On April 6, 2018, a tragic accident in Humboldt, Saskatchewan took the lives of 16 young people. All of Canada was shocked and in mourning. Six and a half years later, the survivors and their families struggle to live with the physical and emotional consequences. Israel continues to inflict horrors greater than Humboldt on the population of Gaza almost every day. Read more….
The Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy was immense. The snuffing out of young lives and damaging the future of many others was difficult to absorb. The whole Province of Saskatchewan was stunned. Many knew the young men who were members of the Humboldt hockey team. Families destroyed. Healthy young men condemned to years of rehabilitation, some with lost limbs. Careers crushed. Dreams shattered.
The world was shocked. World leaders expressed their condolences after the accident, including Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Trudeau. US President Donald Trump phoned Trudeau to offer his condolences to the victims and their families. Ellen DeGeneres, Drake and Whoopi Goldberg voiced their sympathy and condolences to those who were affected. Even Pope Francis sent a message of condolences.]
A crowdfunding effort was launched by Humboldt resident Sylvie Kellington within hours of the collision to support victims and their families, and raised more than $4 million by the next day. Morgan Gobeil, the last player to be released from hospital, had a traumatic brain injury which left him unable to speak or to walk, even after spending hours in physiotherapy.
But last week in Gaza?
The most recent report from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA) was shocking for its banality.
“Between the afternoons of 23 and 26 August, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 170 Palestinians were killed and 390 were injured,” read the OCHA report.
Translated into Canadian terms, that means Israel inflicted ten Humboldt tragedies on the people of Gaza in the last week of August. Just 3 days.
We don’t know anything about those who were killed. Were they soccer players? Musicians? Students? Or those who were injured. how many lost limbs? or had head injuries? or permanently suffering from PTSD? What do we know about their grieving families?
In fact, since Israel begain its genocidal campaign in Gaza last October it has inflicted 2,500 tragedies equivalent to Humboldt on a population of approximately 2 million people living in an area not much bigger than the City of Regina. But in addition to the huge number of events, there are other very important differences between Saskatchewan’s Humboldt and Gaza’s “Humboldts”.
- The Humboldt event was a tragic accident – nobody wanted it to happen. Each Gaza “Humboldt” is a result of deliberate and willful Israeli policy
- The Humboldt event happened once – and it is now over. In Gaza it is happening EVERY DAY.
- The Humboldt survivors had the immediate support of a network of hospitals in the region. In Gaza Israel has bombed almost all of the hospitals.
- The Humboldt survivors had medical support from trained doctors and nurses. in Gaza, Israel has deliberatedly killed medical staff including doctors and nurses and undermined the health care system
- The Humboldt survivors benefit from an extended array of social welfare organizations to support physiotheraphy, psychological counselling. etc. In Gaza, Israel has attacked and all but eliminated UNRWA the main UN agency providing support for Palestinian refugees.
- The Humboldt survivors were healthy young men, members of a hockey team. In Gaza, the whole population has been suffering from Israeli imposed malnutrition and disease for 10 months.
What to do?
Those who argue that “Canada can’t do anything anyway” are mistaken.
Yes, Canada is far away from Gaza and we have little leverage. But we can and should do something. CTIP supports the recommendations made by the United Church of Canada to Prime Minister Trudeau in a letter from the UCC moderator Reverend Michael Blair to impose lawful targeted sanctions on Israel including a call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
CTIP readers might want to send a copy of the UCC letter to their own member of Parliament with a cover note saying you agree with it.
Canada Talks Israel Palestine (CTIP) is the weekly newsletter of Peter Larson, Chair of the Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine (OFIP). It aims to promote a serious discussion in Canada about Canada’s response to the complicated and emotional Israel/Palestine issue with a focus on the truth, clear analysis and human rights for all. Readers with different points of view are invited to make comment.
Want to learn more about us? Go to Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine.ca
Canada Talks Israel/Palestine 
Israel could not conduct this massive genocide without the support of the so called western democracies. Broncos were white like Ukrainians and were victims of chance. Palestinians are victims because of Zioninist “lebensraum”. They just happen to be in the way and expendable in eyes of European heritage.
This nightmare in Gaza is being carried out by a system so steeped in an ideology that it sees them having shed any humanity they were born with. I leave you to speculate on their brethren in our country who now function as secret police, suppressing speech, press and demonstrative support of those whose days are numbered. Helplessly we watch our so-called leaders cheering the final carnage in the forum.
Bob Pflug
it seems all the letters, protests , demonstrations etc. fall on the deaf ears of those who could change our policies in this ongoing brutal, horrific tragedy . Is there any way it would be possible to mobilize an effective group to meet with the Prime Minister and confront him and the other policy makers in a dialogue of truth & justice to end this nightmare of human tragedy? Is that too naive in this day & age? Why does Israel ( the Zionists ) control, for its apartheid goal, all actions & complicity of the Western world on this issue?
