela's invasion cut off Cuba's main oil supply, and new tariffs threaten remaining sources. They warn of potential humanitarian collapse and note US military positioning in the Caribbean. The discussants emphasize that Cuba represents an ideological challenge to US hegemony through its international solidarity and alternative development model. They call for coordinated international response from BRICS nations and urge solidarity activists to support Cuba through petitions, donations, and continued engagement.
639 +
640 + ---
641 +
642 + ## [It’s time for something bolder than Carney’s path of appeasement](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/its-time-for-something-bolder-than-carneys-path-of-appeasement)
643 +
644 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-05 | **Tags:** foreign policy, Carney, Canada-US relations, Trump, appeasement, military, Palestine, international law
645 +
646 + Nick Gottlieb criticizes Prime Minister Carney's 'middle power' approach as appeasement of the Trump administration. The author argues that the US is the primary threat to international law and human rights, documenting domestic repression, military adventurism, and support for Israel's actions in Gaza. Gottlieb calls for Canada to disentangle militarily from the US, end arms exports, and block US investment in Canadian infrastructure. He argues that Trump's power is unstable and that Canada could lead international pressure against the regime despite economic risks.
647 +
648 + ---
649 +
650 + ## [The trades remain a danger zone—especially for women workers](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-trades-remain-a-danger-zoneespecially-for-women-workers)
651 +
652 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-05 | **Tags:** workplace violence, women workers, trades, unions, feminism, labour, safety, sexual harassment
653 +
654 + Megan Kinch examines violence against women in skilled trades following the workplace murder of welder Amber Czech. She documents pervasive harassment, assault, and death threats faced by tradeswomen, arguing that male-dominated workplaces remain dangerous. The author notes that unions have failed to adequately protect women and that basic accommodations like bathrooms are still denied. Kinch offers practical advice to women workers about recognizing danger signs, building alliances, and knowing when to leave unsafe situations. She frames workplace murders as political violence comparable to the Polytechnique massacre.
655 +
656 + ---
657 +
658 + ## [CIJA Has Lobbied At Least 20% Of MPs Since 2025 Election](https://www.readthemaple.com/cija-has-lobbied-at-least-20-of-mps-since-2025-election/)
659 +
660 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-02-04 | **Tags:** foreign policy, Israel, Zionism, CIJA, lobbying, Parliament, MPs, political influence
661 +
662 + The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), a Zionist lobby group focused on "strengthening the Canada-Israel Friendship," has lobbied at least 63 MPs (20 per cent of Parliament) between April 29, 2025 and December 17, 2025. This includes 36 Conservatives, 23 Liberals, and 4 Bloc Québécois MPs. Due to delays in registry reporting, the actual number is almost certainly higher.
663 +
664 + CIJA conducted 98 lobbying occasions across 48 meetings, often lobbying multiple MPs at once. Seven MPs were lobbied at least three times. A particularly notable session on October 21, 2025 included 37 MPs, one senator, and the deputy chief of staff from the Prime Minister's Office.
665 +
666 + Topics discussed included equipping police departments to counter hate crimes, establishing a security rebate program for places of worship and community centres, and policies addressing "internet-based hate speech." Immigration was discussed in 24 per cent of meetings — significant given CIJA's opposition to Canada granting visas to Gazans related to Canadian citizens.
667 +
668 + CIJA's extensive lobbying operation reflects a systematic effort to influence Canadian policy across multiple domains. The organization has historically combined direct lobbying with fully-paid trips to Israel for MPs. This article builds on previous investigations documenting CIJA's political influence operations, including which MPs have been most heavily lobbied and which have participated in sponsored Israel trips.
669 +
670 + The scale of CIJA's access to Parliament — reaching one in five MPs in less than a year — demonstrates the significant resources and strategic focus dedicated to shaping Canadian policy toward Israel and related domestic matters.
