Features
Annamie Paul, candidate for leadership of the Green Party, had a surprising Winnipeg connection – unknown to her until recently
By GERRY POSNER
Imagine my surprise when I picked up a very recent edition of the JP&N and I saw an article on the very woman, Annamie Paul, I had just been asked to interview by Bernie Bellan. (Bernie’s reason for his wanting me to interview Annamie – even though the paper had just published an article about her, had to do with a Winnipeg connection – about which Annamie was probably unaware.)
With this second article, you might think that the JP&N was “ pulling” for her – but, rest assured, it’s only because something in that first article about Annamie certainly caught my attention – and it wasn’t just that Annamie is both Black and Jewish!
This fall there will be an election for a new leader of the Federal Green Party. That election might not stir up much interest yet in Manitoba and beyond, but for Winnipeggers, there are two candidates who have a real connection to the city.
Firstly, most Winnipeggers will recall former mayor Glen Murray. Well, take note that Glen is indeed running hard to be elected to be the new leader.
But secondly, Annamie Paul has a Winnipeg connection through the rabbi who converted her to Judaism: the late Rabbi Jim Diamond. (Read on to find out how Annamie came to be associated with Rabbi Diamond.)
Annamie Paul is likely setting an historical record just by running. First of all, even though there have been other females in Canada run and indeed get elected to Parliament, none of these candidates was at the same time, Black and Jewish. The voter will recognize the Black part, but the Jewish aspect of Annamie is perhaps not as well known as it should be, though Annamie is far from shy about disclosing her Jewishness. In short, Annamie represents diversity, which is a policy for which she ardently advocates.
Let me be clear from the outset that Annamie is not just entering this race to be the political version of Drake or Sammy Davis Jr. This woman has, as they say in the musical world, the ‘chops” to be the leader. Take a look at her background and you have to be amazed. She is to start off a lawyer, having graduated from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Laws and who has since dedicated her career for the most part to public affairs. Her work background includes time spent working for the Canadian Mission to the European Union, providing advice to the International Criminal Court and later acting as the Executive Director of the Barcelona Policy Action Plan. Moreover, she has served as a Director for a leading conflict prevention NGO in Brussels. It ought not therefore be a surprise that this woman speaks fluent English, French, Catalan and is an intermediate speaker of Spanish (also a smattering of Hebrew).
Aside from all that, Paul ran in the 2019 election as a Green candidate – against none other than the Finance Minister, Bill Morneau. She finished fourth out of a group of eight. But, she resisted the pleas of many of her supporters to pick an easier riding. The fact is that Paul is not one who is easily fazed by difficult challenges.
One of those difficult challenges was her becoming Jewish. This was not something that just happened. Annamie had long been interested in Judaism and had an early exposure to Jewish families, growing up in Toronto. She even attended Bar and Bat Mitzvah parties as a youngster. Thus, her connection to Judaism was real. When she studied at Princeton University to obtain a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs over 20 years ago, she made the decision to convert to Judaism.
It was at Princeton, over a two-year period, that Paul made a connection with a rabbi whose roots were genuine north end Winnipeg – as in Boyd, Luxton and Rupertsland Avenues. This rabbi was none other than the late Rabbi James Diamond – a man whom, I might add, was my first cousin – and a beloved cousin to be sure. Oddly, over the year of Paul’s studying under Rabbi Diamond, the fact that he was a Canadian never came up in conversation, she told me.
Rabbi Diamond was the head of the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton for close to 10 years after a career in the rabbinate with Hillel, first at Indiana University, then later at Washington University in St. Louis. Diamond had done other conversions, but this conversion was likely his first and only Black Canadian woman.
And, he did not go easy on Annamie. Even though Jim used to describe himself as a Conservative rabbi with an Orthodox bent, he tried to give to Annamie, as she wanted, a more complete Orthodox instruction which would allow her entry into the Orthodox world if she required it.
