Is it a coincidence that a controversy about Niki Ashton’s expenses for a one-and-a-half-year-old trip to Quebec emerged after she challenged Canada’s biggest contribution to Palestinian dispossession?
On June 13 the NDP’s revenue critic hosted a press conference at the parliamentary press gallery calling “on the Liberal government to investigate Canadian charities that allegedly funneled taxpayer money in support of Israeli military operations and illegal settlements in Palestine.” After sponsoring a parliamentary petition on the subject, Ashton posted a letter she’d sent previously to Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau demanding the government investigate charities funding Israeli military operations in Gaza and illegal Israeli settlements. Ashton ended the May 27 post noting, “Not one cent of Canadian tax-dollars should be funding genocide.”
Ashton’s statement was referenced in a public letter headlined Stop Subsidizing Genocide signed by Gabor Mate, Yann Martel, Linda McQuaig, Roger Waters, Monia Mazigh, Amir Khadir, Desmond Cole, Libby Davies, Ellen Gabriel, Alex Neve and Sarah Jama. The letter calls into question the more than a quarter billion dollars a year sent to Israel and the Canada Revenue Agency’s failure to “enforce its rules on registered charities assisting foreign militaries, racist organizations and West Bank settlements.”
June 13 was set to be an important step forward for the Just Peace Advocates and Canadian Foreign Policy Institute led “colonialism is not charity” campaign that’s been gaining steam in Palestine solidarity circles. But the Ottawa press conference was upended by the revelation Ashton charged taxpayers $17,000 for a trip she took in December 2022. According to an article published that morning by CBC parliamentary bureau reporter John Paul Tasker, Ashton brought her husband and two young children with her on a trip over the Christmas period that took them to Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. Ashton represents a northern Manitoba ridding so the airfare for the four of them cost $13,000. Ashton’s finances were okayed by the appropriate authorities, yet CBC Power and Politics did a 13-minute five-person discussion about Ashton’s expenses. The National Post, Winnipeg Sun, Truth North, Global News and Rebel News also reported on Ashton’s finances. (more...)
Real scandal is undermining discussion of tax subsidies for Israel
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