In this episode of Habibti Please, Nashwa speaks with Dr. Sarah Lalonde in Monreal a Montreal-based emergency and family physician who recently returned from Gaza. Dr. Lalonde shares what she witnessed while working in the emergency department at the European Gaza Hospital amidst ongoing Israeli attacks—including the deliberate targeting of health workers, collapsing infrastructure, and the catastrophic impact on children.
Together, we explore what it means to bear witness, the emotional toll of working under siege, and how Canadian healthcare systems are complicit in global injustice. This episode is a continuation of our series on medical solidarity, following our previous conversation with Dr. Tarek Loubani of Glia.
We recorded this conversation on July 11th, 2025, in Montreal at Halte 24-7.
“Solidarity without cost is not solidarity.” – Dr. Sarah Lalonde
Sarah is a Montreal-based physician who recently returned from Gaza a few months ago where she joined a team of international medics working in the ruins of a healthcare system under siege. What she witnessed, what she lived through, is not just a humanitarian crisis—it is the architecture of genocide, laid bare.
There’s something haunting about the way Sarah describes a hospital that no longer functions as a place of healing, but as a site of mass death. About treating children whose bodies are broken not by rare diseases, but by bombs. About watching colleagues—nurses, surgeons, paramedics from afar—targeted and killed. In her words and in her silences, there’s a clarity: this is not a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis. It is a man-made horror.
Sarah also speaks to the impossible conditions that define what it means to be a healthcare worker in Gaza. To heal is to resist. But resistance can mean death. In that double-bind, neutrality is a lie—and the idea of “do no harm” becomes a radical, life-threatening commitment. Since October 2023, we've seen Canadian healthcare institutions fail to rise to this moment. Instead of standing up against genocide, they've punished those who do. We've seen students, nurses, residents, and physicians silenced, suspended, blacklisted. Meanwhile, those who justify or ignore the destruction of life go unchallenged. As Sarah reminds us, medicine has never been apolitical. You either uphold life actively—or you make peace with systems that end it.
As listeners, as comrades, as people who care, our work isn’t just to hear these stories—it’s to act on them. To connect Gaza to Canada. To understand that the siege abroad is mirrored by silence at home. That every institutional reprimand for speaking up is part of the same machinery.
Please consider sharing this episode. Talk to your colleagues. Interrupt the silences. Support groups like the Glia Project and the Palestinian Youth Movement.
Habibti Please is a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network. Get weekly updates from Canada’s progressive podcast community at harbingermedianetwork.com.
About the Guest
Dr. Sarah Lalonde (@dr.sarah.lalonde)
Dr. Lalonde is an emergency and family physician specializing in rural, remote, and community medicine, particularly within Indigenous communities. She has worked internationally with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Guinea, Albania, Togo, and Chad, and is recognized as Quebec’s provincial physician expert on human trafficking. In Gaza, she served at the European Gaza Hospital as part of an international medical mission.
Resources & Links
Previous Episode
→ Dr. Tarek Loubani on Glia, Open-Source Solidarity, and Gazahttps://habibtiplease.substack.com/p/medicine-under-siege-dr-tarek-loubani
Support Medical Work in Gaza
→ Glia – Global organization for low-cost, open-source medical tools
https://glia.org
→ Donate to support Dr. Lalonde & Dr. Loubani’s ongoing work
https://glia.org
🚢 Track the Flotilla
→ Follow the Freedom Flotilla & Dr. Yipeng Ge’s journey aboard the Handala Freedom Flotilla Tracker
Related Reading & Reports
* “Gaza’s Health System Under Siege” – New York Times doctor interviews (2024) NYT Interactive
* Canadian Complicity in Arms Sales – CJPME CJPME on Canadian Arms to Israel
* 65 Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics: What We Saw in Gaza
Follow
* Dr. Sarah Lalonde – @dr.sarah.lalonde
* Dr. Tarek Loubani – @trklou
* Freedom Flotilla Coalition – freedomflotilla.org
💌 Call to Action
→ Donate if you can to medical missions and grassroots aid efforts like Glia → Share this episode with others who care about justice, healthcare, and solidarity. → Bear witness—listening is not passive. Let it move you to action.
Humanitarian & Community Aid:
* Islamic Relief Canada – Palestine Emergency Appeal
* Palestinian Youth Movement – Popular Cradle Podcast
* Support the Glia Project: Donate or amplify their open-source medical tools: glia.org
* Donate to frontline organizations: Support trusted orgs like Islamic Relief Canada, Doctors Without Borders and Humanity Auxilium
* Organize within your profession: If you're a healthcare worker, speak out, form collectives, and protect each other from institutional repression. Check out Health workers Alliance for Palestine
* Stay loud: Refuse silence in your classrooms, hospitals, unions, and friend groups. Silence is complicity. Check out Labour for Palestine
* Educate yourself: Study the roots of this genocide—settler colonialism, white supremacy, and global capitalism. Check out The Anti-Empire Project
Suggested Readings & Resources
This section provides some contextual readings and links to explore.
* How Gaza’s doctors endure the impossible
* 'Appalled' Trudeau calls for inquiry after Canadian doctor wounded in Gaza - The Guardian
* Canadian doctor who works in Gaza makes 3D-printed face shields for COVID-19
* From Canada to Gaza, physician uses 3D printing to make medical face shields
* Tarek Loubani: 3D Printing High-Quality Low-Cost Free Medical Hardware
* ‘Shock and grief’ as senior doctor killed in Israeli airstrike in Gaza
* I’m in northern Gaza. I would rather starve than take GHF aid
* Marking a year of heartbreak: A letter from MSF USA chief executive officer Avril Benoît
On the Targeting of Canadian Healthcare Workers:
* Doctor suspended from U of O residency after pro-Palestinian social media posts
* 'Chilling effect': People expressing pro-Palestinian views censured, suspended from work and school
* ‘Abuse of power’: Hospitals, med schools crack down on Palestine advocacy
* Protect medical trainees from anti-Palestine bigotry in medical placement process!
* A List Of Some People In Canada Fired For Pro-Palestine Views
* OPINION: Ontario Nurses’ Association Must Speak Out Against Gaza Atrocities
Production Credits:
Hosted by Nashwa Lina Khan
Art for Habibti Please by postXamerica
Production and Editing by Andre Goulet
Social Media & Support:
Follow us on Twitter @habibtiplease
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Closing Song: Closing Song: Muhannad Khalaf - Allah M7yeh Falastin (2021) / مهند خلف - الله محيي فلسطين
