Canada Supports Slaughter in Yemen — with Hamza of Yemeni Community Canada

All the people who work on The Red Review live and work on stolen Indigenous lands across Turtle Island. There can be no reconciliation without restitution, which includes Land Back, RCMP off Indigenous land, and seizing the assets of the major resource corporations and returning them to the commons.

In this episode of The Red Review, brought to you by Socialist Action, Daniel talks with Hamza, a lead organizer with Yemeni Community Canada! He speaks out about the seven-year Saudi-led invasion of Yemen and how Canada is complicit in this illegal war. 

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Website: Project Ploughshares
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Website: Canada-wide Peace and Justice Network

DW documentary showing arms ending up at the hands of ISIS fighters in Yemen: https://youtu.be/tkUv2R97I-Y

Transcript

Daniel Tarade  0:29  
Hello, everybody. Welcome to The Red Review. I hope you liked our new trailer. I had fun cutting that together. Those are all different sound bites from the first season of The Red Review. If you're interested in those episodes and you haven't listened through everything, and it tantalizes you, check out the description, there'll be a link to a Google Doc with all the episodes featured in that trailer linked directly there for your convenience. Check it out. My name is Daniel Tarade, I use he/him pronouns. And I'm coming from the stolen Indigenous lands of Tkaronto, the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee, Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Huron-Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. All the people that work on The Red Review and all members of Socialist Action, the Revolutionary Party that sponsors this podcast, work and live on stolen Indigenous land from across Turtle Island. So we forward the demand of land back and demand no reconciliation without restitution — self-determination for Indigenous peoples! I just want to remind all listeners if you haven't already, join our Discord channel where we organize together to champion every cause of liberation, and every struggle against oppression and exploitation. If you like and appreciate the work we do to connect with community organizers and to boost their struggles, please consider going to our Ko-Fi page and making a small monthly contribution. Even $1 a month, when we collected across all of our supporters, would make a big difference in our ability to provide this kind of coverage and platform going forward on a steady basis. Today, we continue our focus on the complicity of Canada, as an imperialist country, in crimes around the world against working people and oppressed people. We speak today with Hamza Karim of Yemeni Community Canada. I first met him late in March at a rally commemorating the seven-year anniversary of the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen, an invasion that Canada is complicit in and in violation of international law for its support for this brutal invasion of Yemen. Hamza speaks incredibly knowledgeably and passionately about the cause of Yemen and the ways in which people living in Canada can put pressure on our government to do the right thing and stop dealing weapons to Saudi Arabia and to stop our support for this illegal invasion. I hope you enjoy. Now, before we go to our discussion with Hamza, let's first listen to about a minute of his speech at a rally outside of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland's office to commemorate the seven-year anniversary of the Saudi-led Canadian-supported invasion of Yemen.

Hamza  3:35  
When we see how they're providing all types of support and solidarity to the Ukrainian people and on the other hand, when you see how they're dealing with the situation in Yemen, it really raises a big question about their seriousness about caring about human rights. Why don't Canadian government and Justin Trudeau really care about Yemeni children as much as they're caring about the Ukrainian people? Why don't they, at least at least, speak about it and raise it at the international level? Or put pressure on Saudi Arabia to stop this crazy, illegal inhumane war and lift the blockade on Yemen, and really help save Yemeni lives. It's very embarrassing. It's very shameful. And it's very inhumane for us, as Canadians, to see that happening to Yemeni people and do nothing about it. Now, please, I would like to please ask you to continue to be a voice for Yemen and Yemeni people. Please continue raising awareness about this war. I remember when I started raising awareness about this war five, six years ago. Literally we were like five, six people only. But now I see the movement growing and hopefully will continue until this war stops!

Daniel Tarade  5:05  
We're joined today by Hamza Karim of Yemeni Community Canada, a group of Yemeni Canadians, part of the diaspora from Yemen, that is protesting and is organizing for peace in Yemen. Welcome Hamza!

Hamza  5:21  
Hi Daniel. Thank you very much for having me today to speak about Yemen and the cause of Yemen.

