Frank Dimant "one of the top foreign policy influencers in Ottawa", really? I rarely see B'nai Brith quoted anymore at least in the mainstream press when it comes to Jewish issues. Its usually the Canadian Jewish Congress that seems to be the talking head.

And what the heck is Embassy magazine?

I think NOW would have been better off seeking the opinion of mainstream Jewish Canada rather than B'nai Brith then we might have better understood the position of the Jewish community on Israel.

If he has been quoted correctly, Dryden's comments are fascistic - pure and simple. To grovel before the pro-Israel lobby is disgusting enough, but to call for the slow mass murder of 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip (still "occupied" by Israel, according to the Fourth Geneva Convention), brings to mind the monstrous crimes of Hitler. Ironically, by advocating what is most certainly genocide, Dryden is also feeding the fires of anti-semitism.

My letter to Mr. Stephen Dion. Although my aspirations and concern for justice and all humanity are likely to be falsely interpreted by zionist fanatics who are birds of a feather with Muslim and other extremist ideologues, it is important to stand against and expose misanthropic content.

Dear Mr. Dion, A few days ago you dumped Lesley Hughes' candidacy for her remarks a few years ago regarding possibility of prior knowledge of 9/11 by some Jewish businessmen. By doing so, you ignored our Canadian Freedom of Expression in order to please members of Jewish organizations. Well, if you care to look at a very recent article in Toronto's NOW magazine you will see Mr. Ken Dryden call for halting of all aid to Gaza, that is, food, humanitarian and so on. In effect, Mr. Dryden is advocating collective punishment for a population of 1.5 million inhabitants, which by the way, is contrary to International Law. I would like to point out to you that Lesley Hughes was expressing a position that has even been referred to in the Israeli paper, Haaretz, and it was not an anti-semetic remark at all. Yet she was dumped for it. Mr. Dryden's words are far more serious, in fact, he suggests a kind of action against a population of men, women, babies and children with horrendous consequences. I am very concerned that a person of this calibre is your candidate for my area, and he may even become our official representative. This is racism, and for that matter anti-semitism, not Lesley Hughes' opinion. The least you can do is dump Mr. Dryden, wouldn't you agree? Yours sincerely, Parviz Mirbaghi

Oh, Canada, what have you become? Ken Dryden, better known as a former hockey player than a politician, has stated "Stop all aid that flows into Gaza. While that may seem a harsh measure that will hurt Palestinian civilians ... it is the right thing to do at this time". Since the cutting off of aid is causing starvation of Palestinians, and since Dryden as a MP must be aware of the implications of what he says, one can assume that Dryden is an advocate of genocide, as well as being a racist. He is inciting hatred of, and promoting the starvation and subsequent extermination of, 1.5 million Palestinian people because "it's the right thing to do at this time". And to show that odious double standards are alive and thriving in the Canadian political scene, there has been no comment from the the Liberal party, no immediate removal of Dryden from its ranks, no call for him to be brought before the sham CRHC for inciting hatred. Nothing. Who knew Dryden harboured such hatred against the Palestinian people? Who knew he was a real life racist? Who knew he was fawning over a minute segment of Canada's population, supporting the illegal occupation of Palestine, and supporting Israeli terrorism? What is Dion going to do about this? If he does nothing, his silence and inaction will confirm his agreement with Dryden. If the other political parties remain silent, they, too, will tell Canadians that preventing "aid" from reaching Gaza (which is minimal at best) and inciting hatred of the Palestinian people is perfectly okay with them, and Geneva Conventions be damned, eh?

For some folks, the only unacceptable bigotry is anti-Semitism, and the only crime against humanity was the Holocaust.

Deliberately starving more than a million civilians? No sweat...if they're brown Untermenschen, and the fellow calling for this crime against humanity is a Liberal. The regular media won't even pick this story up.

Dion won't make a move against Dryden--his apparatchik Jason Cherniak calls him a "Canadian hero," so that's that. What contempt for the voters these people have! Of course, Harper won't move against Peter Kent, either--the latter being one of the leaders of the viciously anti-Muslim Canadian Coalition for Democracies, whose colleagues have called for Islam to by thrown on the ash-heap of history, and the bombing of Iran.

