The Trials & Tribulations of Rob Oliphant

 

Hind Rajab, murdered by the IDF

Even though he belongs to the imperialst/oligarch Liberal Party of Canada, such is our confused, debased political culture that even a 100% - Grade-A Certified, genuine, radical human rights activist has told me that my Member of Parliament, Rob Oliphant, is one of the good guys.  That he is sincere about human rights and that he has provided crucial assistance for many worthy causes on many occasions, both in government and in opposition.

Ah! Before I continue, I think it appropriate that I share the thoughts of the wonderfully centered Caitlin Johnstone on the correct moral position to take on Israel's current attempt to commit a genocide, a holocaust if you will, upon the people of Gaza.

"Continuing To Support Israel At This Point Just Means You're A Garbage Human Being"

If you can even excuse genocide to justify your continuing support for a nation or political party, then you can excuse literally anything. There is absolutely nothing the leaders of your political faction could possibly do that would cause you to stop supporting them. If this isn’t your red line, then you don’t have any red lines.

Right.  So where were we?  Ah yes!  Recently the CBC found some extra time from reporting on Vladmir Putin's "unprovoked" "imperialist" attack on our nazi-oligarch-stooge allies in Ukraine to cover at least something related to the genocide in Gaza.  Apparently, in a phone call with an unnamed constituent, Oliphant expressed opposition to his government's policy towards Israel during this crisis:

A leaked recording of a phone call between a Liberal MP and a constituent suggests the depth of the divisions in the government caucus over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's handling of the war in Gaza, the genocide case against Israel and the decision to defund a UN relief agency in the middle of a famine.

As parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Rob Oliphant has the job of explaining and defending Canada's foreign policy in Parliament.

But in his conversation with the constituent, recorded on Feb. 1 without the MP's knowledge, Oliphant was clearly less than keen to defend the government.

Instead, he opened up about his reaction to the genocide allegation brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague and Canada's decision to defund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the main UN agency providing aid to Palestinian refugees.

You know, I personally don't think this was strategic on Oliphant's part.  Speaking to someone he knew would "leak" his words thereby signalling publicly to Trudeau how much he disagrees with him. Obviously I'm not certain one way or the other.  It's a possibility, but I don't think that's why it happened.  I think Oliphant is genuinely torn and was confessing this to his constituent.

But what on earth could he be "torn" about?  Supporting a genocide versus not supporting a genocide?  Here's how he described his dilemma:

The Liberal MP said on the call that his role as parliamentary secretary means he is "not able to be as public as some of my colleagues are.

"I've come many times thinking, 'Do I quit that job? Do I just go back to being an MP?'"

He said a staffer persuaded him to stay on "because there needs to be a voice on the inside, not just on the outside."

Also, there was this:

Oliphant also spoke on the call of the need to be sensitive to the feelings of Canada's Jewish population and the "intergenerational trauma" caused by the Holocaust.

Ninety to 95 per cent of Canada's Jews are behind Israel right now, Oliphant said, adding, "I understand it."

"But I also understand that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is hurting Israel. Not only killing Gazans, but hurting Israel. So for the love of Israel, tell him to stop."

First of all: If all of your supposed work "on the inside" only has you defending policies you see as fundamentally flawed and that will have long-term negative consequences, perhaps it isn't worth it to continue to morally compromise yourself.

On February 8, Oliphant was challenged in the House of Commons on his government's UNRWA suspension by NDP foreign affairs critic Heather MacPherson.

"Liberals made the decision to suspend life-saving funding to UNRWA without having seen any evidence of allegations or having waited for the results of the independent investigation," she said in question period. "UNRWA is the only organization that can reach Palestinians in Gaza who are starving and who are being killed in the tens of thousands, and the government cut life-saving support.

"The decision needs to be reversed, and somebody needs to be held accountable. Was it the minister or was it the PMO that decided Canada should turn its back on starving Palestinians?"

With the foreign affairs minister in Eastern Europe, it fell to Oliphant to respond:

"Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear. The funding that Canada is giving to civilians in Gaza has increased — just last week, $40 million more on top of the $60 million that was already there," he said. "This makes Canada a top donor for aid, helping with the crisis in Gaza. We are proud, and Canadians want us to help. Every time there is a time of emergency, we stand up and we are clear. We will always be there."

But the pride Oliphant expressed in that answer was not evident in his conversation with the constituent. This is how he described his reaction to the UNRWA decision in that call:

"My heart falls down in my body," he said. "My heart hurts, because the only way to get that aid there is UNRWA.

"We can't have 200 trucks a day. We need 800 trucks a day. We need more entry points. We need water access from the Mediterranean. And we need to push on those points. But we also need UNRWA, which is the only body that has the infrastructure to deliver the aid."

Oliphant said that any decision to divert UNRWA aid to other channels likely would be symbolic, because "the reality is that UNICEF or World Food Program or other agencies are going to have to use the same people that work for UNRWA. It's political and it's driving me crazy."

...

But Oliphant also warned on the call that the government's approach to the conflict, and that of its western allies, will have dangerous consequences.

"My fear is that the Global South will absolutely rebel and raise arms, maybe literally, because we have not listened," he said.

Secondly, even if 100% of Jewish Canadians support Israel's genocide of the Palestinians and are shrieking hypoocritically and insanely about how criticism of Israel's nazi-level behaviour is antisemitism, it's irrelevant.  Genocide is wrong and it should be opposed and people who support it should be condemned for their complete moral failure instead of coddled and comforted.

I mean, for what it's worth, when this all started, even despite all the bullshit about the world beginning on October 7th, 2023 CE and Evil Hamas attacked Israel for no reason, ... that eventually the abominable, obvious cruelty and the expressed genocidal intent of the Israeli government, would cause people everywhere to open their eyes.

I really thought that all the Western, Anglo-American self-congratulatory drivel about saving the world in World War II against the evil, genocidal nazis, would have had some sort of impact on people today witnessing a genocide going on before their eyes and they would have all been out in the streets demanding our governments pull their heads out of their asses and condemn it.

Instead, life has gone on as usual.  Our governments are actively colluding with Israel in its genocide.  Some Jewish people continue to wallow in self-righteous, genocidal paranoid hypocrisy. (Whereas many of the Jewish people I've met are vocal in their opposition to Israel's violence.)  Our news media, for the most part, commits the sin of ommission, dutifully informing us of Putin's sickening cruelty in Ukraine, ... all sarcasm aside: Putin's invasion of Ukraine was to preempt NATO's long-term goal of doing to him and Russia what it did to Gaddafi and Libya.  The war is Biden's fault.  In 21 months of war in Ukraine, 521 children have been killed.  In 3 months of bombing in Gaza, over 13,000 children have been killed.  To publish at least twice as many stories about the war in Ukraine as they do about the slaughter in Gaza being committed by our ally Israel just makes them rotten propagandists.

With such a species, in such a culture, perhaps Rob Oliphant actually believes (against all the evidence) that he can achieve something good working inside the imperialist-oligarch Trudeau government.  As a prominent Liberal MP he no doubt risks his entire political career should he openly defy his government's evil support for genocide.  But, to close, I'd like to quote the following line from the Bible as we consider the moral turmoil of Rob Oliphant who is also a United Church minister:

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

I'll leave it at that.