Good Sunday Morning
Yesterday we all awoke to the news of the U.S. attack on Iran. It was not a surprise. The amassing of U.S. Military in the region, U.S. warships in the Arabian Sea, U.S. stealth fighter jets at a base in Israel and others stationed across Europe, plus increased sabre-rattling, all forewarned of a likely attack on Iran by the U.S. Still, the day before, the negotiators had paused for a technical review to be completed by Monday. The attack was justified by President Trump as being due to Iran’s refusal to agree to ending its nuclear programme. I was not surprised that Trump failed to note there had been an agreement with Iran negotiated by former US Secretary of State John Kerry. Trump, of course, did not mention that while Iran had been monitored under Ronald Reagan’s motto of “trust, but verify,” that it was Trump in his first term who tore up the agreement.
It did surprise me that none of the newscasts I have heard mention that the original agreement negotiated by John Kerry was ripped up by Trump. I am disappointed that Canada’s official statement does not mention that fact. We have essentially signed on to the US assault. Here is the Green Party official statement released to the media yesterday:
Statement from the Green Party of Canada on the US Attack on Iran
OTTAWA — The Green Party of Canada condemns the US military attack on Iran and reasserts its condemnation of the Iranian regime’s brutal slaughter of its own people who have courageously taken to the streets in protest.
US President Donald Trump has defended the attack by blaming Iran’s refusal to negotiate a new deal to end its nuclear programme. What Trump fails to mention is that there was a deal. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, negotiated by the Obama administration and backed by rigorous international monitoring, was working until Trump himself tore it up during his first term.
As Greens, we have contacts with a small and beleaguered Green Party of Iran that joins us in condemning the brutal repression by the Iranian regime. But open warfare in a region that is already a tinderbox serves no one’s security, least of all the Iranian people.
Canada has essentially signed on to the US assault. In a statement issued today the Liberal government declared that “the Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East” and that “Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security.” What the statement does not contain is equally telling: no mention of the deal Trump tore up, no call for a ceasefire or de-escalation, and no assertion of any independent Canadian diplomatic role.
As a middle power with a historic role in peacebuilding, Canada should do better. We urge the Canadian government to speak truth to power, to state our commitment to achieving peace and disarmament, and to the protection of human rights and innocent lives in Iran.
“Canada should call out the Trump administration’s self-serving historical revisionism, its refusal to acknowledge its own role in undermining peace by unilaterally ripping up a deal that was working,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “Doing so may improve our standing and our potential role in negotiating peace, a suspension of hostilities, and ideally a multilateral process to protect Iranian civilians. Previous US-imposed regime change in Iran has not ended well. History repeating itself is not inevitable, but ignoring history hastens inevitable horrors.”
Back to my life and work in Parliament, as more bills bulldozed their way through the House. I held a press conference Thursday morning. My focus was the steady dismantling of the proper role of Parliament. It is virtually invisible. Here is the video of that press conference.
If reading the statement is easier than watching me explain the whole thing from a podium, here is my written backgrounder.
My press conference was at 9 AM Thursday. By late Thursday afternoon, the omnibus budget bill C-15 was carried through its final stage, without a recorded vote. I objected, but as a member of an unrecognized party (now the sad reality for the NDP, but one I am used to) the rights I had before COVID are gone. Odd factoid, it was the NDP who managed to get rid of the right of five MPs from smaller parties to force a recorded vote. What a tragedy. When the Omnibus Budget Implementation Act was first tabled November 18th, reporters asked me if I would vote against it. They were baffled when I said, “I will vote ‘no’ if I am allowed to vote.” They were nonplussed. How could MPs NOT be allowed to vote on a major confidence measure – a 600+ page bill? As I suspected, we were not allowed to vote. C-15 breezed through Thursday afternoon “on division.” The whole thing took less than five minutes. Only the Liberals, Conservatives or Bloc could demand a recorded vote. As of Friday afternoon, the Senate DID amend C-4, the “Affordability Act” to push back on the unrelated Part 4 that reduces privacy protections under the Elections Act. I hope we can withstand the inevitable Liberal government push to ignore Senate improvements and just push through C-4 as an omnibus bill to take effect 26 years ago. The fast-tracking of C-4, not properly studied in the House, included Part 4 and changes to the Elections Act, to enter into force in the year 2000. If your head is spinning due to my casual reference to legislative time machines, I sympathize and totally “get” why the mainstream media does not cover these details. Still, I am grateful for the chance to write all of you once a week in hopes you will inform others.
