NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson is pushing Ottawa to send Royal Canadian Air Force planes into Gaza to evacuate refugees, accusing Canada of failing to provide a humanitarian corridor while other countries have acted.Blacklock's Reporter says McPherson, who represents Edmonton Strathcona, sponsored a Commons petition demanding cabinet “deploy Canadian military aircraft or chartered planes” to fly out children, women, the elderly, and the wounded. The petition also called on the federal government to waive visa requirements and issue humanitarian permits.“Emergency evacuation has become a matter of life and death,” it read, citing bombardment, disease, hunger, and the collapse of health care in Gaza..The Trudeau government last year approved special permits for 5,000 Gazans with family ties in Canada, offering $3,000 tax-free grants for adults, $1,500 per child, along with three months of free health care, language training, work and study permits, and no-cost school registration. Fewer than 1,000 refugees have arrived so far, with immigration officials blaming wartime turmoil and lengthy security checks.McPherson has repeatedly accused Jews of genocide and likened Israeli military operations to Second World War atrocities. .In a May podcast, she said: “What is happening is a genocide … I am not going to look in the mirror and think that I didn’t try to use my voice to ensure innocent people were protected.”She has also called for Canada to recognize Palestine as a country and last year told the Commons she was “proudly” wearing a Palestinian solidarity pin, comparing it to Remembrance Day poppies — comments that were met with jeers of “shame” from other MPs.
