Good News and Opportunities

Good News and Opportunities from June 28, 2007

Opportunities

We always like to start with upcoming activities where our members and adherents may find a way to be involved. Please consider participating in or contributing to these upcoming opportunities:

Fill out our on-line survey about activism for the Middle East. We have an on-line survey with 10 questions to get your input on how best Canadians can influence our society to be more support of justice in the Middle East. Click on this link, and take a minute to give us your input. Forward this email, or the survey link to your friends, and let’s get their input too. (The survey exists in French too.)
Expertise in video editing needed desperately. As CJPME continues work on its documentary on Canadian-Palestinian survivors of 1948, we are short on volunteers with video editing expertise. If you have (or know someone who has) experience with either of the software packages Movie Maker or Final Cut, please let us know.
Strategy Sessions in Montreal and Ottawa in late July. The summer months are usually our time to think and strategize for the upcoming year. We will likely be having sessions in Ottawa on July 21st, and Montreal on July 28th to get your input on CJPME’s directions and strategies. Please click on this link to indicate your interest to join us for these sessions.
Suggest opportunities for us to use the documentary, Occupation 101. CJPME has paid for an institutional license to be able to present Occupation 101 publicly. We are looking for opportunities to present this documentary to community groups and other venues throughout Canada. Please email us your suggestions, and the contact info that you may have.
Help us build our list of contacts across Canada. Through a lot of hard work and perseverance, our email list has now topped 2500. As a grassroots organization, it is extremely important that we build our network of contacts across Canada. This makes it more easy to broadcast letter-writing campaigns, action alerts and establish branches in new cities. Please invite your friends and family to join our email list via this form on our Website.

Good News building our CJPME Community

May and June witnessed excellent meetings at both our Montreal and Ottawa branches. Thanks to the dedicated individuals who enable these meetings to take place month after month. In Ottawa, our volunteers are Jeff, Cam, Hani, Essam and Linda. In Montreal, our volunteers are Eiman, Rania, Nabil, Joseph, Hala, Huda, Geneviève, Louay, Zahia, Tom, Caroline and Grace. Here are the highlights:

April Meetings on the Saudi Peace Plan and the Palestinian Unity Government. Tom Woodley, leader of the CJPME Research and Analysis team presented in both Ottawa and Montreal on the opportunities presented through the Saudi Peace Plan and the Palestinian Unity Government. The feedback on the meetings was extremely positive, with even an employee of the Saudi Embassy complimenting us on quality of our content. (Montreal Press Release, Ottawa Press Release)
June Meetings on the recent award-winning documentary, Occupation 101. This 90-minute documentary provided an extremely comprehensive and compelling picture of Israel’s illegal and debilitating occupation of the Palestinian territories. Since it was our last public meeting of the Spring in both Montreal and Ottawa, we invited folks to stay later, enjoy pizza (except in Montreal) and take the time to socialize with likeminded Canadians. (Montreal Press Release, Ottawa Press Release)

Good News influencing Canadian Policy

Policy mailing to all MPs and Senators on May 11th. To prepare for its upcoming delegation to Parliament, CJPME did a policy mailing to all MPs and Senators which provided information on the Palestinian Unity Government, the Saudi Peace Plan, and Lebanese Confessionalism. Thanks to Huda, Leila, Adnan, Madina, Shaheen, Ashraf, Tom, Grace, Rod, Rula, Walid, Hisham, Fady, Geneviève, and Joseph for their hard work and fun spirit.

New factsheets, policy and analysis papers on timely issues. CJPME is constantly trying to help policy makers and average Canadians understand the dynamics and paradoxes of Canadian Middle East policy. To this purpose, CJPME has issued numerous documents of various types in the past two months. Thanks to Tom, Leila, Frank, Asmaa, Youmna, Rabi, Imane, Soumaya, and Zahia for their work, whether in research, writing or translation:

Policy Training in Ottawa and Montreal. On June 2nd and 3rd, CJPME offered policy training in Ottawa and Montreal to its policy delegates and to other individuals seeking a deeper understanding of current issues. Almost 40 people were trained through these sessions, which involved policy discussions, role playing, advocacy do’s and don’t’s and many other fascinating elements. Thanks to Tom, Hisham, Jeff and Grace for developing and facilitating the training material and sessions.

