Uncategorized Archive

Dear Steven Guilbeault,

For the sake of the climate transition, the economic recovery and the public good, we insist that you reverse your previous support for privatization and commit to a publicly financed and publicly administered green recovery, creating good, unionized jobs. Privatization is expensive, inefficient, unpopular and unnecessary.

Background

Steven Guilbeault is known as an advocate for the environment, and is one of three MPs who have reportedly been tapped to lead the “Post-COVID green recovery.” However, he also has deep ties – reaching back more than a decade – to private interests that could sabotage the success of a climate transition at this crucial moment. 

That’s why we – his constituents and people affected by his policies – need Guilbeault to publicly disclaim his previous support for privatization (see “support for the REM” below) immediately. Guilbeault must commit to a climate transition centred on expanding the public sector, creating unionized jobs.

Privatization consistently wastes public money and consumer dollars by guaranteeing profit margins to investors, lowering the quality of jobs, delivering shabby results and creating shady schemes to extract additional revenue. 

If privatization plays a key role in a “green recovery,” it could undermine public trust in climate transition at the very moment when that trust is essential. 

“Public Private Partnerships” would also hand billions of dollars to private investors, who will likely store it in untaxed offshore accounts. That money is better spent on creating good jobs and delivering quality, zero-carbon services.

Ties to privatizers and tax dodgers

In 2007, Guilbeault joined the corporate consulting firm Deloitte. Not much is known about what he did there, but Deloitte is well known for public private partnerships (a form of privatization and corporate profiteering), boasting a “Public Private Partnership team” that is “at the forefront of the sector around the world”. The “Big Four” firm has been at the centre of a variety of political scandals in Canada, and is well known internationally for being one of the “masterminds of tax avoidance,” and the financial times reported that the firm had helped its multinational corporations and the super-rich undertake “industrial-scale” tax avoidance.

Guilbeault’s corporate connections likely helped out Equiterre, which forged deals with corporate actors and raised big money. In 2019, it received over $3 million in donations and $2 million from the Quebec government (more on that in a moment).

Guilbeault left Équiterre in 2018, but he had already begun styling himself as a Venture capitalist, working as a strategic consultant to Cycle Capital Management, and to Copticom, a private sector public relations firm.

Support for the REM

The Réseau Électrique Métropolitain is a disaster in terms of planning, cost, public benefit and even ecological impact. A multi-billion-dollar privatization boondoggle, the automated electric train serving several Montreal suburbs is designed to make profits for private investors, which will come from the public purse, likely at the expense of other transit services. In an unprecedented move, the routes for the elevated tracks were not chosen by planners working in the public interest, but to maximize profits from the real estate holdings of the project’s private investors.

But the project is electric rail, so at least it’s good for greenhouse gas emissions, right? Perhaps not. The massive amount of concrete required to build the raised rails will generate an estimated one million tonnes of CO2 emissions, meaning it will be many years before even narrowly-defined climate benefits are seen.

After the Province’s own environmental assessment found that the project probably wouldn’t fulfill its promises to the public or the environment, the REM was suffering from a credibility gap. Into that gap stepped Steven Guilbeault, who went to bat for the project, making the case for it in the press and with politicians.

His advocacy earned him praise from Michael Sabia, the privatization guru who has been tapped by the Liberals to lead their privatization-driving infrastructure bank. In advocating for the REM, Sabia explained, Guilbeault displayed a “pragmatic” approach “to bring other people onside, to build bridges.”

After Guilbeault’s performance, Quebec’s Liberal government announced it would give Equiterre $4 million to promote electric vehicles.

Liberal Infrastructure Bank Aims to Attract Private Capital… to Extract Profit from the Public

The Canada Infrastructure Bank, which has so far been allocated $35 billion to invest, is built around the idea that it can attract private investors to build or manage key infrastructure. However, interest rates are low and the government can borrow what it needs, so there is no real reason to attract private capital… except to generate profits for private investors at public expense!

Already, the CIB has looked at municipal water systems, airports, highways, rail lines, ports, energy, and of course the REM, discussed above.

How will these projects generate profits for private investors? The usual plan is to charge user fees for projects that are currently financed through tax revenue. User fees are effectively a regressive tax: the poorest members of society pay a bigger proportion while the rich pay less. 

The result: accelerating inequality and resentment among the working class, which will undermine support for essential green infrastructure. 

Guilbeault’s silence on this shockingly misguided agenda must end.

Public alternatives exist, corporate Canada is holding them back

With interest rates low, it’s a great time to build publicly financed and democratically administered green infrastructure. Building or upgrading rail lines, social housing, food distribution hubs, creating new bus lines, establishing a green power grid, or cleaning up the environmental mess left by the fossil fuel economy: all this can be done now, and it can create good, unionized jobs.

Many proposals already exist. Postal workers have a plan to transform Canada Post into an engine for the green economy while financially empowering low-income and remote communities. Public sector workers have launched a campaign to bring all long-term care into the public sector after disastrous and unnecessary mass death during the COVID crisis. Courage has put forward a roadmap for publicly-owned telecommunications, which has become more pressing than ever as unprecedented levels of connectivity are required for work and civic life.

Governments around the world are turning to innovative “Public-Public Partnerships” – collaborations between different government bodies and agencies to create public interest solutions for climate, food, housing and more.

So what’s holding us back? The Liberals’ close ties to corporate interests mean that common sense policies like taxing the wealthy and corporations to fund public services remain out of reach. That’s why Steven Guilbeault must renounce these connections immediately and commit to acting in the public interest.

The Courage Coalition believes that to win a new kind of socialist politics, we need a new kind of candidate.