671 +
672 + ---
673 +
674 + ## [The NDP and the parliamentary illusion](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/the-ndp-and-the-parliamentary-illusion)
675 +
676 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-03 | **Tags:** social democracy, NDP, parliamentary politics, electoralism, class struggle, labour movement, left strategy
677 +
678 + Ali Terrenoire critiques the NDP's focus on parliamentary politics as limiting its transformative potential. The author argues that social democratic parties have become trapped in electoral cycles that prevent fundamental challenges to capitalism. Terrenoire advocates for extra-parliamentary organizing, movement building, and confronting corporate power directly rather than seeking incremental gains through legislation. The piece situates the Canadian left within global patterns of social democratic decline and argues for renewed emphasis on class struggle and workplace organizing.
679 +
680 + ---
681 +
682 + ## [Carney’s Job Cuts Undermine Canada’s Position Against Trump](https://www.readthemaple.com/carneys-job-cuts-undermine-canadas-position-against-trump/)
683 +
684 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-02-02 | **Tags:** Canada-US relations, Trump, Davos, Mark Carney, job cuts, austerity, public service, trade war, PSAC, PIPSC
685 +
686 + While Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke at Davos about economic "rupture" and the need to rethink trade relationships amid U.S. weaponization of trade, his government is simultaneously engaged in slashing the federal public service. The government has issued thousands of "workforce adjustment" notices as part of a plan to eliminate more than 40,000 positions, undermining the very public sector capacity needed to respond to economic challenges.
687 +
688 + PSAC's workforce adjustment tracker shows more than 11,800 members have received notice their positions could be terminated, in addition to 5,500 term employees not renewed last year. PIPSC calls it a "generational rollback of public services" creating "Hunger Games-style anxiety" among members.
689 +
690 + The cuts have hit department after department. Natural Resources Canada lost 200 workers supporting climate research. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada lost 92 workers. The Department of Finance lost 74. A January round cut 1,775 positions at PSPC, Shared Services Canada, Statistics Canada, and Treasury Board. Another 6,000 workers were warned of job losses at Global Affairs, Transport Canada, ISED, Health Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Fisheries and Oceans, and Agriculture Canada.
691 +
692 + Unions warned that behind "efficiency" and "modernization" rhetoric, these cuts threaten both jobs and whole programs. Each week brings new notifications, appearing as "death by a thousand cuts." The contradiction between Carney's international rhetoric about building economic resilience and his domestic austerity agenda highlights the gap between Liberal pronouncements and actual governance.
693 +
694 + The article argues that responding to Trump's trade aggression requires a strong public sector capable of developing and implementing an alternative economic strategy. Weakening that capacity through mass layoffs is precisely the wrong approach to Canada's current challenges.
695 +
696 + ---
697 +
698 + ## [By barring Bianca Mugyenyi, NDP shows it’s not interested in renewal](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/by-barring-bianca-mugyenyi-ndp-shows-its-not-interested-in-renewal)
699 +
700 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-02 | **Tags:** NDP, Palestine, Israel, censorship, Zionism, Bianca Mugyenyi, anti-Zionism, political exclusion
701 +
702 + The article criticizes the NDP for barring Bianca Mugyenyi from running for office, arguing this reveals the party's unwillingness to accommodate Palestine solidarity advocates. The author contends that the party establishment consistently marginalizes anti-Zionist voices while claiming to support social justice. The piece examines how the Israel lobby influences Canadian politics and argues that suppressing Palestinian solidarity contradicts the NDP's stated progressive values. The exclusion is framed as symptomatic of broader patterns of silencing dissent on Israel-Palestine within Canadian political institutions.
703 +
704 + ---
705 +
706 + ## [No blood money for the arts](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/no-blood-money-for-the-arts)
707 +
708 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-02-02 | **Tags:** arts funding, corporate sponsorship, cultural politics, military industrial complex, ethics, activism
709 +
710 + An analysis of arts funding and its relationship to corporate and military interests. The author examines how arts organizations accepting sponsorship from problematic corporations creates ethical conflicts and limits artistic freedom. The piece argues for independent funding models and questions whether cultural institutions can maintain critical perspectives while taking money from arms manufacturers, fossil fuel companies, and other corporations. The article connects arts funding debates to broader questions about the role of culture in challenging or supporting existing power structures.
