Welcome back everyone, it has been a while since my last post on the Ground Zero community centre/prayer space. Today I'm going to veer away from American politics for a moment to talk about campus politics, and the radicals from OPIRG - the Ontario "Public Interest" Research Group. This is an organization that pledges to advance society and is dedicated to ridding our culture of racism and discrimination. Sounds great! Problem is, the only interests they are looking out for are those that fall in line with the Marxist-Leninist or Socialist philosophies. In this post, I'm going to concentrate on a specific project OPIRG helps put together every year; Israeli Apartheid Week.
For those who have not heard of Israeli Apartheid Week (or IAW), it is a borderline anti-semitic week packed full of events explaining why Israel does not deserve the right to exist. As a strong proponent of free speech, I have no problem with them presenting their side of the argument. Where I DO take issue with OPIRG and IAW supporters though, is their unwillingness to denounce any other nations that commit more serious human rights infractions. For instance, they applaud countries like Syria and Iran, as well as Saudi Arabia, who are some of the worst human rights offenders on the Planet. In Saudi Arabia, anyone that is not Muslim is not even allowed to enter the city of Mecca, or the city of Medina. There are morality police who ensure certain laws are followed, such as women requiring a male presence when they are outside, or having to cover themselves completely. Or how about punishing thieves but cutting their hands off? But do we see anything from OPIRG on this front? Or course not. They are pre-occupied demonizing Israel for firing missiles into Gaza in self defense. They cry out that they are firing at civilians, when in fact, it has been shown that Israel calculates to a T where they fire their missiles, while Hamas will fire missiles wherever they see fit. Yet no word on that from OPIRG or SAIA (Students Against Israeli Apartheid - their sister organization).
OPIRG's advocacy for human rights shoould be a mission praised for its determination. However, their inability to put politics aside, has severely hurt their reputation. Not only on the IAW front (the most recognizable), but also when their President stood in solidarity with the individual who blew up an RBC branch in Ottawa, Ontario this past year in advance of the G8 and G20 summits in Canada, or when they claim ALL right-wingers are racist, homophobic bigots who only care about the rich and are trying to take over the world in some wide spread conspiracy. It is too bad an organization with such a great name and message has alienated the vast majority of the Canadian population, and has made their organization one of the discriminatory forces they claim to fight against.
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I asked one of the OPIRG people this and they said there was not enough interest in covering topics such as human rights abuses in places like Saudi Arabia.
ReplyDeleteHa, I thought this was an organization that was supposed to stand up for human rights, no matter the popularity. For an organization that hates capitalism so much, that sure seems like a statement made by someone in a capitalist's shoes...
ReplyDeleteA few factual errors one ought to point out:
ReplyDelete1. OPIRG has no president, it is run by a 'volunteer' board of directors and couple paid coordinators.
2. OPIRG did not release an official statement as to the RBC bombings, what the members believe does not necessarily reflect the group's overall stance as to the RBC issue.
3. OPIRG does not applaud any repressive regimes or any of their measures, for OPIRG operates within an anti-oppressive and a consensus-based framework.
4. Israel, and according to its own army, claimed that in Gaza not enough measures where taken to prevent civilian losses in a statement released by the Israeli Ministry of 'Defense' on July 2010. Moreover the Goldstone report convicts Israel of committing 'crimes against humanity', the report also concluded that Israeli actions in Gaza were rather deliberate and destructive (in regards to civilians).
5. As to Hamas, Hamas is an organization that resists Israeli tyranny in whatever way it views fit. Let us not forget that Hamas was elected by the Palestinian people in 2006, yet the US and Israel did not approve of the Palestinian will and instead forced the organization into Gaza and besieged the entire Strip.
6. SAIA is not OPIRG's sister organization, it is a student group approved by CUSA and runs within OPIRG's group of 'working groups'. SAIA presents its own viewpoints to the table. OPIRG and SAIA might be in sync as to the reality of Israeli occupation and Apartheid and its effects on the Palestinian populace, simply because both groups share a similar anti-oppressive perspective.
7. IAW is not an anti-semitic hate fest, as you lewdly claim, instead it tries to expose Israeli racist and oppressive measures against Palestinians inside the territories and Israel proper. The week's message is rather clear, denouncing racism and apartheid and advocating for justice and human rights.
8. Lastly, do not derogate your view on the organization to personal experience. If you met a Marxist, it does not mean that OPIRG is the same. OPIRG does not discriminate when it comes to membership, it accepts anyone as long as they share the organization's ethics and principles.
That was cute. Let's address some of what you said. First off Dan Sawyer was the visible leader of OPIRG last year, sorry I didn't play into your simple, semantical mind. Second, yes, his statements do reflect the ype of people in OPIRG as well as the organization itself, how could they not? Third I didn't say they applaud any of them I said they don't denounce them to the same extent, try to keep the conversation within the context of the post. Next, Hamas is recognized here in North America as a TERRORIST organization. Yasser Arafat their former leader had plenty of chances to reconcile that were more than fair and didn't because he wanted to fatten his already massive wallet (interesting you don't go after his greed, like you do rich white people's). I said IAW was BORDERLINE and that is a perspective issue, so there is no way to say I'm right or wrong on that, I PERSONALLY perceived it to be borderline discriminatory, to others it was full fledged discrimination. But again, the main point here is that you took another quote out of context. Finally, I do not dislike all Marxists. I know there are plenty of Marxists that are part of OPIRG or were last year for a fact, thus why I made this statement. I think Adey who ran for CUSA was a stand up person, and I was able to speak with him calmly and rationally about politics. Fact is, there are Marxists within OPIRG.
ReplyDeleteLet me clarify. Yasser was not the Hamas leader, for that I apologize. He was leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The point stand, however, that he blew many opportunities to come to a settlement...
ReplyDeleteAs one of the few Orthodox Jewish students on campus, I wouldn't consider myself a Zionist but last year's IAW I was harassed twice, two months before these instances someone told me to my face their life goal is to be a Shaheed and to avenge his Palestinian brothers(suicide bomber) and this is a likely Carleton Student. I know because I see this person almost every month in the Unicentre
ReplyDeleteI've addressed my concerns to Dan Sawyor and SAIA and the response I've received is that they are sorry but are not responislbe for the behavior of people who attend their events. Similarly campus safety cannot do anything since I don't know the names of the people or if they are students or just people who hang around Carleton.
Hamas is a terrorist organization. Ironically Hamas is hebrew for Violence/Cruelty. What a choice name for an organization?