Humanitarian Double Trouble

The prevention and punishment of genocide, as an international crime, was laid down in a UN Convention adopted in the aftermath of the Second World War. The crime of genocide generally involves the deliberate and systematic extermination of a group.

Press and Health Care Targets

Art. II of the UN Genocide Convention notes that the following acts, if committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, may constitute genocide:

1. killing members of the group;

2. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

3. deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

4. imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

5. forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. (Genocide | How Does Law Protect in War? - Online Casebook, n.d.)

 In a blog post in November 2024  Reuters reported that Pope Francis suggests an international study into possible genocide in Gaza.

Reports in the Lancet cited in a blog post in December 2024 and Amnesty International’s research has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.

A summary of the coverage of famine in Gaza in a blog post provides insight into the cliche that truth is often the first casualty of war. (July 23, 2025).

In recent days the coverage of the conflict in Gaza has raised the question of “Was the ‘double tap’ attack on Gaza’s Nasser hospital a war crime?”

The main rules on hostilities are often said to be humanity, necessity, distinction and proportionality. Humanity is about not inflicting unnecessary suffering. Necessity requires that in applying the other rules a commander should be able to do what they need to “win”, but no more than that. Distinction requires that only lawful objectives should be targeted for attack. Proportionality requires that when a lawful objective is attacked, the expected “collateral damage” should not be excessive to the expected military advantage of the attack. (Sweeney, 2025)

Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem reports for the Guardian on the Karim Khan application for warrants relating to alleged crimes committed during the 7 October attack and the ensuing war in Gaza. The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court has said he is seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, a move that puts the post-second world war rules-based order to the test and presents new challenges for Israel’s western allies.

He named Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in the Gaza Strip, and Mohammed Deif, the commander of its military wing, considered to be the masterminds of the 7 October assault, as well as Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the group’s political bureau, who is based in Qatar, as wanted for crimes of extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, sexual assault and torture.

Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians. (McKernan, n.d.)

Accusations of war crimes in the manner in which Netanyahu and the IDF are conducting the war in Gaza were given more needed attention as a result of the ‘double tap’ attack on Gaza’s Nasser hospital.

References

Genocide | How does law protect in war? - Online casebook. (n.d.). How does law protect in war? Retrieved September 2, 2025, from https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/genocide 

McKernan, B. (n.d.). ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israeli PM and Hamas officials for war crimes. the Guardian. Retrieved May 20, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/may/20/icc-prosecutor-seeks-arrest-warrants-israeli-pm-netanyahu-hamas-officials-war-crimes 

Sweeney, J. (2025, August 27). Was the 'double tap' attack on Gaza's Nasser hospital a war crime? Here's what the laws of war say. The Conversation. Retrieved September 2, 2025, from https://theconversation.com/was-the-double-tap-attack-on-gazas-nasser-hospital-a-war-crime-heres-what-the-laws-of-war-say-263955 

Creativity Cooperation and Cancer

Edward Slingerland argues intoxication sparked innovation and civilization throughout human history.

Caution with cheer

 

CBC Tapestry host Mary Hynes cites a big study published in 2018, in the medical journal, The Lancet, and the immortal line, "our results show that the safest level of drinking is none.”

I think that the medical literature and the public policy regarding alcohol is deeply misguided. And I think it's misguided because they're not taking into account any of the social functions of alcohol. So The Lancet's article is basically treating alcohol consumption as a purely medical issue. No doubt they have a lot of evidence. This is a well-researched piece. Overall, it's negative physiologically, but you've got to weigh against the fact that it's doing all these positive functions: it's ramping up creativity, it's helping people cooperate, it's helping people relax at the end of the day, it's helping people overcome intimacy problems. It's got all these functions in society, and I think our public discussions about alcohol have been really impoverished. It may be the case that once you take into account all those functions, you still say no — you know, the costs are too high. And as I say at the end of the book, that's a perfectly reasonable position to take, but you need to actually have all of the data.1 

Ioanna Roumeliotis & Brenda Witmer of CBC News report that advocates of warning labels want Canadians to understand alcohol is one of top causes of preventable cancer.

"Even drinking one drink a day increases your risk of some cancers — including, if you're a woman, breast cancer — but also cancers of the digestive system, the mouth, stomach," said Tim Stockwell, a senior scientist with the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria.  "The risk increases with every drink you take." Alcohol has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen (carcinogenic to humans) for decades by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). It's right up there with tobacco and asbestos. Alcohol is also a  top cause of preventable cancer after smoking and obesity.2 

In the last century, the social acceptance of smoking was eventually overcome by an understanding of the serious consequences to health and life of this behaviour. Warning labels on alcohol may begin a transition to more responsible use of this drug that increases social interaction and the risk of developing serious disease.

