Since the beginning of 2010, the federal government ofCanada has systematicallycut funding to Arab-Canadian organisations as well as to the UnitedNations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza. In March, theOntario provincial legislature issued a unanimouscondemnation of Israeli Apartheid Week - with only 30 of 107members present - prompting an Alberta MP to introduce a similar motion on thenational level, which subsequently failed. At the same time, students andfaculty at many Canadian campuses who have identified the policies andpractices of the state of Israelas apartheid, continue to be targeted by harassment, surveillance, andintimidation. This past May, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and SanctionsNational Committee (BNC) condemned repression in Canadaagainst Palestinesolidarity campaigns and stated:

"The BNC strongly condemns the actions taken by Canadian statebodies, university administrations and pressure groups to defund, repress andotherwise attempt to weaken groups and individuals that provide assistance to,or campaign in solidarity with, Palestinians. Such blatantly anti-democraticmeasures are not only repulsive per se; they are forms of complicity withIsraeli violations of international law and Palestinian rights and have farreaching adverse consequences for civil liberties. The BNC believes that thisrepression in Canadamust be brought to an end."  For the complete statement, go to http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1246.

Nowhere isCanadian government repression, at every level, more evident than at therecently convened 2010 G-20 Summit,the fourth meeting of the G-20 heads of government, that took place in Toronto June26-27, 2010. An "Integrated Security Unit" that includedpolice officers from different regional departments, the Ontario ProvincialPolice, the RCMP, and sectors of the Canadian military, began working onsecurity in downtown Toronto,where the venue was located, three months ahead of the summit.

While G20leaders met behind a steel-fortified "security" wall, police brutality againstprotest participants, journalists, legal observers, medics, and randompassersby came in the form of indiscriminate arrests, beatings, pepper spray,rubber bullets, police charging into crowds on horseback, illegal searches andseizures, and extended arbitrary detentions. While in custody, people wereforced into steel-enforced cells with up to 40 people per cell; made to sleepon concrete floors with open bathrooms; denied food, water, toilet paper, andsanitary products; subjected to sexual harassment, threats, humiliation, andintimidation; and refused access to medical attention, phone calls, and legalcounsel.

A Canada-wide response is at hand as people fight to have the criminalcharges dropped and to continue the struggle against the G20's anti-people andanti-environment policies. IJAN-Toronto has endorsed an event to be held inmid-August that will highlight how G20 organizers were targeted, accounts ofpolice brutality and repression, the political nature of the bail conditions,and ways to support people facing charges, many of which are serious and couldresult in long jail terms. The event, titled, "Resisting the Criminalization ofDissent," provides IJAN-Toronto an opportunity to support an initiative thatoffers a broad context for understanding the criminalization of dissentregarding criticism of Israel.

The CPCCA arose out a conference called theInter-Parliamentary Committee for Combating Anti-Semitism that was held in London, Englandin February 2009. Eleven Canadian MPs, including Irwin Cotler, a Liberal MP andkey player in the pro-Israel camp, attended that meeting and returned with aresolve to create a coalition against anti-Semitism in this country. Termed the"new anti-Semitism" it is defined, in part, as excessive criticism of the stateof Israel - comparing Israel'sactions to Apartheid or those of Nazi Germany, for instance. The committee'sformation is a transparent initiative to create the conditions for legitimatingthe criminalization of criticism of Israel. The CPCCA has no officialparliamentary status but is a conglomeration of MPs from diverse politicalaffiliations and across party lines. In June 2009, the committee launched itsnation-wide inquiry into anti-Semitism by inviting written submissions on thesubject.

The list of witnesses revealed a transparently biased selection andexcluded submissions from people intending to substantively challenge thenotion of a "new anti-Semitism." The CPCCA allegedly plans to submit a reporton anti-Semitism to the Government of Canada, in anticipation of the next Interparliamentary Conference on CombatingAnti-Semitism, to be held in Ottawain November 2010. Michael Keefer'sbook, "Antisemitism Real and Imagined: Responses to the Canadian ParliamentaryCoalition to Combat Antisemitism" exposes the political extremism of theCPCCA's prime movers and their transparent agenda to manufacture ajustification for criminalizing criticism of the state of Israel. Keefer, a professor at the University of Guelph,includes in his book a selection of the rejected submissions written byindividual Canadians and human rights organizations whose contributionsquestion the legitimacy of the CPCCA, its extra-parliamentary "mandate", andits overt support for Israel'sviolations of international law. All of these submissions were rejected byCPCCA investigators.

For more information about Keefer's book and how to orderit, go to http://www.thecanadiancharger.com/page.php?id=5&a=381