It seems to me the voters have a few clear choices on October 14 that have nothing to do with the issues formally on the table. Whom do we want to represent us? Not leaders of extremist organizations, or former goalies advocating the deliberate mass killing of civilians.

For the last several years, The LPC (Liberal Party of Canada)has lost any sense of common sense and became a spinless hostage of Zionist supporters and bakers.

It is beyind shame that S. Dion fired Lesley Huges for making a general and well shared info. while been gutless and silent when Cotler, Dryden and others of his own party members & hate mongers support occupation and oppression. Perhaps he shoul read again the Criminal Code of Canada: Hate Provisions - Summary Section 318: Advocating Genocide The criminal act of "advocating genocide" is defined as supporting or arguing for the killing of members of an "identifiable group" -- persons distinguished by their colour, race, religion or ethnic origin. The intention or motivation would be the destruction of members of the targeted group. Any person who promotes genocide is guilty of an indictable offence, and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years. Defining Genocide Section 318 defines genocide as any acts committed with intent to destroy an identifiable group --such as killing members of the group, or deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction.

Liberal MP, and former Liberal Leadership candidate, Ken Dryden calls for a halt to all aid to Gaza, including humanitarian aid and food. This would result in the mass starvation and the collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians. Even Stephen Harper does not advocate such an extreme policy. This statement is a call for mass murder through starvation of over 1 million human beings who have committed no crimes only democratically elected a party of their own choice not one dictated to by outsiders. Where are the calls for Dryden's resignation and his formal ouster from the Liberal Party? A retraction and apology is at minimum required. Liberal candidates who run afoul of the Canadian Jewish Congress, even at the slightest pretext, are expelled from the Liberal Party or are blocked from running for the Liberal Party. However, any attack on the Palestinians, Arabs or Muslim community no matter how outrageous is allowed. The discrimination and racism in this policy is obvious to all except those who refuse to see it.

Edward C. Corrigan Barrister & Solicitor Associate Editor ImmQuest Associate Editor Immigration Law Reporter Certified as a Specialist by the Law Society of Upper Canada Citizenship and Immigration Law and Immigration/Refugee Protection Law 383 Richmond St. Suite 902 London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3C4

Tel: (519) 439-4015 Fax: (519) 439-7657 Toll Free 1-800-883-6217 email: corriganlaw@edcorrigan.ca web site: www.edcorrigan.ca

Dion must fire Ken Dryden if the Liberal Party wants to prevent its image from being permanently tarnished. Any candidate who promotes the mass murder of 1.5 million people should be tried in front of the Internation Court of Justice.

You know,I am a zionist and a conservative supporter, and even I wouldn't advocate what Dryden suggested. Neither did the conservative candidate and neither has the Harper gov't. To think that the riding's Jews would be happy to hear that humanitarian aid should be cut off, is an insult to them. Even the Israeli government with only a few days of exceptions has allowed humanitarian shipments of food, fuel, and medical supplies in to NGO's, but not to Hamas. What was Dryden thinking?

Why is it our responsibility to feed and cloth 1.5 Million Arabs? Perhaps the money given them could be better spent on food then weapons. What happened to all the agricultural farms that were there when the Israelis pulled out of Gaza.

Thank you for doing this story. It's nice to know this Canadian paper is not as cowardly on the Israeli-Palestinian issue as American, including PBS.

We don't have to look at America to find this sort of genocidal racism being ignored by the corporate media.

Did you see any reference to this on CBC, the television of Canadians? Did you see anything about it on CTV? Did anyone from the Globe, purporting to be Canada's (hehe) newspaper, demand answers from Dryden and Dion? Did the Toronto Star send out an investigative reporter?

If any of those media outlets covered this story, please, someone, point me to it.

Certainly if it weren't for this publication, Dryden's dirty little secret would still be a dirty little secret -- other than, of course, to those who were present at the meeting...