711 +
712 + ---
713 +
714 + ## [Canadians In ICE? Neither Canada Nor U.S. Keeps Track](https://www.readthemaple.com/canadians-in-ice-neither-canada-nor-u-s-keeps-track/)
715 +
716 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-01-29 | **Tags:** Canada, Trump, ICE, dual citizenship, human rights, immigration enforcement, national security, Mark Kersten
717 +
718 + Neither the Canadian government nor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tracks how many Canadians might be working as ICE agents, according to government statements. International law expert Mark Kersten calls this a problem, arguing Canada should require citizens serving in foreign military or law enforcement to obtain permission and face interrogation upon return.
719 +
720 + ICE has come under intense scrutiny after agents shot and killed two American citizens in Minneapolis. Jonathan Ross shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother, three times as she attempted to turn her vehicle. Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was shot at least 10 times after intervening when agents threw down and pepper-sprayed a bystander. These killings sparked global outrage and renewed attention to Canada's connections to ICE.
721 +
722 + Canada has multiple ties to ICE operations. Vancouver-based Hootsuite provides social media services to DHS. The Jim Pattison Group's U.S. real estate company is selling a warehouse to DHS for an ICE "processing facility." In December, ICE planned to buy $10 million in armoured vehicles from Brampton-based Roshel (though later said they'd be produced in the U.S.).
723 +
724 + ICE operates five offices in Canada. Approximately 800,000 Canadians live in the U.S., and at least 200 Canadians spent time in ICE custody last year. But whether any dual citizens work as ICE agents remains unknown. ICE's employment guidelines require U.S. citizenship but don't explicitly prohibit dual citizens.
725 +
726 + Kersten argues that knowing what citizens are doing abroad is important for national security: "If there are people engaged in a paramilitary branch of the United States... and potentially committing crimes... it's critically important that the Canadian government know about that." The Foreign Enlistment Act prohibits fighting in militaries at war with friendly states but doesn't clearly address law enforcement agencies.
727 +
728 + ---
729 +
730 + ## [Iran and the death of politics](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/iran-and-the-death-of-politics)
731 +
732 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-01-29 | **Tags:** Iran, intervention, Middle East, sanctions, US foreign policy, media analysis, anti-imperialism
733 +
734 + A critique of claims about Iran's political situation, examining narratives around protests, sanctions, and foreign intervention. The author analyzes how Western media frames Iran and questions dominant narratives about the regime's legitimacy and the nature of opposition movements. The piece situates Iran within regional power dynamics and argues against military intervention or sanctions as solutions. The article calls for a more nuanced understanding of Iranian politics that accounts for both internal contradictions and external pressures.
735 +
736 + ---
737 +
738 + ## [A List Of Journalists Who’ve Taken Sponsored Israel Trips](https://www.readthemaple.com/a-list-of-journalists-whove-taken-sponsored-israel-trips/)
739 +
740 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-01-26 | **Tags:** Israel, Exigent Foundation, media bias, journalism, sponsored trips, propaganda, Vivian Bercovici, press ethics
741 +
742 + The Exigent Foundation (EF), a pro-Israel organization co-founded in March 2024 by Larry Maher, Georganne Burke, and former Canadian ambassador to Israel Vivian Bercovici, has taken dozens of Canadian journalists on sponsored trips to Israel. These trips have included time in the West Bank (which Maher calls "Judea and Samaria"), visits to Gaza and Lebanon borders, and meetings with Israeli government officials including the deputy foreign minister.
743 +
744 + Bercovici later went on to work for Black Cube, a private Israeli intelligence firm described by the CBC as composed of ex-Mossad and Israeli intelligence agents. She stepped down as an EF director in November 2024. Burke is described as a "seasoned veteran of political activities in the United States and Canada" who spent a decade with the Conservative Party of Canada and is "Chapter Lead for Republicans Overseas in Canada."
745 +
746 + Despite EF's stated purpose of "promoting good race relations" through education, the content produced by trip participants often reads like propaganda. Examples include an article titled "Israel must get on with it and finish the job by flattening Gaza." The Maple compiled a list of 27 media figures who participated, including journalists from major outlets.