Daniel Tarade  5:27  
Absolutely. So first, we met at a rally right around March 26, March 26 in 2022 marked seven years of a brutal war in Yemen, an invasion of Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia. To get everybody oriented — because despite the absolute horrors of this invasion, it hasn't broken through in the media in Canada to the same extent that other wars have — so take as much time as you need to explain what have the last seven years looked like in Yemen, for Yemeni people? 

Hamza  6:00  
Sure, Daniel. So yeah, as you mentioned, the war in Yemen started over seven years ago now. So on March 26, 2015. The situation in Yemen is described as the worst humanitarian crisis in the past 100 years. And that's mainly because of, you know, the war and then because of the blockade, which we'll be talking about. But absolutely, you know, the war in Yemen has been very tragic and very terrible for Yemeni people. You're talking about constant and continuous bombardment of cities and neighborhoods that is highly populated with people; you're talking about, you know, war crimes committed against people. And I'm talking about obvious war crimes, such as bombing schools, bombing school buses, bombing funeral bombings happening during weddings, and you know, instance, where over 200 to 300 people are dying in less than five or six minutes because of the, you know, the bombardment and because of not being able to really save their lives there. So you know, war crimes, were something that media definitely did not shed a lot of lights and talked about in Yemen. But I think the more war crimes Saudi Arabia committed in Yemen, the harder it was for them to really just cover them and not let the world learn about them. We started seeing, you know, towards the year of 2018, media outlets starting to pick a moment in there to start to uncover the story and what's happening in Yemen, although it's not a you know, really reflective of what's really happening, you know. Not much attention is given to this day, but at least people started learning about Yemen, and what's happening in Yemen. Now, I'm talking about war crimes that are happening directly because of the military operations. Let me just run some stats for you here. More than 50,000 people have died because of direct bombardment. So these people were either at home sitting at home and just, you know, their house was bombed, or they were in factories, or schools or anywhere in a very, you know, civilized place where you don't expect bombs to drop. 

Daniel Tarade  7:51  
Just living life. 

Hamza  7:52  
Yeah, just like a normal life, you know, going to school or, you know, being at a shop or being at home, you wouldn't expect a bomb to come in and bomb you when you go to school or being in a shop. You know, more than 17 airports have been destroyed in Yemen; over 1000 schools and universities and institutes were bombed; over 10,000 businesses have been literally demolished; food stores, over 800 food stores were destroyed; Various roads, bridges, telecommunication towers, electrical stations and water pumps, like literally Yemen is the poorest country Middle East. And after this war, it's not even a country that people can live in. It's not livable anymore because of the destroyed infrastructure that you have in Yemen. Now speaking of the blockade since 2016, you know, the Sana'a airport, which is the main airport in Yemen, where more than 6 million people travel through that airport every year — and the population of Yemen, by the way, is almost 35 million, so you're talking about, you know, almost 20% of the population travel through that airport — So it has been closed with no obvious reasons. So can you imagine like when the wars started, Saudi Arabia would ask the flights to land in Saudi Arabia to be searched, to be given a permit before they fly into Yemen. Even with that, they just closed airports, and they stopped any flights to go to Sana'a airport except for UN things. 

Daniel Tarade  9:10  
And that's since 2016?