Dear Ken: You said that your statement on the curtailment of government-to-government aid was 'mischaracterized'. Did you make the following statement: "Stop all aid that flows into Gaza. While that may seem a harsh measure that will hurt Palestinian civilians... it is the right thing to do at this time"? If you did, there is no mistake about the intent of your declaration. If you support the delivery of food aid to the Palestinians through U.N. agencies and NGO's, the following comment is contrary to your attempt to "clarify" your position: "While that may seem a harsh measure that will hurt Palestinian civilians... it is the right thing to do at this time " It looks like you are suffering from more than that peculiarly politician illness called "foot-in-mouth-disease."

Ajamu Nangwaya

I am American and I personally expected this from Americans, especially since Isreal cannot ever do any wrong. But Canada, that's another different story. I am finding that livig in Canada is really no different from living in the U.S. The only difference that I see quite frankly are the differences in the winter. The winters are a lot warmer where I am from.

Why is everyone so surprised that the Palestinians are paying the price for their government's terrorist mindset?

History has shown time and again that when you allow an aggressive despotic group to rule you, then you pay a terrible price.

The easiest way to end Palestinian suffering would be to stop attacking Israel.

Liberals Want to Know: "Do Canadian Jews Support Boycotting Aid to Palestinians?" by C. L. Cook A few weeks ago, Liberal York Centre riding incumbent Ken Dryden channeled Tory foreign affairs minister, Peter McKay, telling the crowd gathered at the Beth Emeth synagogue Canada should completely cut off aid to Gaza.

In his article, 'Israel's Party Mixer,' NOW Magazine's Paul Weinberg quotes the former Montreal Canadiens star goal-tender saying;

"Stop all aid that flows into Gaza. While that may seem a harsh measure that will hurt Palestinian civilians... it is the right thing to do at this time."

Weinberg wonders why Dryden, ensconced in a riding threatened by neither Tories, nor hordes of registered Canadian/Israeli settlers would stake out a position on Palestine that puts him "far to the right of the Conservatives." More worrisome though is; how can a Canadian legislator, and a lawyer at that, propose the Canadian government engage in collective punishment of a civilian population already with their collective back to the wall(s)? Regardless of MP Ken Dryden's political ambition, or moral cowardice, how can he possibly justify such a callous statement, much less propose it as official policy? Does he have no inkling of the situation brought on by Israel and its allies' isolation of the imprisoned population there?

In an attempt to clarify Dryden's assertion, Weinberg says he went to the source, Dryden's campaign manager. Ruth Thorkelson, says Weinberg, denied Dryden's position signals a new direction for the Liberals on Israel/Palestine.

* "I don't agree with your [Weinberg's] suggestion that we have changed our position."

Weinberg then says;

* "One reason the Liberals probably won't pay a price for the Tories' dedicated loyalty to the Israeli government is that the Grits hold exactly the same position now."

So, does that mean Dryden, and the Tories, are playing to Toronto's Jewish community, whom they believe supports the uncompromising starvation campaign against Gaza's population initiated by the now-departed Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert?

Clearly, Paul Weinberg thinks they do. He quotes Steve Scheinberg of Canadian Friends of Peace Now saying;

* "I don't think the Conservatives are that interested in the Middle East per se. What I think they are interested in is winning some Jewish votes and money."

And this from Mark Khoury of the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations;

* "Many parliamentarians are nervous about [the Palestine] issue. There is still a culture where it is too hard an issue to touch."

Can't Touch This

Sadly, having stirred the hornets nest, Paul Weinberg leaves off here, without canvassing the "Jewish Street" in Toronto, or the rest of Canada. To be fair, the question of "Jewish Canada's" homogeneity on this issue is not Weinberg's question but mine; but, the implication there exists such a bloc mentality among Canada's [sic] Jews, and that it supports Olmert's and Israel's siege and destroy campaign in Gaza is left hanging over the piece like a predator drone.

I can't say whether NOW's editors cut Weinberg's piece short, or he was content to leave this damning indictment dangling Damoclese-like over "Canada's Jewish community," but some of NOW's audience clearly were not ready to accept that odious suggestion.