That’s why we’re launching a candidate search. Courage is looking for candidates who, with our support, will run in ridings across Canada in the next federal election under the NDP banner. We have a national membership that could potentially offer support through volunteer recruitment, campaign management and fundraising.

Courage is looking for someone who is willing to challenge the party establishment. We believe that an effective movement candidate will have some of these characteristics:

• Is willing to stand up for core values of solidarity, justice and equality against pressure from the party establishment;
• Understands that the way politics is currently done is what created the current mess;
• Is committed to remaining accountable to social movements once in office;
• Believes in using their platform to educate the public and introduce bold ideas;
• Understands that working from within the parliamentary system is one tool social movements are using. There are many other tools that involve working outside the system.

There is no one personality type that makes a good candidate. Some movement candidates are soft-spoken and build relationships one on one. Some are blunt, and speak the truth no matter the cost. Some are deep listeners, who build the confidence of those around them. Some have an eye for policy details. Some have big-picture ideas about a better future, and delegate the details to others.

We are aware that many of these skills are perceived and valued differently because of gender, race, class background and disability. The challenges can’t be underestimated, but we encourage everyone who is interested in applying to understand their own position and background as a potential asset to movements. We commit to creating support systems for candidates, and listening to what they need. Candidates won’t be alone in this.

Do you know someone who would be a good candidate? If so, get in touch through our form. There is no need to have political experience. We don’t want perfection, we want people who are ready for a challenge and want to learn and build together.

Nominate a candidate here!

Courage stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and the people who are victims of ongoing state sponsored violence. The deaths of George Floyd, Regis Korchinski-Paquet and millions of other Black and racialized people occurs in the context of structural, institutionalised and deep rooted racism that blinds our society. There is severe and persistent dehumanization and devaluation of Black lives by the hands of the life threatening police. We join the movement and its demand to defund the police forces, and to invest in the lives of people and communities it has oppressed. We join them in their disobedience, and in the rage that is calling out for accountability and structural justice.

In our support for the resistance, we also acknowledge Canada’s role as an active perpetrator and participant in the state sponsored violence in the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples, and racialized communities within Canada. The Canadian State has a long history of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and has used its police to violently subjugate protestors struggling for their right to live safely on the land stolen by the colonial state. 

We must begin our resistance in acknowledging our own role in being complicit in the racist acts by the Canadian state and benefiting from the oppressive regime.  

In solidarity,

Courage

Capital fuels COVID; solidarity will flatten the curve

Thursdays, beginning June 4th
Casserole (make noise with your pots & pans!)
6pm, your balcony 
#protégeonsMontréal

While business owners, investors and powerful corporations pressure all levels of government to “re-open” the economy, the crisis will continue to disproportionately threaten the well being of frontline workers, elders, migrant workers, and already marginalized communities.

Lives are at stake.

Physical distancing has protected many of us and our loved ones from the pandemic. As the “new normal” is negotiated, solidarity will protect us from the injustices of an economic system that sees the loss of human life as a cost of doing business.

Reports from essential workers tell us with alarming frequency: whatever their assurances, it’s not safe out there. Precautions are frequently flouted, equipment is often not available, and economic pressures lead to impossible choices.

We demand that all levels of government resist the dangerous pressure to reopen for the sake of corporate profits. Instead, we must build an economy that provides necessities like food and housing, protects everyone’s health, and increases dignity and equality.

We demand:

• The right of any person to stay home and refuse unsafe work without penalty
• Access to the CERB and other COVID-19 relief for all, regardless of status
• Cancellation of rent payments for people, not just businesses and landlords
• Protective equipment, enforced safety protocols and meaningful support for all essential workers  

Add your voice! Join the casserole on Thurday at 6pm! (And add your name at the bottom.)

The rapidly changing positions of the Legault government

Since mid-March in Quebec, solidarity has been critical to saving the lives of the most vulnerable. The decline of Covid-19 transmission is only possible through social distancing, and a collective will to remain at home to protect our friends and family members.

Quebec was the first province to limit the activities of schools, businesses and daycares in order to safeguard its population. François Legault’s government promised all non-essential businesses, schools, and daycares that reopening was not in the cards unless there had been a consistent two-week decline of transmission, indicating the potential for a safe return to “normal.”

In early April, under mounting pressure from the commanding heights of the economy, Legault wavered on these promises, saying that schools and daycares would likely open on May 4 – pending a “peak” of infection rates. On April 10, with a peak nowhere in sight, Legault began floating the idea of opening even before May 4. On April 28, Legault officially reversed his promises, announcing  concrete reopening dates for Quebec schools, daycares, and businesses: May 11th for Quebecers outside Montreal, May 18th for Montreal, due to a significantly higher case load in the city. 

Then, Montreal’s reopening was pushed back another week, to May 25, due to the worsening situation in the city. He has since backed down, thanks to a major outcry from Montrealers.

Montreal construction sites and factories, however, remain “essential,” and many workers were forced to return to work as of May 11.  To date, the government has failed to present a plan that defers to actual virus transmission numbers or the advice of the most medical experts as a barometer for when reopening might happen more safely. 

Legault’s rhetoric has also changed swiftly, from “flattening the curve,” in March to the unproven concept of “herd immunity,” to “social reasons.” The latter refers to a superficial if not disingenuous mental health narrative that the government has settled on to justify their push to reopen the economy prematurely.

Why not strengthen shelters for women and children experiencing domestic violence, food donation programs, and helplines? Because that doesn’t suit the business interests pushing for a “reopening”. Legault’s government deems it safer to endanger the lives of children, their families, and their teachers. 

