Jeffrey Weinstein

"In July, Hamas initially approved a US-proposed plan for a phased ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, abandoning its key demand for a complete cessation of the war by Israel."---Politico This appears to be a contradiction in terms. A phased ceasefire is protracted to end war not continue it. Both sides know each others' intentions very well and will settle for nothing less than complete dominance in the conflict as the resolution. There is no hope for ever getting the hostages back alive. The two sides are unwilling to compromise their goal of total domination of the territories they claim for themselves. Life has no meaning for Netanyahu, conflict and war are the only events keeping him out of prison, as it has been for a long time.

I would like to have documented evidence of the Canadians who really care that Quebec remains part of Canada. The good majority of Canadians especially in the West choose voluntarily to remain ignorant of Quebec history and politics. The West has historically pulled against the interests of the Ottawa in Canada. National unity, at best, has been fragile and tenuous. Politics have muddled and further complicated the prospect of this unity. The Canadian constitution in spite of the Meech Lake accords has not fundamentally changed in favour of human rights for minorities and political unity generally speaking. The Notwithstanding clause is a weaponized constitutional legality, that threatend Federalism at its very core. Federalism remains in peril due to lack of significant and meaningful Constitutional amendment. No politician wants to go there. Their own political careers seem to be much more important than their interests of saving Canada from the moral rot it has suffered in the past 40 years. We will not have what was supposed to be Canada. We will be left with a Federation of autonomous states, each pursuing its own destiny, at the behest of a central governing body, that may or may not support them financially.

There is a grave and fundamental problem in Quebec Politics, if while wanting independent state it still can never remove itself from the social and economic pitfalls that plague Canada and the rest of the Western world. An Independent Quebec, is doomed to rot at its core if the leadership does not diverge from a conventional Corporate Capitalist model that renders every state in peril. The Housing crisis is a case in point. Unless they embrace Social Democracy, they will be dooming themselves to interminable crises and failures within the Socio-Economic and Socio-Political system, creating an environment of instability, fragility and dependency on ties with Corporate Capitalist elements even from beyond its own elites. The right-wing conservative stance of the CAQ does not lend itself to the goals of the PQ or Quebec Solidaire. Just merely creating a defacto independent state, only embeds the elites in a constant legal and constitutional quandry. The illusion will soon find its termination point. Federally, the raison d'etre for the nation of Canada may before too long be called into question. Jeffrey L. Weinstein M.A. (Public Policy and Public Administration) Concordia University