Reader, Dov Kreiner sums it up nicely, saying;

* "Frank Dimant 'one of the top foreign policy influencers in Ottawa', really? I rarely see B'nai Brith quoted anymore at least in the mainstream press when it comes to Jewish issues. Its usually the Canadian Jewish Congress that seems to be the talking head. And what the heck is Embassy magazine? I think NOW would have been better off seeking the opinion of mainstream Jewish Canada rather than B'nai Brith then we might have better understood the position of the Jewish community on Israel."

While "Gary" has choice words for the famed puck stopper;

* "If he has been quoted correctly, Dryden's comments are fascistic - pure and simple. To grovel before the pro-Israel lobby is disgusting enough, but to call for the slow mass murder of 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip (still "occupied" by Israel, according to the Fourth Geneva Convention), brings to mind the monstrous crimes of Hitler. Ironically, by advocating what is most certainly genocide, Dryden is also feeding the fires of anti-semitism."

A few more responses to Paul Weinberg's article follow below, but sadly absent are the outraged voices of any Canadian Human Rights or Peace organizations, Jewish or otherwise. That leaves NOW readers to assume that, "Yes, Canada's Jewish community supports Israel, right or wrong, and any politician looking for their votes, or more importantly, their money and media favour, must support the starvation of an entire captive people."

First of all, the Palestinians in Gaza aren't starving. This is just another calumny by antisemites and terrorists to heap abuse upon the existence of Israel.

Gaza if nothing else is agricultural. They import food, yes, but they grow enough beans and vegetables and fruit to live on, and catch fish and have domestic animals too. In all the pictures that come out of Gaza, you never see children with swollen bellies or starving skeletons with hollow eyes, yet these jerks scream day and night that it's a concentration camp.

It's all lies. They have more food than they can eat. And if they dropped the terror thing and had some pride, they could get off their knees and throw away their begging bowls and earn a living just like everybody else.

Virtually *all* the comments above make the assumption that Weinberg quoted Dryden accurately and not out of context. But when I placed his alleged remarks against what I know to be Dryden's character and intelligence, I could not accept what Weinberg wrote and Now published. Dryden's swift reply, published as a letter in the current issue and also available on his Web site ( http://kendryden.liberal.ca/p3459_e.aspx ), makes clear the context - what he was referring to specifically was direct Canadian government support to the Hamas government and its agencies. As he notes, Weinberg's "article leaves the false impression that I implied or otherwise meant that I support halting humanitarian aid and food distributed through various United Nations and other humanitarian agencies."

This is in keeping with the Ken Dryden I know, and not what Weinberg falsely reported. So although I was not present and Weinberg was, I chose to accept Dryden's denial and I reject Weinberg's formulation completely! But the reportage and its aftermath bring up another question.

Why is it that so many have leaped on him in such a virulent manner, making the assumption in most cases that Weinberg was correct? It is certainly true that the official Liberal policy is not one that most of these folks agree with, but that is hardly the same thing as what Weinberg alleged. I believe Dryden's being quoted out of context is being used by most of his an excuse to batter the Liberals' policy on Hamas, which basically is no different than that of the Conservatives. Criticizing that policy is fine, but not at the expense of a man like Ken Dryden!

Ken Dryden has been hit by one too many hockey pucks.

The obvious problem with Israel is ZIONISTS and the evil, racist, fascist ideology of ZIONISM. The world MUST get rid of ZIONISM. Its followers are RUTHLESS AND EVIL.

Emile, you sound like those revisionists who describe how wonderful life was in the ghettos for Europe's Jews and say that holycost was just a lie. "Ohh, quit your wining, it's not so bad, besides it's your own fault!". Is that what you're saying? Do you want that to be said about your own people? ASSHOLE!

I liked Ken Dryden as a hockey player, a lawyer and now an MP. Don't see why his remarks about Gaza seige by Israel are anything to get upset about. After all, Gazans voted for a terrorist organization to rule over them and send rockets into Israeli villages. Gazan people want a war with Israel and they are getting one. In war, the enemy does not get Starbucks coffee for free. Come on guys, smarten up. Soon guys like Paul Weinberg will want to ship lattes to Quebecois separatists lobbing mortars from Hull onto Parliament Hill. Geez!