OTTAWA • Jenica Atwin is sponsoring a petition in Parliament that calls for the Canada Pension Plan to pull all investments from Israel.
There’s another one that would introduce Arab history into public schools.
And there’s a third that wants to change the requirements around Palestinians applying to leave Gaza.
In an interview with Brunswick News, Atwin says she agrees completely with all three demands of her own federal Liberal government.
That’s as she’s critical of her own party, suggesting it is fence-sitting on the Israel-Hamas conflict, and potentially flaring tensions further.
Atwin contends that it in no way means she’s representing the views of some of her constituents and not others, stating that she will also sponsor pro-Israel petitions drafted by community members in her riding.
But some members of Fredericton’s Jewish community say it’s difficult living in a riding that Atwin represents, to a point where they are considering moving.
Speaking to Brunswick News, Atwin said she will continue to publicly wade into the Israel-Hamas war, with the goal to spur discussion and underscore nuance in a conflict she states isn’t black and white, even as discourse across the country is fraught with polarized opinions.
“If I was to block these petitions, it would be incredibly undemocratic,” Atwin said.
“I’ve had thousands of community members in Fredericton come to me on this issue, just, the emotions, people are beside themselves with how deeply they feel about this issue.
“And so we have encouraged them to put that energy towards positive directions and actions, and I suggested that there are things they can do, you can put a petition in, so I definitely put the idea out there.”
She added: “These are written by constituents in Fredericton and it is my job and my duty to sponsor them. Anyone can put forward petitions. I have never not sponsored a petition that has come forward from a constituent in Fredericton.”
Petitions to Parliament are a way to draw attention to an issue of public interest, while requesting that the House of Commons, the government, a minister, or MP take some action.
They need 500 valid signatures to be presented to the House of Commons.
The government is then required to respond in writing to a petition’s contents within 45 calendar days.
A petition must meet certain requirements in a review by Parliament’s clerk of petitions, which includes being “respectful” and written in “temperate language,” according to a House of Commons guide.
And in order for a petition to be posted on the House of Commons e-petitions website, and eventually presented in the House, it must be sponsored by an MP.
But in accepting to sponsor a petition, a member is not necessarily agreeing with the opinions or request set out in the petition.
“I sponsor everything,” Atwin said.
“The only way I wouldn’t is if it were to be inciting hatred or violence, but that wouldn’t be allowed through the House of Commons anyways.
“If others in the community want to have a petition that’s contrary to this, or speaks to different issues, I would also certify and sponsor it, because that’s my job to represent all voices.”
That said, Atwin said she agrees with the content of all three petitions she’s now sponsored.
Three petitions
Atwin said they address “anti-Palestinian racism.”
One calls for the House of Commons to demand that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board “divest from Israel and complicit companies,” stating Israel is “accused of committing war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity” by several humanitarian bodies, and is facing allegations at the International Court of Justice.
It contends at least seven per cent of the board’s investment involve companies “complicit in Israeli war crimes, and $870 million is invested in global weapons dealers.”
“I think divesting is something that I know universities are really looking at in particular,” Atwin said. “They don’t want to be complicit in what’s happening.
“I support that.
“But I also know that’s very controversial and people are going to see that, and you think of the broader implications of that, it can be seen as antisemitic if you’re not supporting Israel, so that’s always the risk I have to prepare myself for when I’m involved in any of these conversations.”
She added: “I know that’s not the intention of this at all, it’s about the government of Israel and sending a message about a genocide that’s happening.”
The government of Israel disputes the allegation of genocide, arguing its military campaign in Gaza is a just response to Hamas’s attack on civilians in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
A second petition proposes additions to provincial school curriculums.
“It’s speaking specifically about the Nakba,” Atwin said, the term used to describe the events of the 1948 Palestine war and the displacement of roughly 750,000 of Palestine’s predominantly Arab population from what would become the State of Israel.
Adding that to the school curriculum would be a decision in provincial jurisdiction, made by each province and not the federal government.
“It’s more symbolic than anything else,” Atwin said.
