Image by Ömer Faruk Yıldız.

In an interview on Wednesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada would only accept a “Zionist Palestinian state”. Two weeks earlier, foreign affairs minister Anita Anand described Canada’s “unwavering support for Israel’s security,” and next week, an RCMP commissioner is set to speak at an event to assuage the concerns of Canadians who’ve fought in Gaza that they may be investigated under Canada’s war crimes legislation.

Canadian policy towards Israel is unique. No other faraway state has received a constant flow of Canadians joining its military. No other wealthy faraway country receives a remotely comparable amount of registered charity funds. No other state has a publicly financed special envoy to deflect criticism of its colonial violence or gets Ottawa to send letters threatening the International Criminal Court on its behalf. Nor is there another country in which the government sues to block proper labels on its wines, or the Canadian embassy hosts parties for Canadians fighting in its military, or the foreign minister says Canada would act as an “asset” for it on the UN Security Council.

I’ve written extensively about Canadian governments’ violating international law while professing its importance. In the case of Israel, the duplicity is even more glaring. Our governments have repeatedly failed to uphold Canadian law. The Minister of Justice, Global Affairs, RCMP and other government agencies have ignored their legal responsibilities regarding a genocidal apartheid state.

Issuing arms permits to Israel contravenes Canada’s Export and Import Permits Act yet Ottawa refuses to stop the flow of arms. According to the federal government, “Under the Export and Import Permits Act (EIPA), the Minister of Foreign Affairs must deny exports and brokering permit applications for military goods and technology if there is a substantial risk that the items would undermine peace and security, or could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws.”

By any credible account, the Israeli military has long committed “serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws.” Israel has launched a series of deadly wars on the besieged population of Gaza (2008, 2014, 2021). It’s also killed over a thousand in the West Bank, and beginning in 2013, Israeli forces began bombing Syria on a near-weekly basis.

Amidst this violence, Global Affairs okayed hundreds of weapons permits. Between 2018 and 2023, Canadian companies sold around $20 million annually in arms directly to Israel. A significantly larger sum was shipped to Israel as components in US weapon systems, which aren’t reported as per the Defence Production Sharing Agreement that effectively treats Canadian firms as part of the US military industrial base.
Ottawa’s response to Israel’s mass killing in Gaza in the fall of 2023 was to expedite permits for arms. In the first two months of Israel’s genocide, Ottawa okayed $28.5 million in weapons transfers, processing permits in as little as four days.

After growing protests against arms sales, the government announced that it would halt new weapons permits to Israel. The announcement, six months into the genocide, didn’t apply to outstanding permits. Despite the announced halt on arms sales, Canada sold $18.9 million in arms directly to Israel in 2024.

Shipments of arms from Canada to Israel through the US have also continued. The US Department of Defense announced that a General Dynamics facility in........

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