trudeau has, broadly, been a complete embarrassment on foreign policy. he is without ambiguity the worst prime minister in the country's history in terms of global influence. the world laughs at him.

if he wants to arrest netanyahu, he should recognize palestine first. it wouldn't resolve all of the issues, but in order to accept the argument that a crime occurred in the "state of palestine", you have to acknowledge a state of palestine, first.

there is obviously no actual state of palestine, there never has been and there probably never will be. the region was a part of the ottoman province of syria before the british mandate, going back centuries. palestine was what the romans called the region, after the biblical philistines; they renamed in a purposeful act of genocide. the arabs kept the roman name for a while, but reverted to calling the region syria, after the (christian) assyrians. the british resurrected the name out of old italian history books. it had been out of use for centuries.

so, there's a good reason that canada doesn't accept the existence of the state of palestine. but, you have to reverse that if you want to talk about the icc's jurisdiction over a region that you don't accept even exists.

that puts aside the merits of the warrant, which i think are beyond weak. i'm just talking about jurisdiction. the canadian government is operating in a contradiction where it wants to enforce what it calls international law, in a way that is inconsistent from it's own policy because this in actual truth is very shaky in terms of the scope of international law in the first place.

a country like russia, which does recognize palestine as a state (even though it obviously isn't one), would at least be consistent in arresting netanyahu for war crimes, despite not being a signatory to the icc.

if we have to make a choice, i think we should make the other choice: canada should more loudly articulate the position that it doesn't recognize the state of palestine and, as such, cannot recognize the jurisdiction of the icc over a state it doesn't recognize exists.

if you can find 1000 people in your neighbourhood, city or town that agree that sending $250 to rich people to spend on toys or diapers as an election gimmick is stupid, and that the money should go to the vulnerable instead, you could get a $250,000 donation to the local food bank or other local charity to help low income seniors or disabled people put together via an adhoc direct action committee, and maybe make some friends in the process.

it's a better idea than trying to block it.

the best way for liberal voters to react to these stupid checks going out to people that don't need it and hurting public finances for services in the process - which is a conservative policy that i would guess that almost all base liberal voters would oppose by definition - is to create a mass movement to donate the $250 checks to food banks (that hand out edible, healthy, actual food not the over processed non-food that they're cutting the gst on) or charities that help disabled or retired people in their community.

i'm stuck in the house, but i'm not good with people anyways.

go forth and get this done.