CJPME members meet with over 55 parliamentarians on key Middle East issues. In its most ambitious delegation ever, CJPME sent 34 delegates to meet close to 60 policy-makers on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, June 5th. Our trained delegates addressed issues on the Palestinian Unity Government, the Saudi Peace Plan, the Palestinian Humanitarian Crisis, and the delicate situation in Lebanon. Congratulations to Hani, Jeff, Nouzha, Essam, Ashraf, Cam, Marjorie, Bill, Fran, Lester, Eric, Marwa, Geneviève, Ghassan, Joseph, Zahia, Bayane, Asmaa, Hassan, Soumaya, Imane, Youmna, Leila, Amal, Nasser, Hisham, Louay, Rula, Tom, Grace, Joan, Nour, and Walid. (Press release)

Good News impacting Canadian Media

Lots of Letters to the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Montreal Gazette. Although its not always obvious by reading the “Letters to the Editor” sections of these newspapers, CJPME members are doing their best to critique media coverage of Middle East events of the past few months via dozens of letters. Thanks to Rula, John, Mark, Rod, Tarik, and others who have been active on this front. To this point, Mark Khoury’s letter was published in the Globe and Mail on June 5th.
Op-Ed Submitted to the Globe and Mail. Rula and John submitted an op-ed entitled, “40 Years of Illegal Israeli Occupation must end for Peace to Flourish” Although the op-ed was politely refused, Rula and John did a great job to condense a historical perspective on the occupation with a timely message for Canada today.
CJPME pushes Globe and Mail to cover Amnesty International Report. Following some prodding by our CJPME team, the Globe and Mail reluctantly agreed to cover a critical Amnesty International Report which used the 40th anniversary or Israel’s illegal occupation to call, among other things, for international monitoring of the occupation. Refer to Amnesty International’s report, and the Globe’s Coverage.

Key Press Releases and Action Alerts

In the past six months, CJPME has tried to be more visible policy-wise in its press statements and action alerts. Especially in recent months, CJPME has had a key message for the Canadian public and policy-makers.

Press Statements. The issuance of press statements is a task requiring collaboration of CJPME members with a variety of skills. Great thanks for all the CJPME members who have contributed through their policy, media, translation, and spokesperson skills, including Rula, Youmna, Tom, Jeff, Grace, Geneviève, Helga, Hassan and Youmna:
Action Alert. Just recently, we issued an action alert to support the comments of NDP foreign affairs critic Alexa McDonough concerning the lack of Canadian support for the Palestinian Unity Government. Thanks to the support of many of you, hundreds of emails were sent, and we were able to show that Canadians are very concerned that Canada act responsibly in the Middle East. Thanks to Rabi and Tom for enabling this action alert to go out.

Great new CJPME resources available

Thanks to some great work from our Web volunteer Shahla, tons of new material from CJPME is now available on our Website. See the left navigation bar on our Website for links to new site pages which contain dozens of CJPME resource documents.

Three years of CJPME Policy Documents. Through the events and delegations of the past several years, CJPME has delivered many position papers and presentations to Canadian policy-makers. .
In-depth Training resources on-line. As a result of it’s various policy training sessions over the past several years, CJPME is now able to offer great training material via files on-line. Get the low-down on many of the key Middle East issues of the last few years.
Petitions in formal Parliamentarian Format. Over the years, CJPME has developed a number of petitions in proper Parliament format. These petitions – with their accompanying “Backgrounders” have been used effectively by CJPME to push Parliamentarians to issue statements in Parliament. Print them out and use them in your community.
Factsheets Enhanced. CJPME’s factsheet and documents page is now enhanced with even more content than ever before, containing photo documents, policy briefs, Canadian stories and more. Check them out here.

Thanks to all our Volunteers

Keep up the great work! Remember, CJPME is brought to you, by you! We depend on the contributions of time, expertise, influence, passion and finances that each of you brings. Let’s continue to work together to transform Canada into a country that supports justice and human rights for all.