Hamza  9:12  
That's since 2016, August 2016. And now for you to leave Yemen, you will have to travel for almost like a day or even more to get to the airport in the south, which is controlled by Saudi Arabia. So can you imagine someone is, you know, is sick and is trying to go outside of Yemen to get medical treatment. He will have to travel for over a day in a car to get to the airport and travel. They can't even travel for that long, or they can't even stay away or leave the hospital for even like a few hours. You're asking them to travel for a day or even more to get to the nearest airport before you go to your destination. Now, this is one thing that is really increasing the suffering of Yemeni people. The other thing is the blockade that is imposed on Hodeidah port. Yemen is a country that imports over 70% of its food and medical supplies from around the world. Saudi Arabia — even the ships, like when the war started, Daniel, the ships would have to stop by Saudi Arabia, get searched in Saudi Arabia, and then get a permit from Saudi Arabia and the UN before it can get to the Hodeidah port. Now the port is literally just like shut down. And no ships are allowed in. Saudi warships and US warships are very close to the Hodeidah port, and literally, they're not allowing any ships to get into the port. I was talking with my family a few weeks ago, and they were telling me that they have like a huge oil crisis in Yemen right now, where to get five gallons of gas, you will have to pay over 75 Canadian dollars. That's around $60 USD. Now, when you're talking about a country with a wrecked economy where people are barely getting getting jobs — in Yemen right now, Daniel, if you're lucky, and you have a job, your average salary would be 50 bucks a month — so can you imagine, with that kind of salary, you will need to afford to rent, you need to put food on the table, and you will need to buy gas for your car or for your transportation. And it's just crazy and, you know, like my family, when I speak with my brothers and my friends in Yemen right now, they're literally telling me that they can't drive their cars. The economics of buying gas in Yemen right now just doesn't make any sense. Consequences of this really affects every aspect of your life because right now, when you're trying to get food, the prices will go up because transportation costs is higher right now, If you're trying to go to the hospital, it means that you'd have to pay more. That's if the hospital is actually operating. Right now in Yemen, we have 50% of the hospital out of service because they don't have access to energy sources because Saudi Arabia is blockading the Hodeidah port, and they're not allowing the oil ships to get into Yemen. As a result of this blockade that is imposed on Yemen right now, you have a child - child dies in Yemen every 75 seconds. Can you imagine? Like every 75 seconds, the parents have to go through, you know, the grief and the sadness of losing a child in Yemen because they couldn't provide them with food or with water. And this stats is by the World Food Programme, the director of the World Food Programme in Yemen. Now back in 2018, there was a report that was released by Save the Children organization. They were saying that every 10 minutes, a child dies in Yemen. But I guess things got really worse, and right now — and actually the status from February 2021 I think, so it's almost like a year ago now, even over a year ago — so the situation is definitely way worse right now. And yet, you don't see the media covering the suffering of Yemeni people and what they have to go through. We all remember how when the war in Syria broke out, you know, literally everyone knew about what's happening in Syria. And when you compare now what's happened in Syria or Iraq and see what's happening in Yemen, it's definitely unfair to the Yemeni people and to Yemen what's happening right now. You know, I truly understand that the suffering of the Syrian people in Syria was really immense, and my heart goes out to that. But if you compare the situation between Syria and Yemen, like what's happening in Yemen is way worse than Syria. I remember in August 2015, so five months after the war started in Yemen, the director of the Red Cross organization in Yemen said that Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years. You can only imagine how bad the situation in Yemen after seven years of this war.

Daniel Tarade  13:02  
And so people can't leave. There's the blockade. You need to drive a full day, but gas is too expensive. Food isn't getting in through the ports because of the naval blockade. The situation is a catastrophe. So this started in 2015. What were the political factors that led to this invasion by Saudi Arabia, so we can better understand why they're trying to dominate this country. And even then why a number of Western imperialist countries are either turning a blind eye or actively supporting Saudi Arabia in this. 

Hamza  13:32  
There is a bit of history here, Daniel. So for the past, I would say 60, 70 years, Saudi Arabia were able to enforce and install a puppet government in Yemen, that would really can't do anything without going back to Saudi Arabia and get a green light or permission when it comes to Yemen. Now, what you have to know is that Yemen is a republic. The president in Yemen gets elected democratically throughout the people. And when you compare it to the Gulf countries, this actually, I think this raises a red flag to the Gulf countries that you know, as monarchies in the region — that the head of the state doesn't get elected like in Yemen. So I feel that they really feared that, and that's why they tried to contain Yemen, and what's happening in Yemen, because they feared that people would actually, you know, get influenced on what's happening in Yemen,  and they would start asking and demanding their state to change the way that they're running their countries. So since then, Saudi Arabia has been really fully controlling Yemen through, you know, the the governments that they will be installing. There was an incident in '77 when Saudi Arabia assassinated the president of Yemen just because he was really trying to run Yemen as an independent country. But he was assassinated very shortly — he wasn't even in power for more than three years. Now, what happens is in 2014, what was happening in the region from the Arab Spring and all that, 2014, there was, call it whatever you want, was it a revolution or people weren't really happy with the situation in Yemen, so there were a lot of people in the street. They didn't like the situation back then. And they overthrew the government, which fled to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia literally lost control over Yemen on a very short timing, and that's when the war started, and it has been going on for seven years. Now, if you look back at the objectives that Saudi Arabia stated that they want to achieve in Yemen, really nothing has been achieved since then. They said that at the beginning of the war, that they wanted to reinstall the government that flew. They couldn't do that. They said that they want to reach Sana'a the capital city and make sure that the government is back there. They couldn't achieve that. You know, they had a couple of objectives, but nothing was really accomplished since then. And now here we go, they couldn't achieve their objectives, and what they're trying to do right now is really go back after Yemeni people and to try their best to make them suffer and live a horrible life.