While Legault’s CAQ party is fond of pointing out that parents can choose whether or not to send their children, the parents most likely to have to make this difficult choice are among those living under the poverty line and yet deemed “essential” enough to be forced back to work.

The danger to people in Quebec

The government’s decision to impose a reopening schedule while abandoning its previous approach was made despite the fact that Quebec – and Montreal in particular – are experiencing a continual rise of infection rates. 

As of May 8, Quebec had 2725 deaths, or 321 per million, one of the highest rates in the world – almost three times higher than the rest of Canada.

Despite the personal tragedies endured by over 4600 people who have now died in Quebec, we are continually told that reopening is inevitable and that Quebecers are living “two realities,” meaning that the crisis is only a pressing reality in the CHSLDs. The statement is not just problematic – because it relegates our older population to a second, inferior class – it is also simply untrue. 

In Montreal, reports of sharply rising community-level transmission, overrun hospitals forced to transport patients as far away as Trois-Rivieres, and outbreaks in essential worker daycares, meat processing plants, grocery stores and prisons are daily news. Reports of deaths and serious health complications among young, healthy adults and children alike are increasing. Indeed, the “two realities” Quebecers are living can be found in the gap between our government’s messaging and the facts on the ground.

Teachers face impossible choices, schools become warehouses for the poor

For teachers outside of Montreal, as for all other workers deemed “essential” since the start of this crisis, the return to work has been treated as mandatory. Fear of catching the virus, or of infecting families and loved ones is not considered sufficient reason to refuse work. 

In line with their tendency to move swiftly from one narrative to another to best suit their purposes, the CAQ, facing a shortage of workers in daycares and schools, changed its guidance overnight from “workers over the age of 60 are at risk” to “workers over the age of 70 are at risk,” forcing many teachers and daycare educators in their 60s to return to work or lose their jobs, despite legitimate fears. Even the US Center for Disease Control insists that people older than 65 are at higher risk of severe complications. 

For young children, this is an unnecessary social and scientific experiment. Due to teachers’ inability to reopen safely, schools will serve as little more than warehouses for kids, with students largely confined to their seats for 7 hours a day, without art or physical education, without the meal programs the government listed among its reasons for reopening, without support for special needs, and without protective equipment for frightened teachers.

It appears these will be “poor schools for poor children,” with some school administrators admitting they will keep their children home rather than subject them to these conditions, and the government advising parents who can to keep their children at home. In other words, well-off professionals who can work from home will do so, and the children of the vulnerable will be forced into an environment both dangerous and unstimulating, only widening Quebec’s sharp preexisting social divides. 

Reopening rhetoric fuels regressive employment practices, stokes resistance

Encouraged by the CAQ’s business-first mentality, corporations and employers have repeatedly ignored the warnings and demands of vulnerable workers seeking meaningful protections against the virus. Meanwhile, the CNESST, which oversees labour conditions and outlines safety protocols, has yet to rule on workers’ rights to refuse unsafe workplaces in 158 cases, delaying decisions under pressure from employers. 

In the meantime, opposition to Quebec’s reopening is being heard far and wide: from a massive petition signed by nearly 300,000 people, to community voices in hotspots like Montreal-Nord, to front line workers in hospitals and long term care facilities. Quebec’s own health authorities, its opposition parties, and the rest of the country have become equally critical of the province’s push to reopen, even as we become a bonafide epicentre for COVID-19 transmission. What will it take for life to come first?

COVID-19 response exposes and deepens social and economic divisions

Whose lives will be sacrificed in this reopening? As in the US, UK, and Sweden, the dynamics of who is being most impacted are clear as the pandemic has exposed the deep inequalities within our society, Outbreaks are concentrated in poor and racialized communities, prisons, old age homes, migrant worker camps, and among health care workers. It is clear that risk is not distributed evenly. 

Research from the UK shows that black people are four times more likely to die of COVID-19 than white people, due to existing social inequalities and racism. The growing infection rate in Montreal’s poorest neighbourhoods demonstrate these very same risks. The fact is, people have become expendable in the face of the needs of the economy – and some communities are being treated as more expendable than others. Our most vulnerable communities will only be further depleted as the economy is progressively reopened. 

Reopening the economy in the midst of a pandemic is not in the best interest of human beings. Instead, our government might work to provide adequate shelter, access to food, and access to support services for all. If the Legault government had the best interests of people at heart, they would also quickly move to free nonviolent prisoners, ensuring safety for all, regardless of social status, background or personal history. Quebecers would also be given the choice to stay home and refuse unsafe work conditions.

Will children, parents, and public sector workers be forced to take part in an unsafe experiment placing themselves and their loved ones, families and communities at grave risk to ensure business continues as usual? 

We do have a choice, and it amounts to a lot more than choosing unsafe work over going hungry or homeless. We must find ways to stay the course until the curve flattens, the guidelines set out by the WHO are fulfilled, and until we have the ability to trace contact, test, and reduce the number of cases. Corporate profit-seekers and their federations have been steering much of the policy of deconfinement. The large powerful lobbies of Quebec Inc. like le Conseil du Patronat, have been in regular meetings with the ministers of the economy and labour. The global consulting firm McKinsey Inc. was hired by the Quebec government to consult on the reopening of the economy and to advise the department of public health on its deconfirment plan. Corporate lobbies should not be setting public policy; they are only too willing to sacrifice the health and well-being of our communities.

The moment calls for creative action

While we cannot take to the streets to make our demands heard, we need to make them loud and clear by whatever means possible. Throughout many cities around the world, people have gone out onto their balconies in support of essential workers. 

We are encouraging Montrealers to do the same in an effort to say, “There are no essential workers, only essential people!”. 

