Secretive committee in Ontario ministry pushed crackdown on pro-Palestine activism ⋆ The Breach
Secretive committee in Ontario ministry pushed crackdown on pro-Palestine activism ⋆ The Breach
A group marked by pro-Israel bias within the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General pushed for more severe charges against Palestinian solidarity protests
This is frightening, dystopian stuff, and i don't understand how police and govt allow for this.
"Known as the Hate Crime Working Group and formed in 2019, it is composed of nearly two dozen Crown prosecutors, some of whose public comments show pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias.
The committee’s chair has said she is “committed” to the state of Israel, while another member described a pro-Palestinian activist as a “terrorist” and collaborated with a group of lawyers that aggressively defend Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed 38,000 Palestinians.
In one case from 2021, involving a protest in front of the Israeli consulate of Toronto, the Hate Crime Working Group’s prosecutors had greater access to the consulate’s staff than the police. ... The Hate Crime Working Group is shrouded in secrecy. In the Crown Prosecution Manual published by the Attorney General’s office to explain the criminal process, there is no mention of its existence. ... A direct line to Israeli consulate
Even before the recent uptick of public mobilization opposing Israel’s treatment of Palestinian, the Hate Crime Working Group has intervened in cases of solidarity activism. In 2021, David Mivasair, a rabbi and member of Independent Jewish Voices, was charged with mischief for pouring red paint on the steps of the Israeli consulate in Toronto.
But its treatment by the Crown was highly unusual. Two high ranking prosecutors—Rochelle Direnfield and Kim Motyl, another member at the time of the Hate Crime Working Group—were assigned to the case and it was dragged out for many months."
This is frightening, dystopian stuff, and i don’t understand how police and govt allow for this.
I certainly don't have all the answers, but I see it as modern day colonialism (i.e., implicit and explicit attitudes that the 'in-group' has the right to displace, eradicate, and fabricate whatever it wants to establish the social order it desires in other parts of the world) with deep historical roots. As a white-skinned person of European ancestry living in the land commonly known as Canada, watching the global power brokers' actions surrounding the Israeli government's genocide of the Palestinian people has helped me better understand the colonialist genocide that the country I call home was founded on in terms of relations between Turtle Island/North American Indigenous Peoples and the European colonizers. I saw a great quote on Lemmy recently, something like, "those who don't know their history will repeat it; those who seek to eliminate or rewrite history seek to recreate it."
I wouldn't be surprised if these prosecutors also targeted Indigenous protests, while did nothing during the convoy protests.