It’s no secret that many members of the NDP think that Canada’s historically progressive party needs a makeover in its relationship to Israel and Palestine. Nowhere was this clearer than at the party’s 2018 policy convention in Ottawa where the leadership blocked a massively supported resolution in favour of Palestinian rights from hitting the convention floor. Remarks made recently by NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh signal another alarming backslide when it comes to standing up for human rights and international law in Israel and Palestine.

The Trudeau government could have delisted Iran as a “state sponsor of terror”, or repealed Harper’s Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act. Instead, it didn’t even keep its promise to restart diplomatic relations with Iran. While there is much to dislike about the government in Tehran, progressive-minded, peace-loving Canadians should reject Ottawa’s aggressive anti-Iranian policies.

Though this should be a matter of concern to all Canadians, as we share the same institutions, solutions may not have the nation as their frame of reference. Unfortunately, it is even less certain whether the country has in its politics the intellectual vigour that will preclude hasty and regrettable decisions when urgency demands action. Such a country as Canada should not seem confined or confining. But who now is capable of dreaming big?

We tell Mr. Trudeau that instead of your objective of getting a seat at the UN Security Council, you may end up with a seat in front of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. If the “two-states-for-two-peoples solution… prospects appear increasingly under threat,” it is because of Canada’s (and others) unconditional support for Israeli occupation, war crimes, and apartheid.

Blowing off the fog of ignorance that now hides the history of the Ukrainian-Canadian left would help to dismantle a problematic conservative consensus. It would throw light on the Ukrainian left’s historic and ultimately unsuccessful efforts to put into practice a progressive form of nationalism, one that protects the independence of distinct cultural groups within a shared democratic space.

The outcome for SNC-Lavalin signified that everything was back to normal. After a few hiccups, the system had delivered. Corporate wealth was safer than ever from those who did not understand that, to make the world richer, it is always necessary for those who own the means of production to engage in some shady, often anti-social, even criminal behaviour.

If it’s one thing Progressive Conservative governments like to have fun with, it’s schools. Back when Mike Harris was premier, he had an education minister by the name of John Snobelen, and Snobelen was caught on video saying that the best thing you could do with the educational system was “create a crisis” in it.

On November 11, 2019, following the violent, racist, US-led coup in Bolivia against Evo Morales — which was supported from the outset by the Canadian government — I posted an appeal on YouTube denouncing the green light given by Canada on October 29 to US President Donald Trump’s plan. Just a few hours after the coup was consummated, Justin Trudeau declared his support for it. What right does Canada have to elect the government of Bolivia, or to intervene in that country’s internal affairs?

Most Canadians would be surprised to learn that the sun never sets on the military their taxes pay for. The scope of the military’s international footprint is hard to square with the idea of a force defending Canada. That’s why military types promote the importance of “forward defence”. The government’s 2017 “Strong, Secure, Engaged: Canada’s Defence Policy” claims Canada has to “actively address threats abroad for stability at home” and that “defending Canada and Canadian interests… requires active engagement abroad.”

Having been in government for the majority of the last two decades, the NDP is largely responsible for Manitoba’s outsized carceral system, with the province home to the highest per-capita rate of prisoners in the country (roughly 70 percent of adults in custody are Indigenous). While in power, the NDP introduced a bail breaches policy and an Integrated Warrant Apprehension unit while also welcoming the Harper government’s draconian Bill C-10, which among many things introduced mandatory minimum sentences for many offenses.