We are demanding a full stop to the reopening of the economy and schools until it is considered safe for all. We do not have to put ourselves at risk of contracting the virus and we do not have to live with the decisions made by a political and economic class that sees our lives as expendable to their interests. It is their leadership that is expendable. Only through meaningful solidarity we slow the spread of the virus. It’s time to make an important choice: we must value life over the unyielding needs of the economy.

Lets make our voices heard by banging pots and pans and putting up online banners to show that our demands are more pressing than the demands of the economy!

Whereas the Canadian government reports a shortage of over 150 million N95 masks, as well as additional shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), both of which endangers patients and front-line medical, nursing, and retail workers, 

And Whereas this shortage has resulted from the failure of private capital and governments to produce, store and maintain adequate PPE supplies because they have placed the pursuit of profit above public health,

And Whereas the federal government has contracted General Motors (GM) to repurpose a small part of its almost-empty Oshawa assembly complex to produce masks, 

And Whereas PPE production in Oshawa will only employ 60 workers on a temporary basis, while there are more than 5,000 recently laid-off GM and supplier workers available in Oshawa, and millions of square feet of factory space available,

And Whereas the Canada needs a permanent sufficient supply of PPE, 

And Whereas Green Jobs Oshawa has already commissioned a feasibility study on re-tooling the Oshawa GM complex to produce electric vehicles and buses and found that it would create 13,000 good unionized permanent jobs, decrease CO2 emissions by 400,000 tonnes, and become a profitable company within 5 years, 

And Whereas we cannot rely on the goodwill of corporations to address the current pandemic or to help us prevent future ones,

Therefore be it resolved that the Ontario NDP and federal NDP endorse and widely circulate the Green Jobs Oshawa petition and demand the Ontario and federal governments order an increased and permanent production of PPE at the GM Oshawa complex,

Be it further resolved that the Ontario NDP and the Federal NDP advocate for and introduce bills for the provincial and federal governments take the unused portions of the Oshawa GM complex into public ownership and re-tool it for PPE production, as well as the production of battery electric vehicles and buses for use by government and their agencies, such as the post office and transit agencies, and the production of other environmentally needed goods, 

Be it further resolved that the ONDP and Federal NDP call for provincial and federal governments to requisition the conversion of other non-essential industries to the production of such goods to meet the current crisis.

To sign the letter, click here

The Right Honourable Prime Minister
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau,

COVID-19 has disrupted all of our lives, some more severely than others. Your government has taken measures to provide essential support to domestic students and we welcome the announcement of Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB). However, above and beyond the shortcomings of the CESB identified by student groups, in excluding international students living, studying and contributing in Canada, this announcement leaves a substantial body of students behind.

The COVID-19 crisis is unsettling and disturbing for all of us. It has also deeply impacted the lives of over 600,000 international students in Canada, most of whom are graduate students. One of the first emergency measures, and rightly so, was to restrict air travel and institute airport lockdowns. International students who remained in Canada have been inordinately affected relative to domestic students by these measures, left vulnerable to the economic crisis cut off from family and support systems in their home countries.

These students also depend on summer employment to pay for summer tuition, groceries, rent and other necessities. With an estimated 4.5 million people laid off and non-essential services shut down, employment opportunities for international students are close to non-existent. They already face an economic burden with higher tuition fees than domestic students, strict restrictions on employment, additional summer tuition and now a severe lack of job opportunities. With the on-going crisis, these students have lost their means of income and are struggling to sustain themselves. This is an economic crisis, a social crisis and a mental health crisis, especially for those who are away from familiar environments and their families. International students are not covered under any relief measure that provides for their basic needs at this point.

The CESB announcement for students who are not able to find summer employment is extremely limited in its scope and impact. It ignores the needs of international students who face severe economic challenges in these challenging times for the same reason as domestic students. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada also announced that the government is lifting the 20 hour restriction on work as a relief measure for international students — provided they work in an essential services such as health care, critical infrastructure or the supply of food or other critical goods. This is disappointing and discriminatory against international students, upon whom these restrictions were placed for the reason that they are not the labour force, and are here for educational purposes. The assumption that the crisis has somehow removed that priority for students, who often come for better access to education and do not come from affluent backgrounds, is misplaced and adds to the vulnerability and ill-treatment of international students.

In addition, and despite the lack of resources such as child care support, institutional support, infrastructure such as libraries, labs and study spaces, major national universities have refused to waive summer tuition for international students who rely on these resources to perform academically. The cost of living combined with the unprecedented burden on students without family support and the loss of job opportunities is unbearable for many.

International students need the attention of your government, and we ask you to not leave them behind in your progress to end the impacts of the pandemic.

This pandemic has revealed many social inequalities, and this is our chance to not let the people who are the future down. Your government needs to step up and set a global example of what Canada represents. 

We urge the government to take cognizance of the grave situation of international students in Canada and call for:

1. An increase in public funding specifically for the duration of the upcoming academic semester to provide educational subsidy and assist universities in creating a safe and secure environment for international graduate students;

2. The extension of scholarships, grants, and other forms of funding opportunities for international students.

3. Most urgently, the inclusion of international students under the CESB and other relief measures that the government will undertake to combat the pandemic and its impact.

Thank you for putting relief measures in place, we strongly urge you to not leave the vulnerable behind.

To sign the letter, click here.

