What are the Munk Debates and who's behind them? A refresher.🧵 They were founded primarily by Peter Munk, who ran Barrick Gold, which has been accused of human rights abuses many times. miningwatch.ca/news/2023/5/2/…

NEW: What really happened at the IDF soldiers talk in Toronto last week. Thread🧵

The incident became international news, with many reports omitting the violence of one of the IDF soldiers and repeating false claims. This @TheGrindTO investigation is the most in-depth so far. The full @thegrindto investigation is here. Or scroll along for the short version. 🧵thegrindmag.ca/idf-soldier-ma…

The ambulance delay incident in Toronto is a manufactured controversy, cooked up by @gregbradyx, @joe_warmington & co.

An ambulance carrying a child with stable vitals was delayed three mins due to a protest and police being a bit slow to react. The child was okay. But... 🧵 These pro-Israel media guys blew it up into a big story. First, Brady made it a focus of his AM640 Global radio show on Tuesday and tweeted about it, fearmongering that this child was in crisis and put in danger because a pro-Palestine rally blocked an intersection.

BREAKING: Final two defendants in the Indigo vandalism case just got conditional discharges at sentencing. No convictions registered, no time served, 12 month probation. They previously pled guilty to mischief over $5K. No hate motivation found.  🧵 Two others previously got absolute discharges (lowest possible sentence). The two today, MacDonald Scott and Stuart Schussler, got slightly more restrictive conditions imposed by the judge/justice as they pled guilty later.

Here's a timeline of trying to get a correction note made in print from the Toronto Star regarding a false claim made in an Oct 11, 2023 article. (TW: violence)

An op-ed that day repeated the false claim that 40 babies had been killed and beheaded during the Oct 7 attack... 1/ A week later, the online edition was changed to remove the "beheaded" claim, and a note was made online. I'm unsure whether a correction note was made in print on P2. The online piece though still claimed "The bodies of 40 murdered babies were discovered at Kibbutz Kfar Aza." 2/

On Wednesday night, residents in south Riverdale noticed anti-Palestinian graffiti and alerted Toronto police. This is some of it, from reels on Thursday by jagpile on Insta. Residents say there's much more and it hasn't been cleaned up. Police made three arrests but...🧵


Despite this graffiti being overtly anti-Palestinian, the police press release makes no mention of who it targeted, saying only it "included profanity and language relating to the Middle East conflict." It makes no mention of suspicion of hate motivation. tps.ca/media-centre/n…

The graffiti was very anti-Palestinian, but you wouldn't have a clue from the police press release. Lots more to this story.
There was lots of blue graffiti sprayed around Riverdale / Queen E this week with anti-Palestinian messages. A couple of the arrestees appear vocally pro-Israel. The police release only says "the vandalism included profanity and language relating to the Middle East conflict."

Seems Toronto police are putting out misleading info re hate crimes. Deputy Chief Rob Johnson is quoted today saying "Since October 7th, 2023, we have made 174 arrests and laid 433 charges in relation to hate crimes."

The actual number of "hate crime" charges is much lower. 1/ Johnson's comment is from an update to the police board on Project Resolute, which tracks protests related to Israel-Palestine. This 174 arrests number seems to align with the number of pro-Israel and pro-Palestine individuals arrested, plus maybe a few more (?). But... 2/

Final hearing on campus antisemitism starting now, will be tweeting in this thread 🧵.

University presidents will appear around noon EST.

Video link: parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/Pow…

https://twitter.com/dgrdon/status/1794743482478637353

My thread from last hearing:

https://x.com/dgrdon/status/1793635348087795890

Yesterday, media reported on four students who testified to a HoC committee on "antisemitism and Jewish safety", saying Jewish students are "terrified" and "don't feel safe."

They failed to mention three of them hold or previously held positions in pro-Israel advocacy orgs...🧵 Nati Pressmann was a Campus Fellow for the pro-Israel media advocacy org @HonestRepCanada. She testified as founder of the "Canadian Union of Jewish Students,"
which only launched a week ago. That org doesn't have a website but its launch was profiled by @nationalpost.

Remember those 2021 arrests in Toronto around the Lamport encampment eviction & after, when cops put out "wanted" photos? Here's a thread 🧵 on what happened since.

Might be relevant to the wave of 15-ish arrests in Toronto this month related to Palestinian solidarity actions. Long story short: despite all the arrests (at least 34) related to the Lamport Stadium eviction and the protests after at 14 Division and at a later press conference against police repression, there were no convictions. Just a lot of withdrawn charges and absolute discharges.

If you're wondering what CIJA (Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs) is and how it was formed, here is a little summary and some articles with more info... CIJA, founded around 2004, was not always the most prominent org claiming to represent Jewish interests in Canada.

The Canadian Jewish Congress, founded in 1919, long held that position, had internal elections, and rigorous debates on policy positions. It was a Zionist org.

I was curious, why would people call for a boycott of Cafe Landwer? Is it about the political actions of the business (e.g. is it a Zionist business, as protesters said on Saturday), or is was it targeted simply for being Jewish-owned? Here's what I found. In 2015, Israel-based Cafe Landwer built a cafe in Jerusalem on top of a historic Islamic cemetery, part of a development that destroyed the cemetery where contemporaries of Muhammed may lie.

Article: Cafe built over Jerusalem Islamic graves sparks anger aljazeera.com/news/2015/8/5/…

Canadian oil & gas companies have been announcing their Q2 (April - June) financial results. Here are the profits of the big Cdn players🧵 Canadian Natural Resources Limited Q2 net earnings (profit):

$3.502 billion

Please stop taking Trudeau's "cap on oil and gas sector emissions" as serious climate action. The cap is:

- three decades away
- won't necessarily limit oil and gas production
- doesn't apply to most emissions in the product lifecycle

Thread. 1/7 Crucially, the cap has no targets yet until 2050. This suits the o&g industry fine as no immediate action is needed.

And long-term there are two crucial problems.

First, "net zero" allows for ongoing emissions as long they are "offset" by a dubious suite of mechanisms. 2/7

Seeing @WEMovement contracted by the Canadian government to deliver $900 million in programs reminds me: this organization denied me media access on six occasions to #WEday events to report for @briarpatchmag, including the most recent one in MTL with Sophie Trudeau. 1/ @WEMovement said this was because of "overwhelming" applications. But there was little media coverage of these #WEday events, and even less indie coverage. Places like @TheTyee and until-recently-indie @nowtoronto & @georgiastraight haven't reported from #WEday in years. 2/