Daniel Tarade  15:37  
So trying to break the will and the spirit of everybody, completely isolate them.

Hamza  15:41  
Exactly. And now back to your question. So Western governments and their role in this war. So what we really have to understand is that Saudi Arabia without the backing of Western governments — especially the US and the British government, they have the biggest roles here in this war. Obviously, other governments like the Canadian one, the French government, and other governments, they play a role in this war as well. But it's definitely worth highlighting the role that the US and UK is playing in the war in Yemen. So, they've been supporting Saudi Arabia in various ways. So US have been supporting Saudi Arabia by providing them with urgent support, selling arms to Saudi Arabia. We also — the arms deal that Saudi Arabia signed with US, when Trump was still the president,  in 2017 that was worth $500 billion. Now, we all know that these weapons will be used in Yemen to kill Yemeni people. And so what's really interesting, Daniel, to see is that at the international community level, you will usually see US, UK standing on one side, and then you have Russia and China standing on the other side. But when it comes to Yemen, the situation is different because these countries are actually now competing to get arms deal contracts with Saudi Arabia. So really for them, they don't really care. And their only interest there is to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, and to try to get really mega deals with them. And so for them, this war, if it continues, then it's a business for them, and they're making so much money. So why stop this war, they're not losing anything, and their interests are not getting really impacted by this war. Same thing with the role of the Canadian government. Canada has the largest arms deal with Saudi Arabia. It's worth almost $15 billion. The Canadian government, their Interests are not impacted by this war. You know, for them, they don't see any harm in continuing to sell arms to Saudi Arabia to continue this war, regardless of the fact that really, you know, Yemeni people are suffering, Yemeni people are getting killed by these arms. And it has been proven that these arms, the Canadian arms, have been used in the war in Yemen. And there has been some footage and pictures showing Canadian LAVs and rifles and snipers that have been used in Yemen. Yet the Canadian government is not doing anything about it. We all see Mr. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talking about human rights around the world, the great job that they did with the Syrian people when they accepted a lot of refugees, and the great things that they're doing with Ukrainian people right now because of the war that is going on in Ukraine. When it comes to Yemen, when it comes to the Yemeni people, we don't see that type of empathy and love and care shown towards Yemeni people in Yemen. Like I'm not quite sure why exactly this is the case when it comes to Yemen. We definitely, as Yemenis, really don't understand why the Canadian government dealing with the Yemeni situation and the Yemeni cause in this way. I think Yemen deserves better. And definitely the way that the Canadian government is dealing with the Syrian cause or the Ukrainian cause is the right way to do, and this should be done toward Yemenis as well. Like I'm not here asking the Canadian government to let immigrants from Yemen come in. This won't solve the problem. At least Canada should be doing to help Yemen and Yemeni people, is at least stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia and not let Saudi Arabia use these arms to tell kill Yemeni people. This is the least thing that the Canadian government should be doing.

