A local group of about 40 activists surrounded MP Bryan May's constituency office on Hespeler Road in Cambridge over the noon hour today in an effort to demand the Cambridge MP sign a statement calling for the federal government to enact a full and immediate arms embargo on Israel.
The group, many wearing keffiyehs and masks to hide their identities, included members of Neighbours for Palestine - Waterloo Region and a local Palestinian Youth Movement.
Together they support the #ArmsEmbargoNow demand, first published on May 7, and now endorsed by more than 400 Palestinian associations, labour unions, faith institutions, human rights and environmental organizations, and community groups across Canada.
Since its launch, 42 parliamentarians, including about 20 Liberal MPs, NDP and Green parties have signed-on to an abbreviated version of the statement, "which acknowledges the catastrophe Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza has caused, and calls on the Canadian government to immediately suspend all trade in arms and military technology with Israel."
In Waterloo Region, Liberal MP Tim Louis and Green MP Mike Morrice signed the statement and endorse the #ArmsEmbargoNow demand.
But despite "hundreds of emails" and phone calls seeking his support, May has so far ignored the invitation.
Also on the no-response list is Waterloo MP Bardish Chagger and Kitchener South-Hespeler MP Valerie Bradford.
CambridgeToday reached out to May for comment, but did not immediately get a response. His constituency office is closed and remained dark during today's protest.
Laura Ashfield, a representative of Neighbours for Palestine, said although support from some MPs is largely viewed as symbolic, she's hopeful that if enough Liberal MPs sign on, the call for the two-way arms embargo will be heard in the House of Commons.
"Just last week, MP Tim Louis listened to his constituents and stood up for the right side of history and stood up for justice in Palestine and did sign the Arms Embargo Now campaign MP letter," she said.
"It's Bryan's turn. His words don't seem to match his actions, so that's why we're here."
May, whose previous role was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, has been open about his support for a ceasefire in Gaza.
But his appearance at CANSEC, a national trade show for defence, security and emerging technology, in Ottawa last month, was disconcerting for the group, Ashfield said.
"He was proudly taking pictures with arms dealers that are sending weapons to Israel."
Meanwhile, Canada has an obligation through the Arms Trade Treaty and the Genocide Convention to stop arming Israel if the country is found plausibly committing genocide.
Last week, Israel carried out a military operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp that freed four Israeli captives and killed more than 270 Palestinians, including at least 64 children. The attack injured some 700 others.
"We have a moral obligation but also a legal obligation to stop sending weapons and to stop funding atrocities that are killing children," Ashfield said.
After consulting the latest Census data last night, Ashfield said she was horrified to learn the more than 15,000 children estimated to have been killed in Gaza over the last eight months is "the exact same number as every single child in the city of Cambridge under the age of 10."
"That number is heartbreaking, especially when you put it in local terms."
"I just imagine every single child under the age of 10 in Cambridge gone, and we are contributing to this. Canada is complicit in this."
The protesters say the scale of the massacre has "underscored the disproportionate and indiscriminate nature of Israel’s eight month-long military assault on and siege of Gaza and the abhorrent devaluing of Palestinian life in which the Canadian government is complicit as long as it continues to engage in the arms trade with Israel."
During today's protest, the group plastered May's office with posters, strung together 15 pieces of children's clothing, each representing 1,000 Palestinian children killed since last October, and chanted "Bryan May, your hands are red, 40,000 people dead."
Tonight the group will attend a hymn sing at the University of Waterloo in support of an encampment protest for Palestine that set up on Grad House Green last month.