Signed by:

1. Courage (Ottawa)
2. International Development Graduate Student Association of the University of Ottawa 
3. The End FGM/C Canada Network 
4. Phalandia Mondésir, Canadian Association for Medical Radiation Technologists 
5. Jermaine Jacobs, Equality Fund
6. Dima Amad, Executive Director, The Arab Community Centre Toronto  
7. Giselle Portnier, Independent journalist and filmmaker 
8. Maryan Abdikadir 
9. Shivangi Misra, Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) 
10. Klara Hillmann
11. Cyndia Mondésir, Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA)
12. Adrian Murray
13. Frederic Langlois, PhD
14. Laura Shantz, PhD
15. Cameron Roberts, PhD
16. Guyleigh Johnson, Writer
17. Kenjina Princivil, Montfort Hospital
18. Mélissa Simard
19. Gabriela Sigouin
20. Matthew Lipton, Algonquin College student
21. James Hutt 

CC’d:

1. The Honourable Marco E. L. Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
2. The Honourable Bardish Chagger, Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth
3. The Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion

Act now in solidarity with the Iranian people

On Monday, May 4th 2020, we’re tweeting at elected officials with the hashtag #EndIranSanctionsCanada. A growing international movement is taking place to call for an end to sanctions on Iran in this time of the global COVID-19 pandemic. 

This is an appeal to join and support this global movement in solidarity with the people of Iran. 

Take action !

Monday, May 4th, tweet #EndIranSanctionsCanada + #EndCOVIDSanctions at the following :

Sample tweets

For additional context and background, read this statement via Courage (and please sign!).

Right now in Iran, medical officials and frontline workers are making heroic efforts on the ground to keep the pandemic under control with relatively limited resources. However, this incredible work is seriously hampered by international economic and financial sanctions on Iran, driven by the Trump administration in the United States, but also supported by the Canadian government. 

Canada’s Liberal government under Justin Trudeau is strongly supporting sanctions on Iran, as many Iranian health professionals, doctors and nurses, are dying on the front line of this global battle against COVID-19, often due to limited resources.

Canada must immediately drop sanctions on Iran. 

“This outbreak is testing us in many ways. It is a test of political solidarity, whether the world can come together to fight a common enemy that does not respect borders or ideologies. And it is a test of scientific solidarity, will the world come together to find shared answers to shared problems,” says Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy PM Christina “Chrystia” Freeland speak eloquently on listening to scientific advice at this moment and in fact science is clear, to battle this global pandemic we need international solidarity and global medical coordination, not support for sectarian sanctions shaped by the Trump administration. Canada must get off the vindictive sanctions train. 

Beyond the governing Liberal Party, the NDP also must speak up to address this issue clearly, not stand silent in regards to Canada’s support for unjust sanctions on Iran. 

Nine lawmakers in the U.S. have directly addressed this issue, signing an open letter to President Trump, including congress representatives Ilham Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who are all calling clearly for sanction relief for Iran.

On March 31st, The Telegraph in the U.K. reported : 

“Britain, France and Germany have for the first time used a complex financial system that bypasses US sanctions to send medical aid to Iran, raising hopes of salvaging the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. 

According to the German foreign ministry, the medical supplies safely arrived in Iran after a transaction using the Instex system, which was set up in response to Donald Trump, the US president, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and imposing severe sanctions on the regime.

Earlier this month, Britain, Germany and France had announced they would offer a €5million (£4m) package to help Iran tackle the coronavirus, as well as medical equipment for testing and protective clothing.”

Today, the Canadian government must do the same, immediately, and act to support the Iranian public health services, end Canadian sanctions, while bypassing U.S. sanctions to send relief to Iran. 

Canada and Iran are intimately connected; according to Canada’s 2016 census there are 210,405 people of Iranian descent who are also Canadians, as well as tens-of-thousands of permanent residents and also international students. 

Given this reality, Canadians across the country are experiencing the pain and suffering of this pandemic between both Canada and Iran, with loved ones in Iran grappling with one of the most serious COVID-19 outbreaks in the world.

Canada must end sanctions on Iran immediately!

Contacts : 

Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister 
Twitter : @cafreeland (use : #EndIranSanctionsCanada)
Telephone : 1 613-992-5234
Email : Chrystia.Freeland@parl.gc.ca
Post : House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Twitter : @FP_Champagne (use : #EndIranSanctionsCanada)
Telephone : 1 613-995-4895
Email : Francois-Philippe.Champagne@parl.gc.ca
Post : House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
Twitter : @JustinTrudeau (use : #EndIranSanctionsCanada)
Telephone : 1 613-995-0253
Email : Justin.Trudeau@parl.gc.ca
Post : Office of the Prime Minister, 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

Ever since the United States proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, establishing South America as its exclusive backyard, any upstart country on that continent that defied has paid an extraordinarily high price for their troubles.

U.S. sanctions against Venezuela have been devastating. The most recent round, initiated in 2017, prevented the country from restructuring its economy—heavily dependent on oil exports—in the wake of a global oil slump, and reduced the availability of essential goods, including food and medicine. The result was devastating. As Mark Weisbrot and Jeffery Sachs note, “The sanctions reduced the public’s caloric intake, increased disease and mortality (for both adults and infants), and displaced millions of Venezuelans who fled the country as a result of the worsening economic depression and hyperinflation.” An estimated 40,000 Venezuelans died as a result of the 2017 sanctions.

Canadians—and the parties that represent them—–must rise to end their country’s complicity, break from its endorsement of U.S. imperialism’s agenda to control a country that has the world’s largest oil reserves, call for the end of sanctions and extend solidarity through humanitarian aid to millions of Venezuelans.

Military Escalation during the COVID-19 Crisis

The U.S. State Department has used the COVID-19 crisis both as cover for military escalation and as an opportunity to bring new levels of crisis and misery to Venezuela.

The recent exposure of a Colombia-based plot to launch an armed attack on Venezuela with apparent U.S. facilitation was a major escalation. Coming quickly after a U.S. $15-million bounty on President Nicolas Maduro’s head based on contrived drug-trafficking charges, both moves are widely seen as an attempt to divert scarce Venezuelan resources from the COVID-19 crisis.