Daniel Tarade  18:41  
Yeah, you've pointed out that Saudi Arabia could not do what it's doing unless there was active support from some countries, and also then the complicity of other countries. And you pointed out how Russia and China often as a counteracting force to the US and the British, they've been absent here. Saudi Arabia seems to be such a linchpin, such an important player in the area and such a key oil-producing country, that none of these other countries seem to want to get on their bad side, and they are trying to curry influence there as well. And ultimately, if you describe what's happening in Saudi Arabia, you have a bigger, more powerful country invading its neighbor, its democratic neighbor — you also pointed out then, the Gulf states, you know, Yemen is one of the few that has these elections. — and yet these are the same points that people brought up with Ukraine. You know, you have a bigger country bullying, invading, trying to topple a democracy, and yet the same attention hasn't been paid, really. Whereas Canada is drawing a red line with Russia and Ukraine, they're on the other side in Saudi Arabia. So Yemeni Community Canada, who have you been pressuring within Canada and anything else you want to share about this group that you're in? How have you organized? wWhat has pushed you to organize and what have been your tactical choices and trying to raise consciousness about this invasion and put pressure on the Canadian government to do the right thing?

Hamza  19:57  
You know, Daniel, after the war started, myself and a bunch of other Yemenis really sensed that, you know, media is not really covering what's happening in Yemen and a lot of people, they're not aware of the war that is happening in Yemen. The media is not doing a great job. And there is a need for us to really stand up and be a voice for the Yemenis inside Yemen and to really highlight the Canadian role when it comes to this war and the suffering of Yemeni people in general. So we started the Yemeni Community in Canada back in 2017. And since then, we've been really actively working with human rights organizations to raise awareness about this war. We've sent various letters to Parliament, over seven letters I think we've sent so far. And literally since then, we haven't received any responses from them. We have launched various e-petitions as well. And we got over 1000 signatures. And by law, they're supposed to discuss the matter if you receive over I think 500 or 600 signatures, then by law, they have to discuss this matter at the parliament, yet nothing really happened. Mainly the activities we're doing is really tried to raise awareness through protests and holding seminars and webinars and really talking to the people and making sure that they know about what's happening in Yemen, and how the Canadian government is complicit in what's happening in Yemen, you know, the arms deal that the Canadian government has with Saudi Arabia.

Daniel Tarade  21:11  
So the last organized rally, and this is where I met, you was outside of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland's office in Toronto, as she also used to be the Foreign Affairs Minister, so very involved in these decisions. And there was a big banner drop — Blood on Your Hands — for this involvement. And that was put out through the Peace & Justice Network. So what's the connection that you have with the Peace & Justice Network? How did that come about?

Hamza  21:36  
Yeah. So as I mentioned, we actively are working with human rights organizations. The connection there was made through an organization called World Beyond War. I really want to highlight their efforts and the things that they've been doing to really raise awareness about the war in Yemen here, especially Rachel Small from the organization. So really special thanks to them, and all the organizations that have been working with us to highlight the suffering of Yemeni people and the complicity of the Canadian government when it comes to the war in Yemen. Through them, I've met a lot of human rights activists in Canada and outside of Canada, I've conducted with many other organizations, and we're all working as a team right now to make sure that we best serve this cause.

Daniel Tarade  22:13  
And I'm curious, how big is the Yemeni diaspora in Canada?

Hamza  22:17  
Yeah. So in Canada, the number of Yemenis has really increased since the war started in Yemen. Canada have accepted refugees into Canada, although not through like the direct way that had happened with Syria for example, or Ukraine right now. But there have been Yemenis coming in and applying for refugee status here in Canada. I honestly, before the world started, there were between 2000 to 2500. But after the war started, has been very hard to keep track, but I would say doubled in the past few years for sure.

Daniel Tarade  22:45  
Amongst the Yemenis that you're organizing with and connecting with, there was a point brought by an organizer of Tigrayans, which is an ethnic minority in Ethiopia —there's a war and again, Canada is still actively trading with the Ethiopian states that's committing these atrocities, and there are also Canadian mining companies in the region that are taking advantage of this — and one point that Fifi this organizer brought up was Tigrayan Canadians are also Canadians. You have a responsibility to us. It's not one thing just to say we're here to look out for Canadians and make sure that Canadians have jobs, but you owe us as well. And is that something that you're hearing in the Yemeni diaspora?

