‘Very tough to see’: Cambridge, Ont. man leads delegation including MPs on trip to Middle East

First-hand look at conflict in the Middle East A Cambridge man recently led a delegation on a trip to the Middle East. Stefanie Davis tells us about the lessons learned from local MPs.

A handful of Members of Parliament are back on Canadian soil after a trip to the Jordan, Jerusalem and the West Bank, where they got a firsthand look at how people in the region are living.

Umair Ashraf, the executive director of The Canadian Muslim Vote, organized and attended the trip.

The Canadian Muslim Vote is a nonpartisan non-profit group that aims to increase political engagement and education about the democratic process within the Muslim community across the country.

“I thought I was ready for what I saw, but I wasn’t,” Ashraf said.

“There was a lot of misinformation out there, and one of the best ways to sort of combat that is to go and get answers yourself.”

The organization paid for the trip, which included a total of five MPs from the liberal and NDP parties. It gave them the chance to gather their own stories and bring them back to share with their colleagues.

“As policies are being written and as aid is being procured and all these different conversations are happening, they’ll be able to speak up and be able to give a first hand account of what they saw,” Ashraf explained.

Ashfrad said it’s difficult to talk about what they witnessed.

“You see a two tiered system. There’s different license plates marking the different nationalities, and then what roads you can drive on and what you can’t drive on, so that was very tough to see. There’s checkpoints and a checkpoint can take anywhere from five minutes to five hours,” he explained.

NDP MP Matthew Green from Hamilton Centre was part of the six day trip.

“This was by far one of the most heavy experiences I’ve had just as a person, never mind as a politician,” he said.

Green explained that the trip deepened his sense of responsibility when it comes to pursuing justice within international law.

“It’s no longer an abstract thing that I watch somewhere else. It’s something that, for a very short period of time, I experienced in a tangential way and in an observational way,” he said.

“I recognize that this, for me, is the moral compass of our time.”

When reflecting on their experience, both Green and Ashraf mentioned a trip to a classroom that stood out to them.

“One of the most difficult takeaways was when we were sitting in a school where the children actually asked their teachers ‘why do you teach us humanitarian laws if it’s not practiced upon us?’” Ashraf recalled.

“And this was in Jordan which is where, technically, they’re safe because they’re out of the conflict zones.”

Green called that encounter “very disheartening,” adding his experiences with children had a profound impact on him.

“Day in and day out, Palestinians are subjected to this occupational force that is there that controls everything,” Green said.

“When we met with the community, there were a lot of children there. We had hoped to be able to bring them some toys to help them find some joy but even the toys were held up at a checkpoint.”

Those experiences are just some of what both the politicians and members of The Canadian Muslim Vote will carry going forward.

“Coming back and explaining what we saw – it’s very tough. But it’s important for the average Canadian, for all of us, to understand what’s happening in the region and be able to explain it,” Ashraf said.