She had to appear of course in front of a Beit Din, a panel of three learned men, who quizzed her on aspects of Judaism. Of course, she completed her conversion process with her immersion in a Mikveh. Annamie did it all and she gives Rabbi Diamond total credit for instilling in her this love for Judaism. She says he was responsible for her ability to read Hebrew, her desire to keep a kosher home, and ensuring that her sons had a Jewish education.
In fact one of her sons, Malachi, now 20, was born in Princeton. Both boys celebrated their Bar Mitzvahs – Malachi in Barcelona, and Jonas, in Toronto. Her husband of 24 years, Mark Freeman, a lawyer specializing in human rights, and Annamie, have carved out a real Jewish life for themselves. For Annamie Paul, Judaism speaks to her of values that she holds dear to her, particularly the humanism of the faith and its concern for the welfare of others.
Now, the Green Party has had its share of critics, as do all political parties. One area of concern for Jews is the attitude of the party re Israel. Annamie was clear to me that the Green Party in no way is a supporter of the BDS movement. Where the Green Party stands with respect to the settlements is uncertain, but clearly Paul is cognizant of the issues involved. What Paul is not afraid to do is to be a critic even of her own party if she thinks it has strayed off its platform. She is trying to push both her own party and indeed the whole country to reflect a more diverse and inclusive character.
On the one hand you would have to say that Annamie Paul is a long shot to be elected leader and yet, when you consider her path from nowhere to the present, her determination to embrace her Judaism and the causes that she has pursued with passion, I suggest that Canada would be well served with Annamie Paul as the head of the Green Party. My cousin Jim Diamond would be behind her all the way.
Features
The Gaza Peace Plan is not a Done Deal, but an Opening
By HENRY SREBRNIK (Oct. 23, 2025) The idea that Hamas will voluntarily disarm, that international forces will deploy in the Gaza Strip, and that the process of building a Palestinian government by people like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in which a disarmed Hamas does not participate, are false hopes, if not fantasies. But does this mean U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan was useless? Of course not.
Trump understood the necessity of bringing the war to an end. But he also believed that endless debate among experts or, worse, historian and lawyers, would never produce an agreement. He presented an offer – actually, an ultimatum – to Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas that neither could refuse: immediate, unconditional and complete release of all hostages and missing persons, something the Israeli public longed for, in exchange for a final end to the war, which a humbled Hamas needed.
Two years of war has left Hamas weaker than it had been in decades. Israeli bombardments had shattered the group’s military capabilities and depleted its arsenals. In many neighborhoods, control had drifted to local clan networks and tribal councils. This hinted at something that could one day replace Hamas’s iron grip. To prevent this, Hamas has been ruthlessly murdering all potential rivals in the areas of Gaza it controls since the ceasefire went into effect.
Despite the severe degradation of its military capabilities during the war, Hamas still has more soldiers and weapons than all its rival factions in Gaza combined. Hamas has managed to redeploy approximately 7,000 militants to reassert control over the territory. They have publicized photographs and videos of their forces murdering and torturing; the victims include women and children.
The ceasefire is a temporary reprieve for Hamas: a chance to regroup, rearm, and prepare for the next round of fighting. In Islamist political thought there’s a word for it, hudna — a temporary truce with non-Muslim adversaries that can be discarded as soon as the balance of power shifts. Then the time for jihad will arrive again. Hamas was established in 1987 and isn’t going to disappear.
In fact Hamas also says it expects an interim International Transitional Authority to hire 40,000 Hamas employees, and Hamas spokesman Basem Naim says he expects its fighters to be integrated into a post-transition Palestinian state.
Still, Trump has succeeded in ending the current war in Gaza, where Joe Biden failed. Biden’s national security team, drawn almost entirely from his supposed expert class, didn’t even see the crisis coming. Just five days before the attack, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had published an article in Foreign Affairs in which he wrote that “the region is quieter than it has been for decades.”
Biden also had insulted the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, by publicly condemning the 2018 murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And, of course, there was Biden’s poor relationship with Netanyahu, and his chronic inability to get the Israeli prime minister to do what he wanted.
