Canadian Healthcare Workers Returned from Gaza Speak on Parliament Hill Demanding Canada Take Action Against Genocide

They [contextualized] how the onslaught of Israeli violence has destroyed healthcare infrastructure and resulted in a catastrophic death toll, with a diminished quality of life in the Gaza Strip. Healthcare workers who were in Gaza and personally witnessed the atrocities will share their eyewitness accounts of the violence, including that inflicted on their Palestinian healthcare worker colleagues in Gaza. They call for immediate and effective action from the federal government to end Canada's complicity in the ongoing genocide.

A grassroots group of Canadian medical workers, "EyeWitnessGaza", who have volunteered in Gaza and have organized a social media campaign sharing their eyewitness testimony (https://www.instagram.com/eyewitnessgaza/). They continue to provide first-hand accounts of the devastation they witnessed and the critical medical challenges faced by healthcare providers in the Gaza Strip. They have previously written to the Canadian government about their testimony and highlighted the urgent need for the Canadian government to act immediately to preserve life. The letter was delivered almost 4 months ago, still with no response whatsoever (https://www.gazahealthcareletters.org/canada-letter).

Canadian healthcare workers demand the following:

• Israel to lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip allowing humanitarian aid from all border crossings and allowing patients who need access to medical care outside of the Gaza Strip can do so unimpeded, under the surveillance of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory.
• The World Health Organization and other neutral agencies to become the sole authorities responsible for conducting background checks on EMTs and humanitarian aid workers entering the Gaza Strip, rather than the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and Shabak.
• The self-sufficiency of all emergency medical teams entering the Gaza Strip, and the complete unrestricted access to medical and surgical equipment be allowed immediately.
• Israel to end the blockade of healthcare professionals of Palestinian descent (including Canadian citizens) from entering the Gaza Strip to provide humanitarian aid and medical services.
• Canada to respect and comply with the ICJ decisions, including that (a) they do not support Israel in maintaining apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories, and (b) they withhold all military and economic aid to Israel.
• Canada to enact a full two-way arms embargo immediately, to prevent supporting the Israeli military that is committing apartheid, genocide and widespread violations of international humanitarian law.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Yipeng Ge is a primary care physician and public health practitioner based on the traditional, unceded, and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg. In his clinical practice, he works in family medicine practice and refugee health at a community health centre. He has worked on and studied the structural and colonial determinants of health in both the settler colonial contexts of so-called Canada and occupied Palestine. He was in Gaza in February 2024.

Dr. Yara Abou-Hamde is a family physician based in Ottawa. She is a member of Health Workers Alliance for Palestine (HAP), a group of health workers and learners that have come together in solidarity with Palestine and the Palestinian people driven by principles of social and environmental justice and liberation of oppressed people everywhere.

Dr. Dorotea Gucciardo is a scholar-activist who has been working on capacity-building projects within the healthcare sector in Gaza since 2020 with the Glia Project. She also teaches history at King's University College and is the Research Coordinator for the Starling Centre for Just Societies & Just Technologies at Western. She has been running medical delegations under the WHO EMT (World Health Organization, Emergency Medical Team) system since January 2024, and she went to Gaza in March 2024, and again in April through June 2024.

Dr. Sheikh Noor Ul Amin, is a family physician with a focused practice in sports and exercise medicine, with hospital and office-based medical practice in Mississauga. He is a lecturer at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine, and on the board of directors for the Mississauga Primary Care Network, and co-chair for the Ministry of Health Ontario Health Team Data Strategy table. He went on a medical mission to Gaza in April 2024 working at the Al Aqsa hospital and European General Hospital.

Dr. Mohammad Rizwan Minhas, a Toronto-based physician specializing in regenerative pain medicine, serves as an ambassador for Humanity Auxilium. During a humanitarian mission in Gaza, he witnessed the devastating effects of genocide, working in a makeshift emergency department under dire conditions. Committed to justice, Dr. Minhas plans to return to Gaza and continue raising awareness about the Palestinian struggle against injustice. He was in Gaza in April 2024.

Dr. Ben Thomson is a public health, nephrology and general internal medicine doctor, award-winning educator, and global humanitarian physician. Dr. Thomson's efforts gave improved healthcare in Indigenous communities in Canada and globally in places including Uganda, And Gaza through the keys of health fellowship. Dr. Thomson envisions a world where resilient compassionate healthcare is accessible to all communities globally. He was most recently in Gaza during September 2023 and March 2024.

This press conference was organized by a grassroots group of Canadian medical workers, "EyeWitnessGaza", who have volunteered in Gaza and have organized a social media campaign sharing their eyewitness testimony (https://www.instagram.com/eyewitnessgaza/). With support from Health Workers Alliance for Palestine (https://healthworkersforpalestine.org/), and Ottawa Healthcare Professionals for Palestine (https://www.instagram.com/ottawahcp4palestine/).

Over 5000 global healthcare professionals have signed the Not Another Child, Not Another Hospital petition supported by Doctors Against Genocide (https://doctorsagainstgenocide.org/) along with many other groups. We collectively urge healthcare leaders, institutions, peers, colleagues and policymakers to (a) issue strong public statements condemning the attacks on healthcare in Gaza, (b) demand an immediate permanent ceasefire, (c) demand a complete embargo on arms transfers, and (d) demand divestment from companies involved in the violence. We encourage all healthcare workers to sign today: https://ujoin.co/campaigns/3307/actions/public?action_id=4319

Watch the Press Conference on YouTube below: