A Public Letter to MP Marci Ien and PM Justin Trudeau to End the Genocide
(Note: This is a copy of an e-mail I sent moments ago. This will be my third e-mail to MP Marci Ien and second to PM Justin Trudeau. I share this as documentation for my future self about the values that I stand for, but I also hope this may help shape your own e-mails and phone calls to your MPs and the Prime Minister, or anyone you choose to reach out to voice your solidarity for Palestine.)
Dear Marci Ien and Justin Trudeau,
I’m writing again to implore you, as a member of your constituency and a so-called Canadian citizen, to speak up and out against the genocide of Palestinians. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Toronto, along with tens of thousands more in major cities across the country, demanding a ceasefire this weekend. So why is Justin Trudeau announcing that he spent today reassuring Netanyahu that Canada remains firm in support of mass murder? What is humanitarian about a brief pause in an ongoing genocide? And especially appalling after Canada abstained from voting for a ceasefire because our proposal to “condemn Hamas” didn’t receive enough support to pass.
Please stand up against disinformation, racism, Islamophobia and colonization: demand more than a ceasefire, but the end of occupation and freedom for Palestinians. As I write this, nearly 10 thousand Palestinians have been confirmed killed, nearly half of them children, by Israel since October 7. There are still thousands unaccounted for in the rubble and attacks still continue.
This is not about hostages and am I to believe that you’re either that naive or incompetent to actually believe so yourselves? “Israel” refused to accept the return of hostages because it’d delay the ground invasion that’s happening and is killing them, not only in the airstrikes, but also in what was supposed to be hostage exchange negotiations. Meanwhile “rescued” hostages have described Hamas fighters treating them more humanely than “Israel” has been treating all of Gaza as collective punishment, and the occupation itself is against international law. Even Israeli hostages and survivors are demanding a ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
If we ask for “the release of all hostages held”, that should also include the over 10 thousand Palestinian prisoners, thousands of them children and abducted labourers, that “Israel” has been abusing and humiliating in their prisons. Half of those prisoners were being held prior to the Oct 7 attacks, and thousands of them have no charges and no trial and are being held in administrative limbo. Which is what Hamas has been requesting in exchange for the release of the Israeli hostages.
If this is about Hamas and the hostages then why is “Israel” attacking the West Bank which isn’t under the control of Hamas and supporting settler violence leading to the displacement of nearly a thousand Palestinians from an unrelated territory? They are bombing hospitals, mosques, churches, schools, refugee shelters and homes, including in “safe zones” and along “safe routes” which thousands and thousands of people were using to flee the violence.
Gaza has run out of fuel, shutting down their remaining hospitals, leading to the deaths of hundreds of premature and newborn babies. Surgeons have been performing major operations like amputations on children without anaesthetic or antibiotics. They’re running out of food and there’s no safe water. Now half the population of Gaza will be homeless if they survive the increasingly ruthless bombings, and every survivor will live with this trauma which will be passed on through generations. And of what little aid has been allowed in included death shrouds instead of medical or proper food aid.
This attack on Palestinians is clearly not self-defense. This is ethnic cleansing and colonial violence. One Palestinian journalist has already illustrated this point clearly, as have countless others who have also been reporting on the racist and genocidal history of "Israel". And as part of the Caribbean diaspora, the colonial tactic of Divide and Rule has been more than evident. It’s a tactic European colonizers have used in North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, Sri Lanka, even in Ireland. It’s one that’s been used here in so-called Canada, time and time again.
This is not about anti-semitism. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish people across the globe have been explaining how they don’t believe in genocide in their name. How this is against their Jewish beliefs. How this has harmed Jewish Palestinians. How Israel has discriminated against Black and Arab Jewish communities. Many anti-Zionists used to believe in Zionism but, after witnessing the brutality and vitriol against Palestinians inherent to it and the deplorable conditions they have been forced into, can not in good conscience support it. And that was before these last month of brutality that the world has finally paid attention to, as we can hear in holocaust survivor Gabor Mate’s words.
This is intentional ethnic cleansing. “Israel” is still receiving billions in military funding from international leaders while Palestinians are being denied water, starved, bombarded, and denied medical supplies and electricity, while being cut off from the internet. They don’t have access to clean water. They were already experiencing a medical apartheid leading to lower life expectancy and higher rates of disability. Palestinians have been online everyday begging for their lives while Israeli civilians only pause from their regular lives to bake bread and post hateful, dehumanizing videos mocking the deaths of Palestinians. “Israel” has killed nearly 40 journalists and their families in the last month alone, though this also isn’t new practice.
Why has “Canada”, and specifically under Trudeau’s leadership, done more to condemn Palestinians peaceful protests than to condemn “Israel’s” genocidal military campaign? Even as other nations like Pakistan calling us out for our hypocrisy?
How can “Canada” claim to be dedicated to Truth and Reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island while supporting and defending the right for another Indigenous people to be slaughtered and killed, using many of the same tactics that we claim to be apologizing for?
How will you convince disabled, racialized, queer and trans people of “Canada” you’ll protect us against our own eugenic policies when you refuse to protect the blatant mass killing of Palestinians?
How will we protect Muslim Canadians who have already experienced the Islamophobic backlash from 9/11, many of whom are survivors of the West’s imperial violence, as we hear of a new rise in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate crimes?
How can we claim to have freedom of expression as “Canadians” when speaking up against genocide can get you fired, doxxed and harassed?
How can we say that we’ll end gender-based violence when we can’t even see through classic DARVO tactics?
How are we supposed to believe in “Canada’s” commitment to climate justice when allowing the air, land and water in and around occupied Palestine to be polluted and contaminated in pursuit of western imperial capitalist interests?
How are we supposed to believe that “Canada” stands for peace while aligning itself with a military superpower that is responsible for arming some of the most horrendous militarized conflicts in the world?
How are we supposed to forgive and forget our national leader spent his young adulthood treating Black and brown people as costumes when he views the mass brutal killings against brown people as justifiable losses?
I’m proud to firmly add my voice to the longstanding chorus in support of Palestine including Edward Said, Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, James Baldwin, Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Greta Thunberg, Audre Lorde, Sarah Jama, and other very vocal activists, scholars and artists.
“Canada” is now known to be an architect of genocide. Take a step towards changing that legacy. I echo the demands with all those in solidarity with Palestine:
An immediate ceasefire
Humanitarian aid into Gaza
UN protection for Palestinians in Gaza
Halting the arms trade with Israel, as well as all funding and military research
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. And none of us are free until we are all free.
More resources for your reference:
Black Feminist Writers and Palestine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl7lPMBneAs
Decolonize Palestine: https://decolonizepalestine.com/introduction-to-palestine/
Room Magazine’s Resource list: https://roommagazine.com/resources-to-educate-take-action-and-aid-palestine/
My own collection of information sources: https://indivisible4palestine.carrd.co/