By contrast, Trump returned to office with substantially more influence in both the Gulf and Israel, based on his first-term successes in the Middle East, especially the Abraham Accords (for which he’s never been praised by his political enemies).
Four Arab countries formally recognized Israel, beginning with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, followed by Sudan and Morocco. The next stage was intended to include Saudi Arabia. One motive put forward by some analysts for the October 7 attacks was that they were intended to provoke Israel into a response that would derail Saudi Arabia’s admission.
Instead of sitting Israelis and Arabs in a room and expecting them to negotiate an outcome, Trump’s approach has been to exert leverage through other players in the region, especially, Egypt, Turkey, and – most importantly – Qatar.
In Jerusalem, they call Qatar “the spoiler state.” Israelis describe the emirate as two trains running behind the same engine. One, led by the Qatari ruler’s mother and brother, supports the Muslim Brotherhood and is an unmistakable hater of Israel. The other, led by the prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and several other senior figures, seeks rapprochement with the West.
The Qataris were shocked when Israeli jets on Sept. 9 conducted an airstrike in Doha targeting the leadership of Hamas. They then signed onto Trump’s peace plan at a meeting in New York Sept. 23, hosted by Trump and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Ibn Hamad Al Thani, and attended by the leaders of eight Arab states, along with members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Netanyahu was then browbeaten into accepting the plan (and also forced to apologize to the Emir for the airstrike). It was somewhat ironic that the airstrike made the peace plan possible. As well, Trump’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June gave this negotiation some very sharp teeth.
“If you would rather leave peacemaking to the historians and diplomats, then you may wait a long time for wars to end,” suggested Niall Ferguson of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, in an Oct. 15 Free Press article. His advice? Go to the “deal guys: They get the job done.”
In a sense, both Israel and Hamas had accomplished their goals. Israel had broken the Iranian axis of terror by eliminating Hezbollah and Hamas as a fighting force, along with the Iranian nuclear threat. Hamas had succeeded in luring Israel into a trap that led it to become hated and isolated around the world. This included the labelling of Israel as genocidal and the global call for a Palestinian state.
The rest of the 20-point peace plan will be addressed in a step-by-step fashion. Meanwhile, Israel must ensure that it retains freedom of action in Gaza, by decisive action against any attempt by Hamas to rebuild its army, its rockets, its battalions and its divisions.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.
Features
Why Fitness Routines Fall Apart — and How to Rebuild Yours
Every spring, gyms see a flood of hopeful faces. New shoes, fresh playlists, unwavering intentions, by mid-summer? Half of them vanish into the fog of abandoned routines. The story repeats year after year until it starts to feel almost scripted. Why does enthusiasm evaporate? The easy answer involves willpower but that explanation misses the point. Habits don’t fail because people are weak. Life stress, boredom, and monotony ruin routines. Timely lever pulls can change narratives. The hardest part is persevering when motivation wanes.
Mistaking Motivation for Momentum
Most chase that opening surge, the lightning strike of motivation, but then stop searching once enthusiasm fizzles. A scroll through sites like PUR Pharma (pur-pharma.is/) or a glimpse of an influencer’s progress triggers a burst of action: new workout gear ordered, plans scribbled in planners destined for dusty drawers. Yet momentum fades when small setbacks pop up (a late meeting here, rainy weather there). Real progress comes from building systems stronger than any fleeting pep talk. Those who frame fitness as something owed to motivation end up back at square one every time life interrupts, which it always does.
Overcomplicating Everything
It’s tempting to turn wellness into a science fair project with spreadsheets and specialized equipment lined up on day one. This is the allure of complexity disguised as seriousness, a new diet paired with seven types of supplements and four color-coded bottles. Simplicity gets lost in the noise almost instantly. Most successful routines rely on two principles: keep it simple and keep showing up even when everything else is chaos outside those gym walls. Anyone insisting that perfection is required before taking step one has already constructed an excuse not to begin at all.
