The devastation in Gaza was again top of mind at Sackville town hall on Tuesday, as about 50 local residents gathered in the cold outside to hold a candlelight vigil, with others attended the meeting inside, and asked Tantramar council to follow the lead of other Canadian municipalities, and ask the federal government to pursue a ceasefire in Gaza.
Sackville Ceasefire Coalition member Sarah Kardash presented to council, spending her five minutes of allotted time laying out reasons why town council should write to Prime minister Justin Trudeau and ask him to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
“As a Jewish member of the coalition, I’m horrified that Israel is weaponizing the deaths of Israeli citizens on October 7 to fuel a genocidal war against Palestinians,” said Kardash, quoting the large numbers of Palestinians killed in the Israeli campaign to eradicate Hamas.
According to the estimates from the Gaza Health Ministry, over 23,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, the majority women and children.
“The UN has called Gaza a graveyard for children,” Kardash told council. “Imagine the equivalent of two nuclear bombs dropping on an area half the size of Tantramar… Experts say the relentless bombing by Israel since October 7 is the most destructive in modern history and among the deadliest in recent history.”
Kardash presented a detailed petition to council signed by 253 local residents, and organized by the coalition, which Kardash described as “a group of Tantramar residents of diverse ages, faiths and backgrounds who are united as global citizens in our humanitarian concerns for the people of Gaza.” Kardash said the group opposes anti-semitish, Islamophobia, and all forms of racism.
Other municipalities in Canada, including Burnaby, BC and Mississauga, Ontario, have passed similar resolutions calling on the federal government to take a stand on the ongoing violence. While no councillors gave immediate notice of motion to follow through on Kardash’s request, Councillor Allison Butcher commented positively.
“When I saw that this was on the agenda, I thought, well of course, ceasefire. But what does a municipality in the wilds of Canada do about that?” said Butcher. “So I really thank you for giving us a clear direction for something that we as a municipality in Canada can do that looks directed and hopefully effective.”
Second time at council
Kardash’s presentation on Tuesday was the second time the war featured in a Tantramar council meeting. At their December meeting, councillors heard from local resident Lori Ann Roness about her concerns over the alarming increase in anti-Semitic incidents targeting schools, synagogues and Jewish businesses across Canada since the war began.
“We are living the events of October 7 and the aftermath every day,” Roness told council. “We are stressed and we are afraid. We feel denigrated, disrespected and attacked… The sanctity of Canadian life has been destroyed for us. None of us wants to be here anymore. We just don’t feel safe anywhere.”
Roness said that in Sackville, she was alarmed to hear the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” chanted by local protesters. The chant is interpreted differently by different groups, either as a call for a free Palestinian state, or a call for the destruction of Israel. Roness described it as a “genocidal chant” and said its effect on Sackville’s tiny Jewish community was chilling.
Roness didn’t have a specific request of council, but rather asked them to remember a slogan associated with the memory of the Holocaust: never again.
Another Sackville resident, former poet laureate Marilyn Lerch, also addressed council in December as a member of the Sackville Ceasefire Coalition, which was holding another candlelight vigil outside town hall. Lerch told council she deplored the attacks on Isreali people on October 7, but also the decades of occupation and denial of human rights for Palestinians, and the past months of relentless bombing of Gaza.
Councillors didn’t have any questions for either Roness or Lerch at the December meeting.