Today, I’d like to salute all the great dads at the helm of the G7 arriving in Kananaskis, Alberta in the next hours. I’d like to say how proud I am of the world leaders of the richest and most powerful countries – the US, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Canada—that they continue to do whatever it takes to swerve, duck and bob around, even discussing –let alone stopping– the genocide in Gaza.
The six men and one woman leaders of the G7 remain obstinately loyal to Israel – so loyal that most have passed laws and placed restrictions on those who protest Israel’s crimes. The majority of the heads of the G7 look the other way when their own nation’s academics, lawyers and doctors are fired or arrested for daring to speak or organize demonstrations against the genocide. All members of the G7 have sent arms, weapons, ammunition, tanks, armed drones and more to Israel – despite serious objections of their citizens and human rights groups. However, at least a year ago, Canada and Japan announced they would stop shipping weapons to Israel. Indeed in Sept. 2024, Canada’s then-minister of foreign affairs, Melanie Joly, released an explicit promise to halt all weapons and components from being “sent to Gaza,” including those sent via the United States.
However, in late March 2025, Project Ploughshares released a report that showed at least one US firm, the General Dynamics’ plant in Quebec, had a contract to supply $78.8 million of artillery propellants to Israel, via the US. Indeed Canada’s watchdog and crown corporation, the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), had brokered the sale.
If any of the G7 leaders have trouble staying awake through their meetings, I’d recommend they watch the 21 minute video, The Shocking Truth about How 155 mm Artillery Shells are Made. You can see how the deadly propellants added to the shells ensure maximum destruction and death.
But gentlemen (and Ms Meloni) of the G7– and those brave souls in the Canadian media who “follow” them– how wonderful it must be to never have to worry about armed drones dropping missiles on your house, or a 2,000-pound bomb cratering your entire city block, or snipers firing at your spouse, your kids, or your parents whether at home or out shopping.
Of course Gazans have no supermarkets, no clean water and no food. The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, as of early April 2025 reported 17,954 children had already been killed by Israel attacks in Gaza including 276 newborns and 876 infants under age one year. 60,000 children are now at “high risk of death due to severe levels of malnutrition and looming famine.”
Let’s put all that aside: I’m sure all of you are great fathers or stepfathers even. Among you seven, you are proud parents to 18 kids!
Did any of them send you a jokey email today? Or buy you a Timmie’s coffee at the Calgary airport? Or invite you to a BBQ or give you a power tool? That’s what Father’s Day is all about – and let’s not forget it.
Here is the column Father’s Day Without Children I wrote last year. Good reading.
Cartoon at the top: Massacre in Gaza by Hani Abbas (Palestine/Syria)