A Liberal MP is sponsoring petitions that call for the Canada Pension Plan to pull all investments from Israel as well as limit background checks of displaced Palestinians applying to leave Gaza.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Jenica Atwin, the Liberal MP for Fredericton, is also sponsoring a petition that would introduce Arab history into public schools.
The MP didn’t reply to questions from Blacklock’s Reporter.
“We, the undersigned … call upon the House of Commons in Parliament assembled to demand CPPIB (Canada Pension Plan Investment Board) divest from Israel and complicit companies to ensure compliance with the Rome Statute, the Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act,” one petition says.
Another petition calls on the House of Commons to re-evaluate the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada program for Gaza that would “remove the arbitrary limit of 5,000 permits,” “reduce applicants’ personal detail requirements, including granular health information, social media accounts, and other onerous documentation,” and “end the policy of sending applicants’ names for approval to the Israeli government.
“Words might appear insignificant at a time when we are collectively facing horror,” Atwin said two weeks after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Words can hurt, but they can also heal. They can change how we perceive the world. We need to see the humanity in one another.”
A third petition calls for support to the provinces to add the Nakba — catastrophe in Arabic — to public school curricula and how it affected the human rights of Palestinians following the founding of Israel in 1948.
“Anti-Palestinian racism is on the rise and is often ignored,” the petition says. “Distinct from Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism silences and dehumanizes Palestinians, thereby upholding the settler-colonial narrative.”
According to the Department of Immigration, 283 of a total 3,008 Gazans to date have been approved to enter Canada.