In April, thousands of U.S. military personnel with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military hardware—navy destroyers and AWAC planes worth $250 million each—were stationed off the coast of Venezuela. The State Department alleged the mobilization was to counter narcotics trafficking (which is not prevalent in this area) but admitted it also hoped to cause financial harm to Maduro, whom they indicted for drug trafficking without evidence.

Despite a clear pattern of aggression and escalation, very little has been heard from leaders in Canada—from any major party. Canada must denounce these actions and end their actions and end their cooperation with the U.S. campaign against Venezuela.

U.S. Targets Bolivarian Revolution

The history of U.S. recent machinations against Venezuela is well-known. The U.S. has had Venezuela in its crosshairs since 1999 when Hugo Chavez tapped into the country’s aspirations for national independence and was elected to power in the spirit of Simon Bolivar’s anti-imperialist heritage. Deep-rooted support in the slums and among the rural poor kept him in power until he died from cancer in 2013. The U.S. tried everything to overthrow him: a failed military coup in 2002; encouraging violent demonstrations which damaged public property and cost human lives; a campaign of unremitting vilification on the international stage—these were all on the menu.

Nonetheless, the achievements of the Venezuelan government during that period were astonishing. Under Chavez, Venezuela eliminated illiteracy, built 13 new tuition-free universities, established thousands of worker-owned enterprises, cut poverty in half, cut extreme poverty by 70%, established 19,000 democratic neighbourhood councils, and expanded health care services.

But Chavez’s humble roots, his commitment to redistribute to the poor the wealth of proven oil deposits that rank it first in the world, his personal incorruptibility and his refusal to bow to the U.S. policy of Pax Americana enabled him to win election after election until his untimely death.

Maduro, who replaced Chavez as the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution in 2014, has been given the same treatment. Venezuelan assets overseas were frozen. Venezuela was excluded from the world banking system. Hyperinflation destroyed its currency. Shortages of foodstuffs and basic necessities caused hunger and 40,000 deaths since sanctions were imposed. The import ban was extended from initially targeting government leaders to the imposition of sanctions against entire sectors of the economy. The Lima Group consisting largely of oligarchies or vassal states of the U.S. was formed in 2017 to isolate Venezuela and counts among its members brutal repressive regimes such as Peru and Guatemala. It supports efforts of an unpopular oppositionist to declare himself the head of Venezuela and now has more than 50 countries accepting Juan Guaido’s credentials. Guaido, a puppet of the U.S., has promised to open Venezuela’s nationalized oil industry, PDVSA, to majority control by foreign capital through joint enterprises while reversing Venezuela’s long-term support for Cuba and Palestinians.

Venezuela is also rent by bureaucratic deformities that multiplied during Maduro’s rule as well as by Venezuela’s over-dependency on the oil industry, which created economic instability because of the fluctuating price of oil on the world market. Though far from being a petro-state, Venezuela has many features associated with a rentier state model. The pro-Bolivarian nouveau riche who first emerged as a social force late in Chavez’s rule and has multiplied rapidly under Maduro has extended its influence into state administrative recesses and is emboldened by the economic turmoil. Many on the left agreed that there were deficiencies in the administration of the 2015 re-election of Maduro. They also criticized the assumption of much of the legislative authority of the National Assembly by a constituent assembly called by Maduro in 2017, which was boycotted by anti-Chavista forces as well as elements of the Venezuelan left. Yet none of this gives the U.S. a legal or moral right to decide who should govern the country. The Venezuelans will find ways to resolve their political differences as they have in the past since the proclamation of the Republic in 1830 without foreign intervention. But the Trump Administration seeks otherwise. He announced in January that the State Department would pursue a “maximum pressure” policy toward both Venezuela and Iran (which also faces an  already devastating COVID crisis because of  similar sanctions).

Venezuela is one of many examples of the limits of capitalist powers’ support for democracy. If a population’s votes threaten the dominance of powerful blocs of transnational investors, they will use every means at their disposal to overthrow those governments. Opposition to anti-democratic coups is a primordial concern in rich countries that regularly align with U.S. imperialism—like Canada.

Sanctions Threaten Effort to Stop Pandemic

The European Union earlier and the IMF, in March, refused to issue a loan for emergency humanitarian assistance for funds Venezuela needs to maintain its efforts to overcome the spread of COVID -19 potentially exceeding the tens of thousands of deaths resulting from the boycott of medical equipment and medicine as well as food as a result of U.S. sanctions. The refusal to lend relief funds by the IMF blocked the purchase of raw materials needed to produce equipment and medicine to stem the crisis. Falling in line with the U.S. State Department’s agenda, right wing governments in Brazil and Columbia have closed their borders with Venezuela. In the midst of this, Guaido attempted to engineer a U.S.-backed coup in 2019, an adventure which failed spectacularly.

So far, Venezuela has attempted to limit the spread of the pandemic shutting non-essential businesses and using physical distancing while attempting to manage the near collapse of its hospitals, the severe shortage of doctors, and sore need for medicine and medical supplies. But without the humanitarian aid and emergency funds denied to it by the IMF—something it routinely grants to all other countries in need—Venezuela’s efforts to stall COVID-19 from spreading will falter. Add to that the previously seldom, if ever, practiced inclusion of medical supplies and equipment to the items barred by the U.S. sanctions, and a tragedy of unimaginable proportion is in the making. Diagnostic kits from China and the influx of doctors from Cuba have provided limited help but without an intact medical infrastructure , the tide of the pandemic’s spread will be difficult to stop.

