Shameful Canadian of the Day - October 10

Irwin Cotler - former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada -  opposes recognition of the State of Palestine by Canada and is the chief architect of Canada’s formal adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.  The intention of the IHRA definition of antisemitism is to silence all criticism of Israel. 

Joshua Sealy-Harrington, an associate professor and chair of equality law at the University of Windsor’s Faculty of Law said of the Handbook

“It casts not just anti-Zionism but international law and in particular Palestinian human rights as antisemitic. … [It is] an Israel immunity handbook and must be understood as such.”

Throughout his career, Cotler has used the guise of ‘humanitarian’ to support the Zionist ideology/regime in Canada and around the world.  In November of 2020 Justin Trudeau named Cotler as the first “Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism”  Cotler’s job was to “... to advance the implementation of this [IHRA] definition across the country and its adoption internationally.”

The result was the publication by the Canadian federal government of “The Canadian Handbook on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism”

Independent Jewish Voices has condemned the IHRA definition, in general, and Cotler’s brainchild, The Handbook, in particular.  The Handbook explicitly describes how law enforcement, the Canadian legal system and Canadian institutions should deal with criticism of Israel. 

Cotler has publicly opposed recognition of Palestine for more than  a decade. In 2012,  Cotler advised then foreign minister John Baird to reject the recognition of Palestine at the UN…just as he rejects it today. 

Cotler was one of a group of legal scholars who unsuccessfully argued that the International Criminal Court should not have jurisdiction over crimes committed in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem because Palestine should not be understood as a "state".  

In January 2024 Cotler criticized South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, claiming that “"Israel consistently seeks to minimize harm to civilians…”  Even as we witness the deliberate targeting of health workers, journalists and children.
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In the face of undeniable evidence here is what Cotler has to say about Israel’s apartheid regime  'to say Israel is an apartheid state' is not only false and prejudicial to Israel, but it undermines the real struggle against apartheid and the integrity of that movement.”

Perhaps it should be enough to know that Cotler and Alan Dershowitz are great friends.  Dershowitz has described Cotler as a "modern-day Abraham". Of course, Dershowitz has also justified the murder of infants in defense of Israel.

For Cotler - like so many ‘humanitarian’ Zionists – “never again” refers only to the Jewish people. For the Palestinians? Any and all atrocities are acceptable.   

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