 

References

1	(2021, September 10). Alcohol helped shape civilization and ferment innovation, says author. Retrieved January 8, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/alcohol-helped-shape-civilization-and-ferment-innovation-says-author-1.6171481
2	(2022, January 8). Alcohol should have cancer warning labels, say doctors and ... - CBC. Retrieved January 8, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/alcohol-warning-labels-cancer-1.6304816

 

Health effects of inequality, bootstrap individualism and high-octane opportunism

The dangers to the physical and mental health of our children and grandchildren due to the warming of the planet invite consideration of the moral issues involved in supporting further activity by industries with high GHG emissions.

Sea Level rise

Susan Ormiston & Mia Sheldon of CBC News note that there is a saying among climate scientists that "what happens in the North doesn't stay in the North," meaning big changes in this region will affect the rest of Canada as well. Mean temperatures in the Western Arctic have increased a staggering 3.4 degrees Celsius since the 1960s.

To put that in perspective, the goal of the Paris Agreement on climate change that Canada signed is to ensure global temperatures rise no more than an average of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Scientists predict that worldwide warming greater than that could trigger potentially disastrous changes to weather patterns and ocean levels.1

Investigators at the YEARS Project reveal that Exxon knew about the dangers of climate change in the 1970s, according to internal company documents.

This date agrees with the research done by Bill McKibben and published in his book “Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?”

Rylan Higgins offers the opinion that petroleum industry jobs are only a good living if you prepare for the bust, which always comes.

 In short, it's pretty brutal, pretty unforgiving. Chews you up, spits you out.
And I'm talking about people who have devoted their entire lives to it.
It's not a surprise. The power at the top is global, immense and hell-bent on squeezing every penny out of the labour that goes into producing oil and gas. The industry has long been one based on inequality, bootstrap individualism and high-octane opportunism...And let's not forget just how opportunistic and contradictory the powerful people in the industry are. When times are good, they argue that government needs to get out of the way, that progress should not be impeded by labour or environmental regulations.
Consider, however, the fact that oil and gas are extracted on land secured from indigenous people with the help of the government.
And what about the government subsidies from which the industry benefits? When the boom ends, industry enthusiasts are quick to fault the government for not prioritizing the sector's recovery.
There are a lot of good reasons to transition away from this industry.
It will be critical to consider the workers and families in the industry as we do so. The next economic arrangement should put workers, families and the environment first — and investors and corporate bigwigs last.
In short, we'd be better off without oil and gas, and I'd bet there are plenty of workers and families who'd love an economy based on more stable, just and environmentally friendly industries....3

Sean Craig writes on a report in the Lancet that wildfires, disease, food scarcity are what scientists predict in a grim century for Canada. The Lancet Countdown global report focuses, in particular, on burdens infants and children will face in the coming decades.

Researchers determined that, as they age into adolescence, the impact of air pollution will worsen for current infants and children if current trends continue. As they enter adulthood, extreme-weather events will intensify and become more common. For example, 152 out of 196 countries saw an increase in people exposed to wildfires in the past 15 years. They said Canada is not doing enough to mitigate these potential harms.
"Canada is not on track: in 2016, total Canadian GHG emissions were 704 (metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent), an increase of more than 100 metric tons since 1990," the report reads. "Policies and measures currently under development but not yet implemented are forecast to reduce national emissions to 592 metric tons by 2030, 79 metric tons above Canada’s 2030 target... a goal which is itself too weak to represent a fair contribution by Canada to the emissions reductions necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Change Agreement."4

The planet is warming. That warming is caused by GHG emissions. Our climate scientists and health care professionals understand that there are significant consequences for our life.

Profits over the Planet

The efforts of big oil have focused mostly on profits over the planet and the health of people.

References

1	(2019, June 19). How climate change is thawing the 'glue that holds the ... - CBC. Retrieved November 13, 2019, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/the-national-permafrost-thaw-inuvik-tuktoyaktuk-1.5179842
2	(2019, August 23). War On Our Future - YouTube. Retrieved November 15, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmB1tUgTXBErWp0_RlyZPvrVAE2i0cTkN
3	(2019, November 15). 'It's pretty brutal, pretty unforgiving': Why the West should move .... Retrieved November 15, 2019, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-rylan-higgins-oil-patch-1.5358248
4	(2019, November 13). Wildfires, disease, food scarcity: scientists predict a grim century. Retrieved November 14, 2019, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/11/13/news/wildfires-disease-food-scarcity-scientists-predict-grim-century-canada