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Charlie Angus

Member of Parliament
NDP

Timmins—James Bay
Ontario
Voting Attendance: 60%
Expenses Last Quarter: $134,227.44

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Mr. Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay, NDP)

Jun/6/24 10:13:17 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have a number of petitions here. One of the petitions really is timely right now, given the bombing of a school in Gaza. It states that, whereas Israel's war with Hamas killed almost 20,000 people in Gaza in two months, between October 7 and December 18, 2023, with about 70% of them women and children, the civilian casualty rate in this war is significantly higher than the average rate in all the conflicts of the world during the 20th century. In the occupied West Bank, it has been the deadliest year on record since the UN began reporting in 2005, with at least 477 Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire. The value of Canada's arms trade with Israel has been accelerating in the last few years; in 2022, Canada transferred over $20 million in arms to Israel, the third-highest value on record. Canada has a legal responsibility under the Arms Trade Treaty and its harmonized domestic legislation to ensure that its arms exports are not used in commission of serious violations of international law or serious violence against women and children. In the late 1980s, during the first intifada, Canada imposed a two-way arms embargo on Israel as a response to violence against Palestinian civilians. Therefore, the undersigned citizens and residents of Canada call on the Government of Canada to impose a two-way arms embargo between Canada and Israel; investigate whether Canadian weapons or weapons components have been used against Palestinian civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories, including in the current war on Gaza; review all military and security co-operation between Canada and Israel; and close loopholes that allow the unregulated and unreported transfer of military goods to Israel through the United States.

292 words

Context: House Hansard - 317 - May/24/24

Mr. Charlie Angus

May/24/24 12:44:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today is a powerful day, a day that I never thought I would actually see in the House of Commons, after eight efforts over the years in my time to bring forward legislation to protect workers from anti-scab actions by employers to deny them their fundamental rights. We are here today to bring this into law. On my way here, I learned that, today, the International Court of Justice has called out Israel for the brutal genocide that is happening in Gaza and Rafah, calling on Israel to end this horrific campaign. This is a day of justice. I think of Martin Luther King Jr.'s beautiful statement that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” That slogan has been used many times over the years, but what people do not often reflect on is that the bending of that arc of justice is done in the face of immense opposition. It is done in the face of threat. It is done in the face of harassment. It is often done in the face of violence. However, the arc of the moral universe will move, inevitably, toward justice. I was thinking about that, because my mom called me last night. My mom is a hardrock miner's daughter. In fact, her father, Joe MacNeil, started in the Cape Breton coal mines, back when Dominion Steel used to use the army against the coal miners in New Waterford and Glace Bay. They had a classic tactic. They would make the men and the families sleep in tents in the winter to break them. They called them communists, radicals and extremists. There was nothing radical or extreme about fighting for a living wage. What was radical and extreme was the capitalists who would use the army, putting a machine gun in the church steeple in New Waterford to try to intimidate working people. However, in that moral universe, the arc bent relentlessly toward justice, because there is a moment when people just cannot put up with it anymore and will not put up with anymore. Mom called me last night and told me how inspired she was. These are dark times, but my mom always sees hope. She said to me that she was so inspired to see the young people marching out of those university commencements, university students in the United States who were putting their careers on the line, facing serious harassment, being called all kinds of hateful things by an establishment that wants to shut them down. My mom said that young people get it. They are not going to sit silent in the face of a genocide. Again, what bends toward justice is bending in the face of the harassment and the intimidation and the false threats that these young students are somehow extremists and radicals. There is nothing extreme about speaking up against the mass killing of children. What is extreme is going along with it, like last night. When the International Criminal Court has called for indictments against Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes, the government and its key ministers would be drinking wine and schnaps with Israeli leaders here in Ottawa. We can say that we are friends. We are. Canada has a long, deep friendship with Israel, but friends do not let friends commit war crimes. My mom said that she was so inspired by these young people who are standing up, walking out and marching in the streets. My mother said to me that she was going to get her walker and go down and walk with them. My mother has never been to a demonstration in her life, but she sees the mark of—

623 words

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Member of Parliament

Charlie Angus