Canada

Text mirror of the article at the time of posting:

Walker’s organization, Honest Reporting Canada, is known for issuing “Action Alerts” targeting Canadian news outlets it says are presenting an unfair or inaccurate view of Israel.

An assistant director for a Canadian pro-Israel media watchdog group is facing 17 criminal charges in connection with a string of profane anti-Palestinian graffiti that included the phrase “F— Gaza.”

Robert Walker, 39, remains employed by Honest Reporting Canada months after his November arrest.

The organization, which is headquartered in Toronto, has not made any statement on his arrest, the graffiti or his continued employment, and did not respond to a request for comment.

An attorney for Walker, Leora Shemesh, also did not immediately return a request for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

She told the Toronto Star over the weekend that her client would be pleading not guilty. Shemesh added that the charges against Walker had been “politicized” owing to an “emotionally charged climate associated to the Middle East conflict,” adding that he had faced harassment at his home.

“This case should not be used by anyone as an excuse to target, harass and or intimidate an individual who at this time has done nothing wrong,” Shemesh added.

Shemesh herself has drawn attention for her pro-Israel advocacy. Last year, she was ejected from a Toronto Raptors NBA game for wearing a “Free Our Hostages” sweatshirt to the arena. (She argued that her sweatshirt should not be seen as a violation of the NBA’s ban on political messaging because supporting hostages should be apolitical.)

Toronto police arrested Walker alongside two others, one of whom is 71 years old, in conjunction with November’s graffiti incident. The graffiti were painted on sidewalks, planters and construction signs — considered city property — along a stretch of busy Queen Street East.

All three are charged with 17 counts of “mischief,” and are due back in court in late February. A fourth suspect is being sought by police but hasn’t yet been identified.

According to the Toronto Star, the graffiti in question includes the phrase “F— Gaza” stencilled in an English font resembling Hebrew letters. Another stencil with similar lettering, according to social media photos, read “Rape ≠ Resistance,” a reference to the reported rapes committed by Hamas on Oct. 7.

Walker’s organization, Honest Reporting Canada, is known for issuing “Action Alerts” targeting Canadian news outlets it says are presenting an unfair or inaccurate view of Israel, in the model of the group of the same name that has offices in the United States and Israel. (The director of Honest Reporting US told JTA the two organizations are “completely separate.”)

Recent pressure campaigns include accusing a Montreal magazine of “falsely” claiming there is famine in Gaza, and attacking CBC articles about Palestinian suffering in Gaza that fail to mention Hamas. Arrest didn't deter him

Since Walker’s arrest, he has continued writing for Honest Reporting Canada. He penned a letter to the editor of a Waterloo, Ontario, newspaper this month disputing that Israel was responsible for the deaths of two Palestinian sisters with area connections who were recently killed in Gaza. He called their family’s account of their deaths “unverified.”

Toronto has been a frequent battleground for Israel-related activism, and has also been the site of several documented attacks on Jewish schools and synagogues since the war began.

A weekly pro-Israel rally in the city that began after Oct. 7 has been the site of numerous arrests and other forms of disruption, and a right-wing pundit was arrested in November for crashing a pro-Palestinian rally where some attendees had dressed as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Walker himself has specifically crusaded against antisemitic graffiti in the past, arguing on a 2021 podcast episode that it shouldn’t be overlooked in favor of more violent crimes.

“A small, only minimally irritating act of vandalism, if tolerated or overlooked, can quickly become a stepping stone to more antisemitic acts, and more dangerous ones, too,” he said at the time.

Great history lesson on how we got rid the unfair partisan district drawing.

I can't wait for the future article titled: How Canada ended first-past-the-post

A group of First Nations in Canada is turning to the courts in the hope of securing billions of dollars in compensation, after accusing the government of failing to engage in “meaningful negotiations” for money owed under a 175-year-old treaty.

“The governments’ refusal to come to grips with their treaty obligations has continued 175 years of broken promises, lies and neglect,” Wilfred King, chief of Gull Bay First Nation, said in a statement announcing plans to seek compensation that is “just, liberal, generous and honourable”.

The closely watched case – which could see billions awarded to the 12 nations – centres on a treaty signed in 1850 between the British crown and a group of Anishinaabe nations on the shores of Lakes Huron and Superior.

Known as the Robinson treaties, the agreements, covering 35,700 sq miles (92,400 sq km) of land, included a rare “augmentation clause” that promised to increase annual payments “from time to time” as the land generated more wealth – “if and when” that payment could be made without the crown incurring a loss.

Over the next 174 years, the lands and waters covered by the deal generated immense profits for private companies, and substantial revenues for the province of Ontario. But in 1874, the annuities were capped at $4 a person and never increased.

In July, a scathing and unanimous decision released by Canada’s top court criticized the federal and Ontario governments for their “dishonourable” conduct around the treaty, which left First Nations people to struggle in poverty while surrounding communities, industry and government exploited the abundant natural resources to enrich themselves.

“Today, in what can only be described as a mockery of the crown’s treaty promise to the Anishinaabe of the upper Great Lakes, the annuities are distributed to individual treaty beneficiaries by giving them $4 each,” the court wrote, singling out the “shocking” figure paid to beneficiaries. “The crown has severely undermined both the spirit and substance of the Robinson treaties.”

Twenty-one signatories of the Robinson Huron treaty, a separate agreement also signed in 1850, settled out of court for C$10bn, but the Superior group pushed further through the courts to determine how much the federal and provincial governments owe.

In July, the supreme court ordered Ontario and the federal government to wrap negotiations with the Anishnaabe nations within six months. The deadline for an offer was 26 January.

In a press release, the nations said they had only been offered C$3.6bn, a figure that “ignored the economic evidence about how much wealth Canada and Ontario took from our lands”, said King, the chief of Gull Bay First Nation.

“The [crown] consigned our communities to intergenerational poverty while they appropriated tremendous benefits for themselves. They continue to deny to our communities what we have lost as a result of their breaches,” he said. “Their decision today does not make up for 175 years of refusing to share the wealth of our lands.”

In previous testimony, the Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said the amount due to the nations could approach C$126bn.

“If you’ve owed somebody something, year after year after year, for 170 years, it’s a lot of money,” he told the court in February 2023.

Signatories of the treaty plan say they will ask Patricia Hennessy of the Ontario superior court of justice to determine the amount they are rightfully owed.

Chief Patricia Tangie of Michipicoten First Nation said the fight was about both previous losses and future generations.

“Just as our ancestors in 1850 sought to secure benefits for their descendants, we today also take our role seriously for our next seven generations. We are carrying on with this struggle so that our children and grandchildren do not have to suffer like so many of our people have for more than a century and a half,” she said.

“That suffering continues to include poverty, poor health and shortened life expectancy.”

Approximately a month ago, following Freeland’s dramatic exit from the Liberal cabinet, the Conservatives opened up a seemingly insurmountable lead of 25 points. Since then, the entire complexion of what appeared to be an inevitable Conservative majority has changed. This massive lead has virtually evaporated over a one-month period.

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