On February 3, 2019, Canadian Ministers Chrystia Freeland and Marie-Claude Bibeau published this statement in which they claimed that Venezuelan forces had burned ‘humanitarian aid’:

Today, a New York  Times expose confirmed that this claim is false.

Will Freeland and Bibeau now issue a retraction and apology?

[For the record, Max Blumenthal revealed this claim to be false well before the New York Times did so.]

On February 23, “Hands Off Venezuela” rallies were held in cities around the world.

For The Real News Network, I attended one such rally in Ottawa, Canada.

At the Ottawa rally, protesters marched from Justin Trudeau’s office to the United States embassy demanding that Western leaders keep their “greedy hands” off of Venezuela’s resources.

My report on the Ottawa protest can be watched and heard here:

https://therealnews.com/stories/hands-off-venezuela-rallies-held-in-cities-around-the-world?fbclid=IwAR17LpWp1-DqpusAbCm4bAbQM955Fh5ilclPTghhnui95KrNrxjjdR27_dM.

My thanks to my daughter Lena, who shot the video for this report.

Following his recent appearance on the far-right Rebel Media, during which he vilified Justin Trudeau’s government for showing a modicum of compassion to Palestinian refugees, Hillel Neuer of UN Watch has launched a mendacious attack on me and Professor Michael Lynk.

Professor Lynk is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). He has meticulously documented Israel’s severe human rights abuses in the OPT, and has therefore drawn the ire of the relentlessly pro-Israel UN Watch.

Apparently, Neuer’s prodigious ego remains bruised after this past summer’s convocation at McGill University. For reasons that no one in the Palestinian solidarity movement can fathom, McGill University decided earlier this year to confer an honorary doctorate on this shameless apologist for Israeli apartheid. In protest, I and two other Palestinian solidarity activists, Yves Engler and Paul Tetrault, disrupted Neuer’s acceptance speech during McGill’s convocation:

Now, Neuer and UN Watch, the pro-Israel propaganda organ that Neuer leads, are calling for Professor Lynk to denounce me after Professor Lynk and I shared a stage at a recent Symposium on Israel/Palestinein Winnipeg.

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For The Real News, I speak to Canadian journalist and doctoral student, Anthony Fenton, about the reality of Saudi – Canada relations.

Despite all the bluster being directed by the Saudi autocracy at the Trudeau government, Canada’s government remains, and has long been, an enthusiastic supporter of Saudi Arabia’s monstrous war on Yemen.

My conversation with Anthony can be seen and heard here:

https://therealnews.com/stories/saudi-canada-diplomatic-row-obscures-canadas-support-for-the-deadly-war-on-yemen

For The Real News, I speak to Alison Kirsch of the Rainforest Action Network about a new report which shows that financing for extreme fossil fuels like the tar sands increased in 2017.

As Alison explains, the principal villains are Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and JP Morgan.

My interview of Alison can be seen here:

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21549#.Ws4RzI2dPM0.facebook

For the Real News, I speak to Alison Kirsch of the Rainforest Action Network about a new report revealing that financing for tar sands projects has surged in 2017. With each passing day, we move closer to climate chaos. Many of the West’s major financial institutions seem determined to hasten our demise. As Alison explains, in Canada the leading financiers of the planet’s destruction are the Toronto-Dominion Bank and Royal Bank of Canada.

My interview of Alison can be seen here:

http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20368:Who-Funds-the-World%27s-Dirtiest-Energy-Projects%3F.