CBC.ca By Neil MacDonald
So, the Trudeau government intends to join with the Conservatives next week and condemn the United Church of Canada and the Quakers, along with every other organization and individual participating to any degree in a boycott of Israeli goods and services.
Blanket government condemnation is not a very sunny thing to do, and the Liberals, quivering with outrage, are making it clear they really don’t want to do it.
But they are going ahead because, apparently, they’re being bullied, the poor daisies.
It’s just not fair, the things you can be forced to do when you have a parliamentary majority.
There is no doubt, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion declared in the House of Commons Thursday, that most of the organizations and individuals supporting the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement are doing so in good faith, believing it will somehow force an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its control over Gaza, and maybe some sort of peace deal.
But BDS, said Dion, is not government policy. And “those people, of good faith, we will not convince them of their error by banging them on the head, by hitting them with condemnations of all types, by intimidation, or by invectives. We have to speak to them with respect.”
There is also, added the minister, the small matter of freedom of speech and debate. Continue reading
October 26,