“But I think it’s worth noting that the third language right now in New Brunswick is Arabic, and so why wouldn’t we want to be as inclusive as possible in our education system?”
The latest census found 5,200 people in New Brunswick speak Arabic at home, ahead of Filipino, Spanish, Mandarin, and Punjabi.
A third petition calls on the House of Commons to re-evaluate the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada program for Gaza, including removing an “arbitrary limit” of 5,000 processed applications,” but also “greatly reducing” the personal detail requirements to apply, including “granular health information, social media accounts, and other onerous documentation.”
It also wants an end to a policy of sending applicants’ names for approval to the Israeli government before accepting them to leave Gaza through the Egyptian border.
“They have already gone through background checks, but the last step is to have the State of Israel approve them and I think that’s where this barrier is, and where there is a possibility of discrimination,” Atwin said.
Meanwhile, a fourth petition sponsored by Atwin regarding Gaza, calling for the government to end arms support to the State of Israel, was already certified last month.
Backlash
Atwin’s position on Palestine has arguably shaped her political career.
In June 2021, Atwin quit the federal Greens after criticizing then party leader Annamie Paul’s call for de-escalation of hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians. Paul was the first Black Canadian and first Jewish woman to be elected leader of a federal party in Canada.
At the time, Atwin wrote on social media there are “no two sides to this conflict, only human rights abuses” by Israel, which she accused of having an “apartheid” policy.
But after sitting as an independent for a short period, Atwin defected to the Liberals and took a middleground stance.
“Palestinians are suffering. Israelis are also suffering as well as their loved ones in Canada and around the world,” she posted on social media just after joining the Liberals. “No one wins with war. I regret if my choice of words caused harm to those who are suffering.”
More recently, Atwin grabbed national headlines after her office responded to the written criticism of a member of a Fredericton synagogue that had been vandalized with a long letter about “the atrocities in Palestine” and how dedicated she was to helping Gaza.
Atwin also told Brunswick News earlier this year that she was prepared to vote in favour of a motion by the federal New Democrats that called on Canada to recognize the “State of Palestine,” even if it stood against her own government’s foreign policy.
Last week, a member of Fredericton’s Jewish community told Brunswick News that her family questions “daily” whether they will stay in Canada amid growing pro-Palestinian protests, but also the stance of the country’s politicians.
“In Fredericton we have an MP that is pro-Palestinian,” said Ayten Kranet, vice president of the Sgoolai Israel Synagogue in Fredericton, whose family moved to Canada 15 years ago from the United Kingdom after a rise in antisemitism there during the Lebanon war.
Kranet’s daughter was attacked on a public bus.
“If you’re a Jew, they’ll beat you up,” she said. “Like here, you can’t go downtown when Palestinian Solidarity is marching.”
Atwin said this was “heartbreaking” to hear, adding she wants to meet with and reassure Kranet’s family. The Fredericton MP maintains that all sides should be able to have a conversation “and validate everyone’s feelings.”
“If someone is a Zionist and is very upset with what I’m saying, I understand, and I feel that for them, and I try to work through that, and I try for them to see how I’m feeling, and I would never want to hurt them in that way,” Atwin said.
“Being referred to as antisemitic for trying to talk about human rights in the Middle East has been one of the most devastating things I’ve ever gone through in my whole life,” Atwin continued.
“It almost took me out of politics in 2021.
“My mission is to unify, is to support human rights and marginalized voices, and to think anyone in my community here in Fredericton thinks I have a deep-seated hatred for them is just, I can’t wrap my head around that.”
Government criticism
Meanwhile, Atwin is criticizing her own government’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war.
“I think that they’ve tried a little too much to play the middle of the road, and so it has really just left everyone kind of confused,” Atwin said.
“I’ve had colleagues tell me that ‘if you’re getting hated from both sides, it means you’re doing it right.’
“I just want all sides to come together. I’m always an idealist, I know that, I hope for these utopian days where maybe we can move past this as a collective, but naively I didn’t think it was going to be as tough to have these conversations, so I think they’re just grappling with how to do what they think is the right thing, how to deal with the pressures they’re feeling internally from caucus members with differing ideas. It’s tough.”