We have two Conservative parties in Canada. One is a populist far-right party under Poilievre. The other is a slightly progressive Conservative party under Mark Carney. This new Progressive Conservative party (still called “Liberal”) is unencumbered with the Mulroney era Progressive Conservative party’s commitment to human rights. Last year was bad for Canada deporting those living here under various processes of application to stay—the highest level of deportations in the last ten years. Carney has also defunded Canada’s removal of land mines (“de-mining”) under our own Ottawa Process to the landmark Land Mines Treaty. We now know that Prime Minister Carney has been urging Donald Trump to re-start the Keystone pipeline, while also offering a pipeline across northern BC to Danielle Smith.
Once again, in parliament, I pressed the Liberals on when we would see a plan to hit any climate target.
Sorry to share the non-reply from parliamentary secretary, new Vancouver Quadra MP, Wade Grant. I think he knows better.
I get sixty seconds every two months for a statement. This week, I used the chance to speak on Cuba.
And I get 35 seconds once a week in Question Period – this week I asked for federal funds for housing, now that Eby has cancelled the BC government’s Community Housing Fund!
QP: Elizabeth May Asks a Question About Creating Programs for Shovel Ready Housing Projects
I will keep pressing Housing Minister Gregor Robertson to step up.
And some great news! Great news not only because the Green Party of England and Wales has reached a new high-water mark of representation in Westminster, but because their candidate, now a local hero nick-named “Hannah the Plumber” not only won in the by-election, thumping Starmer’s Labour Party but also defeating a far-right populist challenger under Nigel Farage. Given our UK colleagues face the unfair voting of First Past the Post, it is wonderful the usual vote-splitting fearmongering that voting Green would help the far-right did not work. Greens took an unprecedented win in the industrialized north of Manchester! Hooray!
On a completely different note, I am sure many of you are closely following the medical progress of little Maya. The Tumbler Ridge 12-year-old, shot in the head and neck as she risked her life in a failed attempt to protect her friends and lock the library door. I am thinking of Maya Gebela all the time. I know I cannot be thinking of her all the time, as I wrote you about dozens of other things. But the injunction “pray without ceasing” in St. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, is something I do at some constant, subconscious level. I feel my heart in my throat. My dear friend Marlene Wells, amazing Green Party staffer, follows Facebook, which I do not. Marlene keeps up with postings from Maya’s mom. She is still in intensive care in Vancouver, has had emergency surgery for her brain swelling and pneumonia and still is making slow, but steady, progress, squeezing her parents’ fingers, wiggling her toes.
I was pretty emotional on CBC the National on Friday night, calling out the “rich bastards” behind ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence for failing to warn anyone about the poor kid in Tumbler Ridge who killed so many. The company had “flagged” postings of mass killings, but they did nothing. One reason I am angry, is the grief from Tumbler Ridge is so raw. I met with Mark Carney this week and praying for Maya may be one thing we actually have in common. I mention it because all those innocents in Gaza and Iran and Ukraine have a right to be safe, to live their lives in peace. They may be anonymous to us, but Maya is a little girl we know and love. Please, in whatever way you can, keep her in mind, prayer or sending good vibes, or whatever feels right to you. Pray for peace, pray for all the innocents, pray for Maya.
Thanks for all your support and love, and tolerance for my ramblings,
Love,
Elizabeth