Canada Runs Interference for U.S. State Department

Appeals to exclude humanitarian aid and medical supplies from the all-encompassing list of sanctions imposed by Donald Trump last August have multiplied recently. The U.N. Commission on Human Rights, leading economists like Jeffry Sachs and Mark Weisbrot, even CNN(!), have recoiled at the inhuman suffering caused by the sanctions. CNN questioned in its daily email on March 30^th what the moral calculus is of a policy pursuing regime change when “civilian lives are on the line.” The Rideau Institute has condemned Canada for illegally meddling in Venezuela’s internal affairs.

Canada has run interference for the U.S. military-industrial complex on the “Venezuela file” on matters big and small:

1. Canada co-founded and fully participates in the Lima Group formed in 2017 when the Organization of American States refused to do Trump’s dirty work for him.
2. The UN’s Special Rapporteur’s August 2018 report directly links Canada to aggravating access to life-saving medical supplies including insulin and anti-viral drugs.
3. Canada illegally supports the obstruction of medical and food imports, thereby violating international humanitarian and human rights laws which constitutes an “international wrongful act”.
4. Canada’s conduct clearly violates the sovereignty of Venezuela and its support for coercive actions including sanctions and military steps without UN Security Council approval is unlawful.
5. Canada’s hosting earlier this year of the Venezuelan pretender Guaido in Ottawa and a meeting of the Lima Group, its senior role in promoting this group whose members include the quasi-fascist Brazilian President Bolsonaro, and its co-signing last year of an agreement with the U.S. to expand the sanctions constitute an abject surrender of an independent role for Canada on the world stage.

Canada’s Hypocrisy Cannot Be Hidden

It is apparent that the government of Canada’s made-in-the-U.S. policies on Venezuela are an integral part of and reflect its subordinate role as a handmaiden to U.S. imperialism and as a junior partner in Trump’s adventures. How can Canada pretend to stand for democracy and human rights while supporting the threats to use armed force, recognizing an illegitimate rival as state head and carrying out economic warfare through sanctions that deny a nation support needed to counter the scourge of the pandemic? Trudeau justifies Canada’s role as needed to restore democracy. Is that why he is rubbing shoulders in the Lima Group with brutal militarists and corrupt tin pot dictators who shoot their citizens in the streets when they protest? Is that why Canada played a central role in planing the attempted coup in 2019? Why is he voiceless when Saudi Arabia facilitates the bombing of villages and hospitals in Yemen, and why is he also selling militarized vehicles to it while its leaders permitted their underlings to use a saw to slice and dispose of the body of a critical journalist lured into its embassy in Turkey? Where was his moral outrage against Saudi Arabia then?

And let’s not forget that Canada has a dog in this race—Canada’s government has supported Canadian gold-mining companies seeking compensation for the expropriation of their holdings by the Bolivarian state of Hugo Chavez. In fact, Canadian mining companies have an international reputation for brutalizing and even murdering Indigenous people resisting their destructive enterprises in various countries with impunity and silence from our supposedly moralistic government. Trained in theatrics, Trudeau is skilled in feigning false pretences of moral rectitude. Yet it is clear that Canada’s role in this litany of brutal realpolitik has been to act as a compliant junior partner to the U.S.

NDP Should Initiate Anti-Sanction Campaign

It is important to note that prominent New Democrats, such as Niki Ashton and Svend Robinson, have openly criticized the Government of Canada’s servile obedience to U.S. plans to overthrow Maduro’s government. They have advocated that Canada respect Venezuela’s sovereignty and right to determine its own political future without foreign interference and to promote the resolution of differences within Venezuela peacefully by accepting the offer to mediate the conflicts within that country by Mexico. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh declared last year that Canada should break from the U.S.’s “self-interested interference in the region” and that “who is to lead Venezuela should be in the hands of Venezuelans…free of foreign interference.”

These pronouncements were made last year before Trump and his surrogates put the lives and health of innocent Venezuelans at the mercy of COVID-19. Now is the time for the NDP to actualize its pronouncements of solidarity and human compassion by immediately initiating an urgent coalition to campaign for Canada to abandon participation in and oppose the sanctions, disengage itself from U.S. connivance to bring Maduro to his feet, break from the thugs and bullies in the Lima Group, restore diplomatic recognition of the Maduro government, support the mediation efforts of Mexico and cooperate fully in sharing our medical supplies and resources with Venezuela to make up for the unmitigated hypocrisy and abuse that the Trudeau government has been party to over the years. This campaign should seek the widest support from the Greens, the BQ, the QS and from labour councils and unions across Canada and civil society groups to unite together for humanitarian reasons to prevent the impending disaster that Canada has helped to engineer.

The Courage Coalition calls on all Canadians to send Justin Trudeau a message to speak up loudly and clearly in defence of human life as the U.S. tightens the noose around a proud and courageous people with a history of standing up against imperial powers since the continental rebellion led by Simon Bolivar in the early 1800s.

Health authorities in Iran are dealing with the serious impact of the coronavirus epidemic, while the international sanctions that disrupt supply chains of medical supplies remain in place. As of this writing, the COVID-19 death toll in Iran had surpassed 1800, with upwards of 24,000 confirmed infections.

Despite taking steps to address the looming impact of the epidemic within its own borders, Canada continues to support sanctions on Iran. Iran’s experience with the epidemic has informed the nature and degree of the preventative measures being taken by other nations, and yet Canada has remained silent on the continuing U.S. sanctions on Iran, which are severe and a significant impediment in responding to the epidemic. 

E.U. member states, particularly the U.K., have been in the news for putting the pressure on the U.S. government to drop the sanctions in the context of the coronavirus epidemic. Canada has remained silent and is sustaining sanctions. 