747 +
748 + Participants include Joe Adam George (Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Middle East Forum), Keean Bexte (CounterSignal), Harrison Faulkner (True North), Jen Gerson, Terry Glavin, Warren Kinsella, Dahlia Kurtz, Brian Lilley, Cory Morgan, Dave Naylor, Bryan Passifiume, Andrew Perez, Leslie Roberts, Rob Roberts (Toronto Sun editor-in-chief), Caryma Sa'd, Robert Walker, Karen Woods, and Adam Zivo.
749 +
750 + The Maple reached out to EF asking how many people they've taken, who pays, and how much they've spent, but received no response. The list will be updated as more information becomes available.
751 +
752 + ---
753 +
754 + ## [Avi Lewis’s NDP Labour Plan Is A Remarkable Document](https://www.readthemaple.com/avi-lewis-ndp-labour-plan-is-a-remarkable-document/)
755 +
756 + **Source:** Read the Maple | **Date:** 2026-01-26 | **Tags:** Avi Lewis, Canadian politics, unions, workers rights, sectoral bargaining, NDP leadership, labour platform, workers rights, Green New Deal
757 +
758 + The NDP leadership race is entering its final two months before the March 27-29 Winnipeg convention. Five candidates are competing: Edmonton Strathcona MP Heather McPherson, filmmaker and activist Avi Lewis, ILWU Canada leader Rob Ashton, Campbell River councillor Tanille Johnston, and farmer Tony McQuail. McPherson, Lewis, and Ashton are considered the frontrunners, though none has significant name recognition nationally — Pollara polling shows recognition between 14-20 percent for each.
759 +
760 + Each candidate appeals to different segments of the NDP base. McPherson connects with progressive, urban voters and immigrants. Ashton appeals to blue-collar workers and lower-income earners. Lewis's base skews younger and is concentrated among environmental and social activists. Despite significant setbacks including losing official party status, 46 percent of those contacted by Pollara indicated openness to voting NDP.
761 +
762 + On January 22, the Lewis campaign released "Dignified Work in a Digital Age," a comprehensive labour platform addressing workplace democracy, workers' rights, AI regulation, Employment Insurance reform, and justice for migrant workers. The bold agenda is intended to complement previously released policies on a Green New Deal, housing, health care, and a public grocery option.
763 +
764 + Lewis launched his campaign in September 2025 targeting grocery, telecom, and oil monopolies, calling for a wealth tax, national rent cap, public grocery option, health-care expansion, and a Green New Deal creating millions of jobs. While his opening video centred class conflict — accusing oil and gas CEOs of "foreclosing on our shared future" — the labour platform provides policy substance for worker-focused voters.
765 +
766 + The question is whether Lewis's detailed progressive agenda can pull workers and unions behind his campaign in the final stretch. With 46 percent of voters open to the NDP, there's a real opportunity for a candidate offering a bold vision addressing the crises facing working people.
767 +
768 + ---
769 +
770 + ## [Empire, ecology, and Canada’s foreign policy ‘reset’](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/empire-ecology-and-canadas-foreign-policy-reset)
771 +
772 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-01-26 | **Tags:** foreign policy, Canada, Carney, international law, sovereignty, US relations, rules-based order
773 +
774 + An examination of Canada's foreign policy direction under the Carney government, analyzing the tension between rhetoric about sovereignty and continued alignment with US interests. The author argues that Canada's relationship with the rules-based international order has been selectively applied and that genuine independence would require significant changes to military alliances and economic dependencies. The article connects foreign policy to domestic politics and questions whether Carney's 'middle power' approach represents meaningful change or continuity with previous governments.
775 +
776 + ---
777 +
778 + ## [A response to Herman Rosenfeld’s review of Red Flags](https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/a-response-to-herman-rosenfelds-review-of-red-flags)
779 +
780 + **Source:** Canadian Dimension | **Date:** 2026-01-25 | **Tags:** Canadian left, socialist strategy, Red Flags, organizing, working class, electoral politics, coalition building
781 +
782 + A review and response to Herman Rosenfeld's analysis of Red Flags, examining debates within the Canadian left about strategy and tactics. The author engages with questions about organizing, coalition building, and the relationship between electoral politics and extra-parliamentary action. The piece discusses the challenges facing socialist organizing in contemporary Canada and evaluates different approaches to building working-class power. It situates current debates within the history of the Canadian left and international socialist movements.
783 +
784 + ---
785 +
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