I find disasters like Humboldt incomparable with what is happening in Gaza. After the Humboldt disaster, organized agencies from other parts of Canada rushed to help. They were able to work without fear of further attacks and to bring help to both victims and bereaved families. In Gaza that is not possible. The people do the best they can, but the rescue and health infrastructures are not intact and they know that there can be another attack at any moment. Numbers cannot capture the difference.
Something is making people in Israel and many of the people in the “West” blind to the suffering of Palestinians. I regularly get e-mails from Israeli charities asking me to send money to support residents of Kibbutzes near Gaza who are “suffering” in hotels because of damage to their homes on October 7. When I read those messages, I immediately think of the millions of people in Gaza who would rejoice if they could live in such a hotel with safe water and food. Those who send those fund-raising letters seem unable to see the other people suffering just a few kilometres away from the Kibbutzes.
I don’t think “demands” sent to politicians will do much good. We need to bombard both neighbours and local newspapers with stories of Palestinian individuals and their suffering. If we can win voters over by helping them to see what is happening, the politicians will follow the voters.
David: I agree with everything you say. I do like using the Humboldt story to help people connect emotionally with the horrors that Gazans experience. Canadians internalized the Humboldt trauma, and now they need to internalize the Gazan one. The fact that Gaza is a million times worse may then seep in.
Reply to S.Rayes Your second sentence.
The answer should be yes but the Zionists (think outfits in public view with Mossad in the background) are employed similar to the Stasi in former East Germany. If not enough to have their people strategically placed like the President of U of T, they have others indoctrinated or in $ inated. The press may, to some degree, report the carnage but will not touch the Zionist outfits. On request from BB a journalist could be fired. . For a long time I have felt that our strategy has been far too polite and as white older people we can do things that younger people can’t and the Arabic population would fall prey to the Zionist narrative inculcated into their children and much of the public over decades. We should be accusing B’nais Brith as agents for IDF atrocities, displaying swastikas with stars of David and giving them all their treasured antisemitic stats they want. The fight must come out in the open accusing aTrudeau as a hired gun with no morals.
I could go on and on but time is running out for action. All the advocacies should get together and devise a far more aggressive strategy with we old white folks backing the more vulnerable. Our younger 60 year old younger daughter has marched with Palestinian youth and visited encampments multiple times. A graduate of Carleton and McGill she sports a Palestinian flag on her purse. I thought that if more older white people displayed something like that, it would counter the Zionist’s treasured terrorist narrative.
In Canada it’s a war fawt for minds.
Bob Pflug
When the history of this war is written, and it will be, if it is a cold analysis of the facts, there will be no western leader who will emerge untainted. Not Trudeau or Joly and their treacherous arms sales to Israel, not Biden, whose whining at the NATO summit that he regrets not being able to pressure Israel to a cease fire, or any of the rest of western leaders. You know when the US president refuses to end military, financial and diplomatic cover to Israel, that Palestinian lives are just inconveniences and their suffering and death is manifestly less important than the hostages. When Serbian arms sales to Israel are making record profits and when, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, Israel commits genocide and is still the victim you can’t help but feel helpless. The west is full of Neville Chamberlains who refuse to accept the pathological nature of the Israeli prime minister and are made fools in the process.
Although Dr Parnas is probably correct in assuming that politicians will respond to voters, there is something deeply disturbing about that truth where political survival trumps human dignity. Someday this will be over and the Palestinian resilience will trump all the cruelty and hypocrisy directed towards them. They will do it themselves because they can and we won’t.
To all who have written eloquently on this tragic issue here is a further thought . After listening to a brilliant analysis by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs , “The looming war with Iran “ on UTube ,( interviewer – Judge Napolitano ) this comprehensive & articulate podcast needs to be shown on all the Television stations in North America as well as all other counties still being duped by the Israeli narrative.
If David Parnas feels we must bombard our neighbours , newspapers etc. ( agree) then why not bombard with this specific podcast . It starts out dealing with Ukraine & how through negotiations in 2O22, inter alia, Ukraine would still have their territory retained. Then it moves on to discussing the inhuman chaos created by despicable Netanyahu & his extremists. I can send Peter the link, if there is interest to pursue.
Hi Peter. Thanks for this. I think I agree with the comments above that letters to politicians, etc. seems to fall on deaf ears, although I continue to write them. I wonder if having Canadians watch a few newscasts of Al Jazeera might change the Canadian psyche. The horrors on the ground and the daily suffering of Palestinians in Gaza are on full display on that station unlike the Western networks.