Iranian activists are articulating the importance of dropping the sanctions, Azadeh Moaveni and Sussan Tahmasebi write in the Guardian, “Suspending sanctions during this pandemic should not be seen as a troubling or even monumental thing to do. Proponents of sanctions in the US administration insist that only extreme pressure will bring about changes in Iranian policy – but we are in different times now. Controlling the virus would not be a favour to the Iranian government, but to Iranians themselves – and indeed, to the rest of the world.”

In a press conference on January 11th, 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau referred to the Iranian government as “a regime,” illustrating open political hostility toward Iranian government and all the complexities of that system, which includes 241 elected representatives at the national level. 

This past Wednesday, March 18, the Trump administration, as also reported by the Guardian, “has said medical supplies are available to Iran through a new Swiss humanitarian vehicle, but UK officials fear this involves so many conditions as to be ineffective.” The US State Department recently imposed additional sanctions.

Even before the coronavirus epidemic struck, sanctions had caused many premature deaths in Iran due to the lack – or prohibitive cost – of medical supplies.

As an epicentre of the COVID-19 epidemic, Iran needs support, not sanctions. 

Canada is, both by complicity and participation, involved in the international sanctions that continue to be imposed on Iran. Medical officials and health institutions in Iran have clearly outlined the need for sanctions to come to an end. Iran needs access both to medical equipment and to the international financial markets in order to purchase the further supplies and equipment required to deal with this crisis.

Canadian politicians have spoken clearly about the global nature of this pandemic. However, in the case of Iran, a special exception has been made where instead of facilitating international cooperation and support (such that would allow Iran to deal directly with this international health emergency), the Trudeau Liberal government has continued to support sanctions. Canada must drop sanctions on Iran, provide medical support to Iran and pressure the U.S. to drop sanctions, especially those new articles issued in the last week.

Canada’s Iranian diaspora is significant, and the pandemic is impacting those families that are split between both nations. This is a time to recognize interconnection and embrace solidarity, not cause further division by sanctions and political posturing. 

Courage calls on Canada’s federal government to reverse its support for sanctions and diplomatically support the free flow of medical supplies. 
Courage calls on the NDP to improve its position by taking a clear stand against the sanctions. In the U.S., nine lawmakers, including senator Bernie Sanders, as well as Representatives Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sent a letter to the Trump administration on March 23rd asking for Iran sanctions relief, with the hashtag #endcovidsanctions.

The NDP can take a similar position right now.

Three Canadian justice-seeking organizations will combine efforts on Saturday at the Ontario NDP Provincial Council to voice their fierce opposition to the ONDP support for Bill 168, which aims to officially conflate the definition of antisemitism with criticism of the state of Israel.

On Thursday, February 27, Bill 168 passed its second reading at Queen’s Park, with full support from both the Conservative Party, and the New Democratic Party.

Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), the Courage Coalition and Palestine House, representing 4900 supporters from all across Canada, all stand jointly opposed to this dangerous legislation, saying that it will promote racism and curtail civil liberties. They are deeply disappointed that the ONDP lacks the courage to stand against it. The IHRA definition was recently defeated in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver’s city councils . This will be the first time it is adopted by a provincial or territorial government.

“1100+ people have sent letters to their NDP MPPs in the last three weeks pleading with them to respect our rights and not support Bill 168. So far they are being ignored. If the IHRA definition passes into law, it will pose serious threats to both Jewish and Palestinian people in Ontario” said Sheryl Nestel, on behalf of IJV in Toronto.

“The ONDP caucus have said that they understand how this bill fails to tackle antisemitism, yet they don’t seem to have the conviction to oppose it. As a Jewish person in Ontario, and as a vocal critic of Israel’s human rights violations, this legislation places me and my community at risk.”

More than 400 Canadian academics have recently signed a statement that decries the IHRA definition because:

It equates anti-semitism with criticism of Israel. It is an attack on the freedom of expression that allows us to stand up for human rights in Palestine and any other legitimate criticism of Israel. No other country or government in the world is protected from vocal critique in Canada. This Bill sets a frightening precedent.

It is far too vague at defining the very real problem of antisemitism, which is troubling considering the rise of white supremacy and racism against Jews that we see in Canada and around the world. Jews are put in danger when we don’t have clear eyes on what actually threatens them.

It’s clear, therefore, that the IHRA definition is harmful to both Jewish and Palestinian people, as well as anyone who chooses to publicly critique Israel.

“The ONDP, has chosen to support Doug Ford’s Conservative government who are following in the same footsteps as Donald Trump by passing Bill 168” said Courage Coalition member, Darrah Teitel.

“Many Courage members work to compel principled actions and policies from the New Democrat Party and we say this is a cynical and cowardly move on behalf of Horwath and her caucus. We want a party that stands up for human rights and against real antisemitism.”

This Saturday, at the ONDP Provincial Council, Electoral District Associations and their constituents have the opportunity to raise their voices to support direct democracy within their party. Several EDAs have passed resolutions against the IHRA Bill in the past two weeks alone and we expect to see those resolutions addressed by the council. This is important not only because of the Bill is harmful, but also because MPPs in the ONDP will also be bound to the IHRA definition. The result would mean that progressive MPPs could no longer point to the speak against the historical and current human rights abuses perpetrated by Israel.

“It is disappointing to see the NDP turn it’s back on the Palestinian people” said Hammam Farah of Palestine House, the Palestinian Community Centre. “My people have long suffered under the Israeli Apartheid Regime and Canada has long been complicit in this. The Liberal and Conservative Party have never been the party to support our rights, but to see the NDP slowly take the same direction is disheartening. We will not stand for it”.