Activists plan to hold a protest on Monday as Deborah Lyons, Canada’s former ambassador to Israel and Afghanistan, receives an honorary degree during convocation ceremonies.
A peaceful demonstration will take place outside of Convocation Hall, while inside the building, “students and faculty will also be making their opposition known,” according to an update from Lara Khattab and Krista Johnston.
The two Mount Allison professors launched an online petition last month demanding that Mount Allison rescind the honorary degree. The petition states that, as ambassador, Lyon helped whitewash human rights violations by the State of Israel. It also criticizes her for allegedly cooperating with the Taliban when she represented the United Nations in Afghanistan. The petition had gathered 1,181 names by Sunday afternoon.
University to abide by decision
A spokesperson for Mount Allison confirmed this week that the university is following-through with a decision by its Senate to honour the career diplomat.
The Senate selects recipients from a list recommended by its Honorary Degrees Committee, according to acting media relations officer Renée Belliveau. That committee “consists of representatives of Senate, students, and Board of Regents,” according to the university website.
“Deborah Lyons was nominated in 2020, and her nomination received the support of a majority of Senators, as required under the procedures,” Belliveau said in an email. “The University is abiding by the decision made by Senate in 2020 to honour Deborah Lyons.”
CHMA attempted to reach Lyons via Mount Allison’s communications department and her Twitter account, but with no response by publication time.
Worsening human rights situation
When the university announced last month that it would honour the former envoy, the news provoked outrage from some quarters. It came amid reports of settler violence against Palestinians and police raids at the Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
More recently, the besieged Gaza Strip has faced renewed bombing. And this week marked one year since Israeli forces shot and killed veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
Critics argue that successive Canadian governments have remained closely allied to Israel amid worsening human rights conditions for Palestinians.
“Whether they're Conservative or Liberal, they have been consistent in terms of supporting Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism,” Khattab said in an interview. Khattab and Johnston say the ambassador went beyond Canada's support for Israel by promoting Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recruitment in Canada, allegedly in violation of a federal law against foreign enlistment.
In 2020, Lyons held an event at the Canadian Embassy Tel Aviv to celebrate what are known as “lone soldiers,” foreigners who enlist in the IDF, as reported by the Jerusalem Post.
At the time, Palestine solidarity activists demanded that federal Justice Minister David Lametti launch an investigation into alleged violations of the Foreign Enlistment Act.
The case never went anywhere, according to information from the RCMP. “The matter was referred to the RCMP in 2021. A review was conducted, however a criminal investigation was not initiated. The file is now concluded and the RCMP has no further comment,” Cpl. Kim Chamberland told CHMA in an email.
A statement from Global Affairs Canada didn’t directly address criticisms of Lyons or Canadian foreign policy.
Global Affairs spokesperson Jean-Pierre Godbout provided an emailed statement saying, in part, that “Canada is committed to the goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, including the creation of a Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel.”
Deborah Lyons, Canada's former ambassador to Israel and Afghanistan. Photo: twitter.com/DeborahLyonsUN
The petition points to episodes such as the shooting of a Palestinian-Canadian physician Tarek Loubani, who was wounded by Israeli sniper fire near the Gaza border in an incident that was condemned by Prime Minister Trudeau at the time. Loubani was reportedly treating wounded Palestinians in May 2018 when he was shot in both legs, at a time when Israeli forces were repressing mass protests at the Gaza border fence.
The professors say Lyons was silent about the shooting of Loubani, and about the deaths of more that 200 Palestinians during the “Great March of Return” protests in Gaza in 2018 and 2019.
During those protests, Palestinians demanded the right to return to the homes of their ancestors and called for Israel to end its ongoing blockade on the Gaza Strip. Two-hundred twenty-three Palestinians were killed, dozens of them minors, according to B’Tselem, a Jerusalem-based human rights group.
“Lyons should have condemned human rights violations and war crimes as a high-ranking Canadian diplomat,” the petition states. “Instead, she chose to engage in the settler colonial erasure of the plight of Canadians and Palestinians and to white-wash Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism.”
Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Originally from Miramichi, Lyons has held a number of senior diplomatic roles including Ambassador to Israel from 2016 until 2021. Before that, she was also ambassador to Afghanistan from 2013 until 2016.
She returned to Afghanistan from March 2020 until June 2022 as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the UN Assistance Mission (UNAMA) to that country. She held that role when American forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021 and the Taliban regained control of the country.
The petition criticizes her, in part, for cooperating with the Taliban — officially a terrorist entity according to Canadian foreign policy — just as the country collapsed.
Lyons defended the handover in a June 2022 “farewell statement to the people of Afghanistan,” saying, in part, that “the only way forward was through political engagement,” despite the extremist policies of the Taliban. She also commented on the move in a recent episode of a podcast for alumni of University of New Brunswick, saying she accepted the UN role in part because she “wanted a woman at the head of the UN during this huge transition period.”
Krista Johnston, Director of Women's and Gender Studies at Mount Allison, said it was a "capitulation" to suggest that working with the Taliban was the only option.
"There could have been a different way forward, if feminist organizations, women's organizations and other members of civil society had been at the table during the negotiations and during discussions. But they were systemically shut out," she said. “And the Canadian state is culpable for that."
Note: Prof. Lara Khattab, interviewed in the audio interview included with this story, is a Mount Allison University professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations. One of her areas of study is the lived experience of those formally excluded from politics in the Arab world. She recommends listeners check out the following resources for more information on Israel-Palestine: Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network; ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; Al-Haq; and Visualizing Palestine.
Listen to CHMA's interview with Lara Khattab and Krista Johnston: