Jewish activists across the world have attended pro-Palestinian protests for the past six months to stand against Israel’s war on Gaza, which is being examined at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a “plausible” case of genocide. Many of those Jewish activists face claims from some of Israel’s supporters that they are not really Jewish, or that they are “self-hating.” Activists say these insults erase a long history of Jewish solidarity in fighting against oppression and opposing Zionism. David Mivasair, a retired rabbi living in Hamilton who served two different synagogues for about ..read more

Today is the National Day of Mourning, the annual memorial for workers killed or injured on the job. It’s a day to mourn workers who have lost their lives, but also to renew the fight for safe and healthy workplaces, because a single death at work is one too many.  The idea to designate a day to mourn and honour those killed at work in Canada was proposed by two union activists, Colin Lambert and Ray Sentes, in the 1980s. After seeing public remembrances for police and firefighters killed in the line of duty, Lambert and Sentes thought workers killed on the job deserved the same level of ..read more

Prior to October 7, I knew independent Toronto MP Kevin Vuong as a scumbag. In the months since, Vuong has tried to rebrand himself, and his effort has been partly successful: I now know him as a Zionist scumbag. These are harsh words that some may balk at, but I think even worse descriptors are fair.  To explain why, I’ll take you through how Vuong became an MP, a series of events that may be mentioned in civics courses well after he has otherwise been forgotten. This process includes what I consider to be the most shameful choice a Canadian politician has made in an election in my life ..read more

Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) will host trial sessions for Israeli arms technology used to kill Palestinians and maintain apartheid and occupation during a three-week “sandbox” event in Alberta next month. From May 27 to June 21, DND is giving a select group of military suppliers the chance to test products that are designed to counter aerial drones, with direct assistance from Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) staff and experts. Among those selected is a company called “Twenty20 Insight Inc.,” which is testing the “Smash Hopper counter-drone weapon station.” The “Smash Hopper” is a ..read more

Earlier this month, Statistics Canada released its monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS), covering March 2024. Though economists expected modest job gains last month, StatCan’s figures demonstrate that Canada’s labour market is treading water. A relatively strong post-pandemic labour market continues to slowly weaken and crack.  Overall, employment in Canada was little changed last month, with the employment rate dipping slightly to 61.4 per cent and the unemployment rate edging up to 6.1 per cent (+0.3 percentage points). During the previous two months, the Canadian economy added 78,000 job ..read more

The Canadian and Ecuadorian governments continue to forge ahead with free trade agreement (FTA) plans, despite opposition from social movements and Indigenous Peoples within Ecuador, along with rampant instability. In these negotiations, the spotlight is on the Canadian mining industry. Canadian mining investments in Ecuador are valued at $1.8 billion, with Canada’s trade commissioner noting that Canadian companies are “leading investors” in Ecuador’s mining sector. The trade commissioner also praises Ecuador’s “mining-friendly legal framework.” On March 5, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa m ..read more

A week before the National NewsMedia Council (NNC) dismissed a complaint about the National Post labelling allegedly editorialized pro-Israel content from the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) as news rather than opinion, the newspaper appeared to temporarily stop publishing its content. National Post editor-in-chief Rob Roberts told The Maple in an email that the Post’s decision to pause its running of JNS content was “unrelated to the NNC complaint,” but didn’t respond to a follow-up inquiry asking why the Post stopped publishing JNS articles. On April 14 — two days after The Maple reached out to ..read more

Canadian employers and their organizations are out in force to oppose pending bans on replacement workers in some jurisdictions. Last week, the National Post joined the fray and published an article attacking the Manitoba NDP government’s proposed anti-scab legislation.  Of course, it’s no shock to find anti-unionism in the National Post. However, the article by Matthew Lau — an “adjunct scholar” at the right-wing Fraser Institute — is cartoonishly bad, even by the standards of the genre.  Before writing this response, I contacted the editor of the comment section at the National Po ..read more

As park rangers oversaw the teardown of the CRAB Park tent city in Vancouver last month, journalists on scene to document the relocation of its residents were barred from accessing the site, and forced to observe from behind blue metal fencing with signs calling the area a “work zone.” The city has insisted the action was a “clean-up” of the tent city, with residents moved to a temporary space nearby before being allowed to move back in. But organizers with Stop the Sweeps have called it “decampment by attrition,” as rules around the encampment are enforced more strictly, causing some residen ..read more

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) is a Zionist group that has a stated priority of “strengthening the Canada-Israel Relationship.” The group has aimed to do so in many different ways, including by taking MPs on fully-paid trips as well as lobbying them. CIJA Has Taken Nearly 25% Of MPs On Paid Trips To ‘Israel’ MPs from four major parties have gone on these trips with the Zionist organization, receiving average benefits worth more than $12,000. The MapleDavide Mastracci The CIJA website lists several policy recommendations for elected officials.  One recommendation is f ..read more