Open Letter to my Niagara Regional Council Members

Dear Niagara Regional Council Members,

My name is Dani Hummel and I’m a resident of St Catharines and I would like to discuss the council’s decision to remove the motion Councillor Bateman had put forward titled “Support for Israelis and Palestinians Living in Niagara” at the Regional Council meeting Friday January 26th.

I attended the council meeting as an observer, hoping to at least hear Bateman’s suggestions and listen to the delegates who took the time out of their lives to be there. I didn’t have very high expectations, I expected some would vote against it, I had hoped more would show their support. To say that I was disappointed by the council's decision to remove the motion from the agenda all together would be an understatement.

I’m not directly impacted by the very clear genocide going on in Gaza right now, however, I am a member of this community and I can tell you without a doubt, our community members are hurting and they need the support of our representatives. They’re afraid, they’re losing what little faith they had in you and the rest of our “representatives”, and we’re watching our friends, our community members who are directly impacted by what’s going on suffer beyond words. To say that this motion had nothing to do with the Regional meeting was a blatant lie and overt attempt to silence and intentionally harm your Palestinian community members within the Niagara Region.

To say that it was “not related” despite having recently made the same kinds of symbolic gestures for Ukraine and for Israel, cannot be interpreted as anything but overt racism and indifference to human suffering. I understand that you might be scared, too many are ignorant and don’t understand that anti-zionism is not anti-semitism-but a leader who is afraid to speak up for the members of their community who are suffering so deeply, is not a leader. Had you given the delegates the space to speak at that meeting, you would have heard from a number of our Jewish community members that to be against Zionism is not to be anti-semitic. You took an oath to represent the people of your community--of this Niagara Region. Yet you refused to uphold the democratic process you claim to be a part of by refusing to allow your constituents to bring an issue of great importance to them forward during a council meeting.

I’m writing this open letter to you in an effort to understand. What was your reasoning for supporting the motion to remove motion 13.2 “Support for Israelis and Palestinians Living in Niagara” from the agenda? How exactly is it not “relevant” or not within the function of this council’s role when it was apparently, within your function to show support to the Israeli members of our community who were suffering after Hamas’ horrific attack in October by lighting up the Niagara Regional headquarters with the colours of Israel? How exactly is it not within your function as a council, to show support to your Palestinian community members, when it was apparently, within your function to show support for Ukrainian community members when Russia began their war by making a public statement condemning Putin’s actions and stating “to remain silent, is to be complicit”? I’m sincere in asking these questions and I genuinely want a response.

I especially would like Councillor Laura Ip to respond to this letter. How can you claim to fight for creating safe spaces for victims of violence, when you can so easily support a motion to silence the voices of those who are directly suffering violence? You claim to be an “intersectional” feminist but how could any Palestinian or Israeli resident in this area find safety in a space you’ve created after your actions at the meeting? The violence we’ve suffered as 2S+LGBTQIA+ individuals is rooted in the same colonial violence behind this genocide, you cannot be against the violence we experience and yet, not be against the violence Palestinians are experiencing. You do not represent me, my values, or the values of my community members. I fully support the Coalition’s call to remove you from your role as Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee Chair and I strongly urge you to educate yourself so that you can do better.

There’s still an opportunity to make things right and I’d like to include in this letter the calls of action that the Niagara Palestine Coalition has requested.

“We call on:

  1. Mat Siscoe to issue a formal apology for choosing to silence the voices of Niagara residents and devaluing Palestinian lives by bringing forth a motion to strike down the motion brought forth by Councillor Bateman;

  2. Laura Ip to issue a formal apology for choosing to silence the voices of Niagara residents and for devaluing Palestinian lives by seconding Councillor Siscoe’s motion;

  3. Laura Ip to step down from her role as the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee Chair, to make space for silenced voices to take a lead and be heard; and

  4. Niagara Regional Council to apologize and light Niagara Region in the colours of the Palestinian flag to acknowledge the grief and suffering of Palestinian-Canadians in Niagara Region who have collectively lost more than 100 family members since the war on Gaza began.”

  1. Laura Ip to issue a formal apology for choosing to silence the voices of Niagara residents and for devaluing Palestinian lives by seconding Councillor Siscoe’s motion;

  2. Laura Ip to step down from her role as the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee Chair, to make space for silenced voices to take a lead and be heard; and

  3. Niagara Regional Council to apologize and light Niagara Region in the colours of the Palestinian flag to acknowledge the grief and suffering of Palestinian-Canadians in Niagara Region who have collectively lost more than 100 family members since the war on Gaza began.”

  1. Laura Ip to step down from her role as the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee Chair, to make space for silenced voices to take a lead and be heard; and

  2. Niagara Regional Council to apologize and light Niagara Region in the colours of the Palestinian flag to acknowledge the grief and suffering of Palestinian-Canadians in Niagara Region who have collectively lost more than 100 family members since the war on Gaza began.”

  1. Niagara Regional Council to apologize and light Niagara Region in the colours of the Palestinian flag to acknowledge the grief and suffering of Palestinian-Canadians in Niagara Region who have collectively lost more than 100 family members since the war on Gaza began.”

– Niagara Palestine Coalition

To Councillors Bateman and Kaiser,

I sincerely thank you for your actions at the regional meeting. Councillor Bateman, I’m grateful to you for taking this on and putting forward the motion--your integrity has been noted. Councillor Kaiser, thank you for supporting Bateman and voting against the removal of the motion she wanted to bring forward. Your courage and willingness to speak out against injustice are what we need from our leaders.

Sincerely,

Dani Hummel

Dani Hummel

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