Hamza  23:21  
Absolutely. You know, Daniel, you know, one thing that I heard from more than one MP is that the main reason that Canada is still selling arms to Saudi Arabia is because of you know, the factory that is in London, Ontario, the General Dynamics. You know, apparently the deal that they have with Saudi Arabia is really creating a lot of jobs for Canadians here in Canada. But, you know, the fact that these jobs are built off the blood and bones of Yemeni people is not something that Canadians would freely accept. And it's definitely not something that Canada and Canadians would really stand for and does not represent the the values of Canadians in Canada. So yeah definitely, Yemenis feel that there is absolutely our responsibility towards them. You know, people are dying in Yemen. And we have families in Yemen that are suffering. We definitely feel that Canadians should do something and Canadian government should do something to at least help in ending this misery and follow the footsteps of other countries like Belgium, like Finland, like Sweden, where they cancelled the arms deal with Saudi Arabia and really lobby at the international level to put an end to this war, because it's costing us a lot of lives in Yemen right now to really do nothing about this. For doing nothing about this, it's costing us a lot of lives in Yemen. And so we definitely need to work stronger and feel responsible for stopping this war in Yemen.

Daniel Tarade  24:36  
Internationally, there's a lot of pressure you can put on to achieve something like a ceasefire and to lift the blockade to let people leave, if that's what they want to do. Although you did mention, that's not the goal. The goal is not just to evacuate everybody, the goal is that people can live in their homeland. And there's a number of things Canada could do, especially as a big trader with Saudi Arabia and not only do we we sell them a lot of weapons, we buy even more oil from them in return. So there's pressure that we can put there. Let's talk a little bit more about that argument that the jobs in Canada are somehow justification or a good justification for continuing to support the invasion. You said General Dynamics, they have a factory in London, and they're the ones producing the light armored vehicles, the LAVs, this is our biggest weapons deal or contract with Saudi Arabia, it's over $10 billion. It was signed, I believe, in 2014, even just before the war by Stephen Harper, which was one excuse that Justin Trudeau uses is that the contract wasn't signed by us, and it's illegal to break the contract. But at the same time, Canada's breaking international law because it's very clear, there's a lot of evidence, like you pointed out, that the weapons produced in Canada are being used to commit war crimes in Yemen. There's 3000 jobs total that are being supported in London, and like you mentioned, Labour Against the Arms Trade, as one of the co-organizers of this rally in Toronto where we met, they went to that factory, and they asked the workers there, if your job was still guaranteed, still the same pay, still the same benefits, but instead of producing light armored vehicles to kill people in Yemen, you are instead producing, let's say, electric vehicles for postal delivery within Canada, or electric vehicles for ambulances in Canada, they all said that they would be happy because the selling point of their job isn't that they're producing weapons of war, but it's that they have a steady job, steady income, and they can provide for their family. What do you take from that? How are you using that information now to challenge the narrative of the government that this is justifiable because there are jobs at stake? 

Hamza  26:32  
Yeah, see, I think, Daniel, that the government really knows that there are alternatives that they could be doing to keep the jobs of these people. We all saw that, you know, when the COVID pandemic broke out, the government spent billions and billions on the CERB program, and really nothing, like people got affected for sure, but then we're not talking about only 3000 people, we're talking about almost 35 million Canadians who were affected, yet we still lived and no one died because of that. Now, there are alternatives. There are many things that the Kenyan government can do to really keep the jobs of these people and make sure that they're not jobless. But I think there is also this angle where the Canadian government really wants to strengthen the relationship with Saudi Arabia. because you know, when you have an arms deal with a country, it's more than just like trading with them the arms. You get maintenance, you get to know exactly how they're operating when it comes to the military and all that, so there are more things that you have access to when you have arms deal with that country. And now, because of that, the Canadian government is really insisting that they don't want to, you know, leave this contract or break it. So really, for me, I don't think it's the obvious reason or be the true one is the jobs that it's creating here. And now for sure, this is part of it. But there are also other reasons that the Canadian government take into consideration when it comes to deciding on whether they want to cancel this arms deal or not. But if we are talking about alternatives and other solutions that they can consider, then definitely there are other things that the Canadian government can do to create jobs and keep these people. 

