With thanks to Bill Sundhu and Avi Lewis who wrote the following message.
[Avi Lewis]
My father Stephen Lewis is spectacularly uninterested in social media, so I’m posting this myself (though he has read it and is prepared to suffer the indignity of all I’m about to reveal).
When he was Canada’s ambassador to the UN from 1984-88, Dad was truly shocked by the regularity of open, vitriolic antisemitism in the cocktail parties and ambassadorial receptions that surround that crucial but flawed institution.
For this reason (among others) he’s always been the one in our family with the deepest atavistic fear of antisemitism. He was sympathetic to the idea of Israel as a refuge longer than the rest of us. This is no longer the case. Like so many Jews who for decades adopted the dominant narratives of Zionism, he can no longer defend the current actions of the state of Israel. He now regards Israel as a rogue state, committing genocide and other crimes against humankind, which ought to be opposed by every tool and tactic in Canada’s diplomatic arsenal.
To return to the personal, seven years ago my Dad was diagnosed with a vicious cancer and was given as little as 3 months to live. It’s a sublime understatement to say that he’s a fighter – but he has persevered in life with a tenacity familiar from his political, diplomatic, and humanitarian pursuits.
Which brings us to the morning of Thursday May 29, 2025, when at 87 years old, he spent an hour standing at the side of the road in his old riding of Scarborough West. Standing up as a Jew against genocide. Standing up for justice for Palestine. Standing up on the right side of history, where the vast majority of humanity currently stands.
I’ve never been prouder, never more humble before the stubborn principle and insistent moral clarity of the guy I’m so lucky to call Dad.
People of Canada: don’t stop talking about Palestine.
Starvation as collective punishment can never be forgiven.
Burning and burying children alive can never be defended.
Stand up against genocide until we make it stop!
Thanks Dad.
[Ken Gray] I published Charlie Angus’ description of the Thursday Gaza advocacy a few days ago here.
Take Note - Reflections on life, music, politics, retirement and more by Ken Gray 
it is good to see this. I too have been sympathetic to the idea of Israel and have loved my visits there as well as into the West Bank and Gaza to visit my Palestinian friends. And I went to join my Jewish friends the day after the murders by Hamas. I visited Jewish NGOs working for Justice for their Palestinian friends and met many Jews who were supportive of a Palestinian homeland. Now I see a rogue state and more people in Israel taking a harder line than before for a “greater Israel”. I see a violation of the IDF’s own code of ethics, which is (was) high. The scriptures seem to send some mixed messages but lean towards justice. More than sad!
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it is good to see this. I too have been sympathetic to the idea of Israel and have loved my visits there as well as into the West Bank and Gaza to visit my Palestinian friends. And I went to join my Jewish friends the day after the murders by Hamas. I visited Jewish NGOs working for Justice for their Palestinian friends and met many Jews who were supportive of a Palestinian homeland. Now I see a rogue state and more people in Israel taking a harder line than before for a “greater Israel”. I see a violation of the IDF’s own code of ethics, which is (was) high. The scriptures seem to send some mixed messages but lean towards justice. More than sad!
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it is good to see this. I too have been sympathetic to the idea of Israel and have loved my visits there as well as into the West Bank and Gaza to visit my Palestinian friends. And I went to join my Jewish friends the day after the murders by Hamas. I visited Jewish NGOs working for Justice for their Palestinian friends and met many Jews who were supportive of a Palestinian homeland. Now I see a rogue state and more people in Israel taking a harder line than before for a “greater Israel”. I see a violation of the IDF’s own code of ethics, which is (was) high. The scriptures seem to send some mixed messages but lean towards justice. More than sad!
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Thank you Stephen Lewis and Avi Lewis for posting your opinions on the unfathomable Gaza Genocide. What disturbs me most is our current UN Ambassador, Bob Rae, another Jew, to refuse to take a strong stand against Israel’s actions in Gaza and West Bank. I don’t understand why so many Canadians and Americans, and in fact in the whole Western World, refuse to acknowledge the fact of apartheid against the Palestinians as so clearly documented by President Jimmy Carter in his book Palestine: Peace or Apartheid. And why these governments and their mainstream media ignore all those sad truths for all these decades that led to the Hamas invasion on Oct 7th. Why???
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