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.<\/p>\r\n
The Senate selects recipients from a list recommended by its Honorary Degrees Committee, according to acting media relations officer Ren\u00e9e Belliveau. That committee \u201cconsists of representatives of Senate, students, and Board of Regents,\u201d according to the university website<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n \u201cDeborah Lyons was nominated in 2020, and her nomination received the support of a majority of Senators, as required under the procedures,\u201d Belliveau said in an email. \u201cThe University is abiding by the decision made by Senate in 2020 to honour Deborah Lyons.\u201d<\/p>\r\n CHMA attempted to reach Lyons via Mount Allison\u2019s communications department and her Twitter account<\/a>, but with no response by publication time.<\/p>\r\n Worsening human rights situation<\/strong><\/p>\r\n When the university announced last month that it would honour the former envoy<\/a>, the news provoked outrage from some quarters. It came amid reports of settler violence against Palestinians<\/a> and police raids at the Al-Aqsa mosque<\/a> in occupied East Jerusalem.<\/p>\r\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n Critics argue that successive Canadian governments have remained closely allied to Israel<\/a> amid worsening human rights conditions<\/a> for Palestinians.<\/p>\r\n \u201cWhether they're Conservative or Liberal, they have been consistent in terms of supporting Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism,\u201d 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.<\/p>\r\n In 2020, Lyons held an event at the Canadian Embassy Tel Aviv to celebrate what are known as \u201clone soldiers,\u201d foreigners who enlist in the IDF, as reported by the Jerusalem Post<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n At the time, Palestine solidarity activists demanded<\/a> that federal Justice Minister David Lametti launch an investigation<\/a> into alleged violations of the Foreign Enlistment Act<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\r\n The case never went anywhere, according to information from the RCMP. \u201cThe 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,\u201d Cpl. Kim Chamberland told CHMA in an email.<\/p>\r\n A statement from Global Affairs Canada didn\u2019t directly address criticisms of Lyons or Canadian foreign policy.<\/p>\r\n Global Affairs spokesperson Jean-Pierre Godbout provided an emailed statement saying, in part, that \u201cCanada 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.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Deborah Lyons, Canada's former ambassador to Israel and Afghanistan. Photo: twitter.com\/DeborahLyonsUN<\/p><\/div>\r\n The petition points to episodes such as the shooting of a Palestinian-Canadian physician Tarek Loubani, who was wounded by Israeli sniper fire<\/a> 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.<\/p>\r\n The professors say Lyons was silent about the shooting of Loubani, and about the deaths of more that 200 Palestinians<\/a> during the \u201cGreat March of Return\u201d protests in Gaza in 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\r\n 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\u2019Tselem<\/a>, a Jerusalem-based human rights group.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u201cLyons should have condemned human rights violations and war crimes as a high-ranking Canadian diplomat,\u201d the petition states. \u201cInstead, 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.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Withdrawal from Afghanistan<\/strong><\/p>\r\n 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.<\/p>\r\n She returned to Afghanistan from March 2020 until June 2022 as the UN Secretary-General\u2019s 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.<\/p>\r\n The petition criticizes her, in part, for cooperating with the Taliban \u2014 officially a terrorist entity<\/a> according to Canadian foreign policy \u2014\u00a0 just as the country collapsed.<\/p>\r\n Lyons defended the handover in a June 2022 \u201cfarewell statement to the people of Afghanistan<\/a>,\u201d saying, in part, that \u201cthe only way forward was through political engagement,\u201d 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<\/a>, saying she accepted the UN role in part because she \u201cwanted a woman at the head of the UN during this huge transition period.\u201d<\/p>\r\n 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.<\/p>\r\n \"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. \u201cAnd the Canadian state is culpable for that.\"<\/p>\r\n Note: Prof. Lara Khattab<\/a>, interviewed in the\u00a0 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.\u00a0 She recommends listeners check out the following resources for more information on Israel-Palestine:\u00a0 Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network<\/a>; ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association<\/a>; Al-Haq<\/a>; and Visualizing Palestine<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n Listen to CHMA's interview with Lara Khattab and Krista Johnston:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Activists plan to hold a protest on Monday as Deborah Lyons, Canada\u2019s 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, \u201cstudents and faculty will also be making their opposition known,\u201d according to an update from Lara…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":153753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[221,225],"tags":[5640,7995,1221,7994],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153749"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153749"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153853,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153749\/revisions\/153853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153749"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=153749"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=153749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.chmafm.com\/welcome\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Lyons.jpg\")