I was at the event too and had a completely different reading of the protesters. I was really intrigued by what they had to say, but the event was cancelled before a discussion could take place. I learnt afterwords that Heather Reisman supports the Israeli military, in concrete financial terms. Her wealth is directly tied to Indigo and the protesters were calling for people to boycott the store until Reisman cuts such illicit ties.

It should be noted that on the day of the event, Maha Katumi from Al-Ein Beit El-MA (no. 1) refugee camp near Nablus in Palestine was shot in the stomach by an Israeli soldier. She was 7-months pregnant, and the unborn child could not be saved (it appears Israeli soldiers delayed the evacuation of the ambulances from the refugee camp).

Palestinians over the last few years have been killed at a rate ot 8 Palestinians for every Israeli. 3.5-million people live in the open air prisons of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Israel is constructing a 730km barrier to enclose Palestinians between walls and fences. Another 5-million Palestinians cannot return to their homes, constituting the world’s largest refugee population.

Israel is an apartheid state that practices legislated racism against Palestinian citizens and the Palestinians it controls in the illegally occupied territories. Israel is the nation with the most UN resolutions against it for its repeated violations of international law. Israel’s illegal military occupation is in its fortieth year. Western governments have abdicated on their responsibility to uphold international law or defend the human rights of the Palestinian people.

As a non-violent response to this situation a growing movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions was launched by Palestinian civil society organizations (precisely the type Nader advocates on behalf of). The aim of the campaign is to boycott Israeli apartheid and those who benefit from and support it until Israel complies with international law.

Heather Reisman is one such person and she should be confronted. A coalition of Palestine solidarity groups, progressive Jewish organizations, students, unionists and artists has come together in support of the boycott Chapters/Indigo campaign throughout Canada. The aim of this campaign is to educate people on the effects of Israeli apartheid and to advocate for a boycott of Chapters/Indigo until its majority shareholders sever their ties with HESEG (a foundation that supports Israeli soldiers).

This and much more could have been learned by listening to the engaged individuals at the event whom I spoke to after and learnt a lot from. In fact the young women who had her mic cut, worked for an organization that Nader founded (the PIRGs). It’s sad that the lessons of Nader’s books seem to have been lost on Reisman, who cut the mics and cancelled the event – prefering to deploy a phalanx of police and mall security instead of opening up the floor to dialogue). If there’s anyone we should be angry at it for ruining the evening it is Ms. Reisman who put the interest of preserving her image before democratic principles.

It may be worth checking out what the fuss was about from the proverbial “horses mouth” :) … CAIA has a website that I found: http://www.caiaweb.org with more information on their campaigns. They are tied to the global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement launched by over 170 palestinian organizations two summers ago. Some other important resources include the PACBI website (http://www.pacbi.org/) and the Stop the Wall website (http://www.stopthewall.org/). Ralph was informed about the issues by close personal friends it seems and asked not to appear as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people. It is to his discredit that he nonetheless appeared, going against Green Party policy, which officially supports the boycott and violating the call by Palestinian environmental NGOs precisely on these issues. Nader’s talk was afterall about the politics of the everyday and the centrality of civic engagement in building strong and healthy communities. From my perspective this was just what members of CAIA and their supporters were engaging in. And for this they should be commended! Thanks for a great blog btw… keep it up! :)