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On October 16, 2023, the Canadian government appointed Deborah Lyons, former Ambassador of Canada to Israel (2016-2020), as the new Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism. The Special Envoy Lyon's office is a joint unit of both Canadian Heritage and Global Affairs Canada, bringing her role into the realm of international relations (whereas the Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia is singularly located in Canadian Heritage). Additionally, her mandate comes directly from the Prime Minister, and it involves promoting the controversial and anti-Palestinian International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism (IHRA). It also includes the creation of an IHRA handbook, purportedly to help civil servants, politicians, and police departments to apply it to real-world situations.

Critics have long warned that IHRA conflates legitimate criticism of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism. For that reason it has long been understood as a threat to the full exercise of Canadians' Charter Rights, as it targets political expression including criticism of Israeli policies and activism for Palestinian rights. CJPME argues that IHRA is an instrument intended to suppress Palestinian perspectives, as well as the discussion of topics such as apartheid. IHRA should therefore be understood as a form of state-sponsored anti-Palestinian racism.

Thank you for listening to the ‘Palestine Debrief’ podcast. This podcast is produced by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) and hosted by Wissam El Cheikh Hassan.

Click here to support the work of CJPME. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Tiktok.

Click here to leave us your comments, or email us at info@cjpme.org.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions of our guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the positions of CJPME.

Resources:
- CJPME report, "Defaming the Pro-Palestine Movement"
- Canada’s Special Envoy must be replaced after spreading misinformation to defame the pro-Palestine movement: CJPME

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A December article in Al Jazeera describes Canada’s foreign policy towards Israel and Palestine as “schizophrenic.” It’s like Canada supports Israel, wants to support Israel, but is also worried about supporting it too much because it will affect their false image of Canada as a “peace loving, refugee welcoming nation.”

We talk about Canada’s policies towards Israel since the beginning of genocide with a person with a long list of credentials that include Activist, Journalist, Lawyer and a person who ran for the Green Party in 2020 Dimitri Lascaris.

Follow Dimitri Lascaris on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

References:
Jolie NDP motion Speech Breakdown
Nearly 500,000 Israeli left Israel since Oct. 7

Thank you for listening to the ‘Palestine Debrief’ podcast. This podcast is produced by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) and hosted by Wissam El Cheikh Hassan.

Click here to support the work of CJPME. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Tiktok.

Click here to leave us your comments, or email us at info@cjpme.org.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions of our guests are their own and do not necessarily represent the positions of CJPME.

Send us a Text Message.

Last month The Breach published an article written by a whistle blower exposing CBC's extensive systemic anti-Palestinian biases in their reporting since October 7. In this episode journalist Zahraa Al Akhrass who was fired from Global in November 2023 after posting pro-Palestinian content on her social media, shares her experiences with similar biases working at Global.

Details about Zahraa's firing can be found on her social medias here and here. She also wrote an article titled "Fighting for Fair Coverage on Palestine" published on Brairpatch.

Thank you for listening to the ‘Palestine Debrief’ podcast. This podcast is produced by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) and hosted by Wissam El Cheikh Hassan.

Follow Chris Farris Zabaneh on Instagram.

Click here to support the work of CJPME. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Tiktok.

Click here to leave us your comments, or email us at info@cjpme.org.