Daniel Tarade  27:58  
Yeah, absolutely. For the Canadians that are really starting to explore and digest and understand this invasion for the first time after seven years, what are some of the other sources or documentaries that you would recommend that people watch and share? What are the most effective tools that you have for really spreading this, not only awareness, but in a way that identifies who we should be pressuring and targeting with our demands?

Hamza  28:25  
Yeah, there are a couple of documentaries that I would really recommend. The first one is a documentary that was done by a German TV station, I think it's called DW, and they're showing how there are some arms that Saudi Arabia and UAE bought from, it was from Belgium, from a factory in Belgium, and these arms ended up in the hands of Al Qaeda, for an ISIS fighter in Yemen, which by the way, they're fighting alongside Saudi Arabia. This is not something that is, you know, a secret, and no one knows about it. There is another documentary by BBC showing, you know, the BBC reporter interviewing the ISIS fighters in Yemen, and they are telling them yes, we're fighting alongside Saudi Arabia in this war. So these are two documentaries that I really recommend everyone to watch, just to have an idea about what's happening in Yemen, that there is a possibility and a big possibility that even the Canadian arms that Canada selling to Saudi Arabia could end up at the hands of ISIS and Al Qaeda fighters in Yemen, which I don't think any Canadian would really want to see that happening. Now, there are also other documentaries by the BBC and Vice that really reflects the military crisis that is happening in Yemen and see how really the situation is in Yemen, and how dire it is. So these are things that people can look for. And in terms of what Canadians can do, we definitely can do something like everyone is powerful and can have an impact here. The least thing that we can all do is really share about what's happening in Yemen with your friends and families. Reach out to your MPs and just tell them that hey, I'm concerned about Canadian role when it comes to the war in Yemen and what is Canada planning to do about this? Like we need to stop selling and exporting arms to Saudi Arabia, so definitely that's one thing that we can do. World Beyond War, they did a great thing, which is they have like a template that is ready to be used by anyone who wants to reach out to their MPs, a link where you can find who is your MP, and phone number for General Dynamics so they can reach out to them and tell them that you concerned about their activities. So I'll share the link also with you. Really just, you know, raising awareness, putting pressure on your MP, making sure the Canadian government is not innocent when it comes to the war in Yemen, making sure that other Canadians know this will definitely put pressure on the Canadian government and could eventual lead to cancelling this arms contract with Saudi Arabia.

Daniel Tarade  30:32  
And that then paves the road and allows for not only canceling a contract, but eventually putting our standing to good use and push for a ceasefire, push for a lifting of the blockade and then eventually bringing an end to the war. What's next for Yemeni Community Canada? Are there any upcoming actions? Are there any open petitions, letters that people can support right now?

Hamza  30:54  
Right now, the Yemeni community alongside other organizations decided that they would wait for some time until they hear back from the government before they sent another one because it just doesn't make sense to keep sending letters and e-petitions when we don't see any response from the Canadian government. Now in terms of events and protests, for sure. We do have protests and online events and every now and then we usually post about them in our Twitter page, which is @yemenicanada. If you're interested in really joining us and showing solidarity to Yemen, then please follow us on Twitter. We definitely will keep you posted on all the events that we'll be holding.

Daniel Tarade  31:30  
Thank you so much again for Hamza for coming on.

Hamza  31:33  
Thank you very much

Daniel Tarade  31:34  
Any way that we can support, reach out directly to us. You can come on anytime if there are updates that you want to provide. If you want to come on just shortly to announce a new campaign, rallies, let this be a connection that we continue to grow. 

Hamza  31:45  
For sure. 

Daniel Tarade  31:46  
Thanks again so much to Hamza from Yemeni Community Canada. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and to invite all of us to take up the cause of Yemen. Until next time, comrades, take care stay safe and stay active. This has been Daniel with The Red Review.