Forgetting Fun Completely
Who decided exercise must hurt or look like punishment? Somewhere along the line, fun got swapped out for grind culture and “no pain, no gain.” That isn’t just unappealing, it’s unsustainable over months or years. If sessions feel like torture devices borrowed from medieval times, nobody should be surprised when commitment falters fast. Seek activities that actually spark some joy or curiosity, a dance class instead of yet another treadmill session, maybe, or play a pickup game rather than slogging through solo circuits again and again.
Ignoring Recovery (and Reality)
Sleep deprivation, disguised as discipline, fools anyone, except perhaps uncritical Instagram followers. Ignoring recovery turns ambition into tiredness faster than any missed session. Because bodies break without rest, routines must breathe with owners. Cycling, real leisure, and honest self-checks regarding weekly goals build endurance, not continual pushing.
Conclusion
Change rarely arrives by force alone but usually grows quietly from patterns repeated imperfectly over time, even if last month looked nothing like this week so far. Drop the hunt for nonstop inspiration. Instead of breaking behaviors at the first hint of stress or boredom, build habits that last. People who rebuild methodically after every stumble or detour make progress, not those who peak and then fall.
Features
How DIY Auto Repairs Can Help You Cut Costs—Safely
Regular maintenance and minor repairs are the greatest approach for many car drivers to save money without sacrificing dependability. DIY repairs can save you a lot of money over the life of your car since most of the expense is in the labour. DIY helps you learn how things work and notice tiny issues before they become costly ones. Every work requires planning, patience, and safety.
Test Your Talents with Safe Limits
DIY solutions succeed when one is honest about their talents. Wiper blades, air filters, and occupant filters are beginner-friendly. With the correct equipment, intermediate owners can replace brake pads, spark plugs, coolant, and brake fluid. Pressurized fuel, high-voltage hybrids, airbags, and timing components are risky. Only professionals should manage them. Limitations protect you and your car. Drivers trust sources like Parts Avenue to find, install, and schedule manufacturer-approved work.
Set Up a Reliable Workspace and Tools
Good tools pay for themselves quickly. Ratchets, torque wrenches, combination wrenches, heavy jack stands, and wheel chocks are essential. It is advisable to engage specialists for specific tasks. A clean, flat, well-lit, and open space is essential. Please take your time. While working, keep a charged phone nearby to read repair instructions or write torque patterns.
Find the Problem before Replacing the Parts
It may cost more to replace something without diagnosing it. Instead of ideas, start with symptoms. OBD-II readers detect leaks, sounds, and DTCs. Simple tests like voltage, smoke indicating vacuum leaks, pad thickness, and rotor runout might reveal failure. A good analysis saves components, protects surrounding parts, and fosters future trust.
Maintenance That Pays off is Most Crucial
Jobs compensate for time and tools differently. Prioritize returns and maintenance. Change the oil and filter, rotate the tires, evaluate the air pressure, replace low brake fluid, clean the coolant with the right chemicals, and replace belts and filters before they fail. These items extend automotive life, stabilize fuel efficiency, and reduce roadside towing issues that can take months to resolve.
Do as Instructed, Utilize Quality Parts, and Follow Torque Requirements
Understand the service. Set the jacking points, tighten the screws in the appropriate order, and use threadlocker or anti-seize as suggested by the maker. Rotor wear can cause leaks, distortions, or broken threads. Choose components that meet or exceed OEM requirements and fit your car’s VIN, engine code, and manufacturing date. Cheap parts that break easily cost extra.
Test, Record, and Discard Carefully
Safely test the system before patching. Check under the car for drops, bleed the brakes again, and check fluid levels after a short drive. Note torques, parts, miles, and repair date. Photo and document storage for car sales. Properly dispose of oil, filters, coolant, and brake fluid. Controlling hazards protects your community and workplace.
Know When to Seek Professional Help
Self-employed individuals recognize their constraints. If a task is challenging, requires special instruments, or involves safety, consult an expert. Collaboration makes cars safer, cheaper, and more efficient. Selecting, planning, and implementing processes properly improves performance, lowers costs, and ensures safety.