We got IDF war criminals walking freely to universities to do conferences and violently beat up protesters and nothing happens to that person.
We get a legal scholar coming to talk about Palestine and they get
arrestedinteviewed him for 4 hours at the border?Edit: a few words
Detained for secondary inspection, not arrested, but for 4 hours. It’s deing a dick to send a message. The wrong message, from Canada. Its shameful and an embarrassment.
Ah, ok. Not as bad as being arrested but still bad. You’re right. It’s definitely sending the wrong message.
…a legal scholar coming to talk about Palestine and they get arrested at the border?
*A 95-year-old legal scholar.
Canada ,wtf?
Insert ObiWan meme “you were supposed to be the chosen one”
4 hours seems a bit much, I’ll agree that seems out of line. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable that some questions were asked and he was ultimately approved to enter Canada so it seems like the system, in this case, worked mostly as intended aside from the amount of time it took to reach that conclusion. Canada has had several recent high profile incidents of not adequately vetting extremists entering this country to speak at conferences, and I am not surprised they are carefully screening people in this situation now. While it is tempting to jump to the conclusion that this guy was singled out for supporting Palestine, one isolated incident is not evidence of bias or profiling on any particular issue, there would need to be a consistent pattern established. Maybe there is one and I just haven’t seen it yet, but as far as I know this is an isolated incident so far.
it is a shame that Israel/Palestine has become such a sharply polarizing and divisive issue that we can almost automatically assume that anyone questioning anyone else on the topic is not doing so in good faith and is pushing their own agenda on it, but that’s actually not necessarily the case. Someone can say they’re a Princeton professor and have worked for the UN, but might take some time to actually verify if you’re not traveling with UN and Princeton travel documents, and even that doesn’t prove good intentions anyway. People can have solid credentials in their past, but have changed into something more extreme since then. Unless the person is well-known and already on a list somewhere, you don’t know where the person stands now unless you ask questions and verify answers. Should that have taken 4 hours? Again, probably not, but I don’t think it’s the asking of some of those questions that is the problem here.
That said, if there is going to be a pattern of this, I plan to be watching out for it now. I expect the same process to happen for people coming here to speak in support of the genocide, and I expect them to be refused entry. Will this happen? I don’t know. We’ll see.
it is a shame that Israel/Palestine has become such a sharply polarizing and divisive issue that we can almost automatically assume that anyone questioning anyone else on the topic is not doing so in good faith and is pushing their own agenda
It is a shame that anybody who oppose settler colonialism, genocide and palestinians rights is treated as a possible security risk.
Canada has decade of ignoring israeli human right abuses and can’t even say the words occupation and colonization. They let orgs selling occupied lands in synaguoges, they never blocked canadians from joining the idf which is generally prohibited by canadian own laws etc
they never blocked canadians from joining the idf which is generally prohibited by canadian own laws etc
Hien? Not sure where this comes from.
This Foreign Enlistment Act only applies if Canada is at war with a nation. https://lois-laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/F-28/FullText.html
While no isrealis specifically, I know a handful of dual citizens that have either served their conscription requirements to meet citizenship requirements, or joined the Canadian forces to get their national conscription checked off in lieu.
I also know one person who volunteered with the Ukrainian foreign legion. Their biggest hurdle was the days in Canada requirements surrounding healthcare access.
I speculate that this is the fault of the United States. The scholar, a US citizen, is entering from the US, and as per the article CBSA has concerns regarding “national security” - we know that the CBSA and the US CBP work closely together, so if some top level US official ordered the CBP to pass the “national security threat” along, that’d explain CBSA’s behaviour.
Specifically, why they were concerned in the first place (because they had to take the tip from the US gov’t seriously for fear that they’d lose cooperation on actual important matters if they didn’t), why it took so long before the scholars were released (because they needed those four hours to make sure that they covered all their bases in case the CBP or another part of the US gov’t came knocking again and asking why the scholars weren’t arrested or detained), and also why CBSA can’t more clearly explain why the scholars were targeted in the first place (because the working arrangements between the CBP and the CBSA, and between the security departments of the governments of Canada and the US more generally, require a considerable level of secrecy).
The article also mentions,
Kanji said that prompted them to reach out to different high-ranking officials in an attempt to get Falk and his wife released.
I like to think though that this wasn’t strictly necessary and that CBSA are the good guys who would have still done the right thing in the end, after of course thoroughly documenting the obvious - why the US’s tip was off and there actually was no real threat.
