Canada Must Hold Palestinian Leaders Accountable - CIJA - The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) is a Zionist registered lobby group that counts “rebuilding the Canada-Israel partnership” as one of its top priorities. CIJA states that it “educates Canadians about the important role that the people and land of Israel play in Jewish life and identity with the objectives of deepening Canadians’ understanding about the Jewish community and, to the benefit of Canadians and Israelis alike, strengthening ties between Canada and Israel.”The organization has taken MPs on sponsored trips to Israel in the past, and currently lobbies them as well as other members of government. Its lobby goals have included:making it easier for the Canadian government to revoke citizenship;training law enforcement officials to identify alleged hate speech using the IHRA definition of antisemitism;Canada-Israel military cooperation;Canada not resuming diplomatic relations with Iran;additional funding for police hate-crime units;intensifying the monitoring done by RCMP and CSIS. A review of Canada’s lobby registry on September 29 revealed that CIJA had lobbied at least 61 MPs by that point, some of them on multiple occasions.

On Monday, Albertans vote on whether to stay in Canada or hold another binding referendum on quitting Canada. If the vote goes as polls suggest, a majority of Albertans will mark an X to stay in Confederation, and Premier Danielle Smith has said if that’s so, she expects everyone to accept it and move on. Leaders of the independence movement contest that. And political watchers are divided about whether separation — previously a fringe sentiment — will now be a prominent, permanent feature of Alberta’s political landscape, as in Quebec. Julian Castro-Rea, a political-science professor at the University of Alberta who studies the separation debates in Quebec and Alberta, believes as long as Alberta feels alienated from the Canadian capital — feeling that Ottawa benefits from Alberta’s resource economy without giving back — the movement will have fuel. “Even if the referendum is lost, the westernization will still be around, because it’s kind of a way which, traditionally, Albertans have related to the rest of Canada,” says Castro-Rea, who believes western alienation may remain indefinitely. Story continues below advertisement