Reprinted from Yves Engler’s website.
In an interview Wednesday Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada would only accept a “Zionist Palestinian state”. Two week 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 2018-2023 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 Montreal was contracted to deliver tens of millions of dollars of explosives and artillery propellant to Israel. Additionally, about a hundred firms in Canada produced components for the F-35 fighter jet, which Israel used to bomb Gaza.
Successive Ministers of Justice and the RCMP have refused to enforce the Foreign Enlistment Act regarding Israel. The Act states, “Any person who, within Canada, recruits or otherwise induces any person or body of persons to enlist or to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state or other armed forces operating in that state is guilty of an offence.”
At Toronto’s Bnei Akiva school, reported the Canadian Jewish News, “a quarter of graduates”
joined the Israeli military. An alumnus of another of the city’s private schools, Shoshana Schwebel explained, “my Zionisthigh school in Toronto literally brought in IDF recruiters multiple times a year to incentivize us to join as teens.”
In 2020 a formal legal complaint and public letter signed by numerous prominent individuals were released calling on the federal government to investigate individuals for violating the Foreign Enlistment Act by inducing Canadians to join the Israeli military. The letter pointed out that the Israeli consulate in Toronto advertised on several occasions that an IDF representative was available for personal appointments for those wishing to join the IDF, not just those who are required to do mandatory service. In 2019 the consulate announced, “an IDF representative will conduct personal interviews at the Consulate on November 11-14. Young people who wish to enlist in the IDF or anyone who has not fulfilled their obligations according to the Israeli Defense Service Law are invited to meet with him.” Subsequently, United Jewish Appeal of Greater Toronto and Federation Combined Jewish Appeal Montréal publicized a June 2020 webinar by Nefesh-B’Nefesh titled “Joining the IDF”, which claimed to offer participants “everything you need and want to know about joining the IDF.”
The Liberal government effectively ignored the public letter and legal complaint even though it was published on the front page of Le Devoir and thousands emailed the minister on the matter. Then Justice Minister David Lametti responded by simply saying it was up to the police to investigate. For their part, the police refused to seriously investigate even after thousands asked the RCMP to do so.
Partly in response to the police’s unwillingness to apply the Foreign Enlistment Act to Israel, a case was launched through a private prosecution against a specific group organizing Canadians to assist the Israeli military. Sar-El Canada brought about 150 Canadians to volunteer on Israeli army bases each year. They maintain the facilities, stock shelves, clean guns and, according to Sar-El, fulfill “routine logistical support tasks normally assigned to active-duty soldiers and reservists.”
In 2022 a Justice of the Peace agreed the evidence compiled against Sar-El Canada warranted a hearing. The Crown then took over the case only to dismiss it.
The Sar-El case is a stark example of the legal exceptionalism granted Israel in Canada. Another is the unwillingness of the authorities to apply Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
Hundreds of Canadians have joined a military that subjugated Palestinians in the West Bank and slaughtered them wholesale in Gaza. Additionally, many Israeli soldiers have travelled to Canada, including to speak about fighting in Gaza. They should be investigated under Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
As a way to deter Canadians from directly contributing to Israeli violence, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East asked justice minister Arif Virani in 2024 to “Issue a warning to Canadian nationals that serving or volunteering with the Israeli military may make them criminally liable under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.” Thousands messaged the minister calling on him to investigate Canadians committing war crimes in Gaza. Still, Virani stayed mum even when directly pressed on the matter.
While staying quiet on Canadians killing Palestinians, the Liberal government interceded to block a bureaucratic move to properly label wines from illegal Israeli colonies. After David Kattenburg repeatedly complained about inaccurate labels on two wines sold in Ontario, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) notified the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) in 2017 that it “would not be acceptable and would be considered misleading” to declare wines produced in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as “products of Israel”. But, immediately after the decision became public the government reversed the advisory and then appealed a judge’s ruling to block accurate labelling of wines produced in the occupied West Bank.
Another way Canada enables Palestinians dispossession is a through its terrorist entities list, which may violate Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Over 10% of Canada’s terror list is made up of organizations headquartered in a long-occupied land representing one-tenth of one percent of the world’s population. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and most other Palestinian political parties are listed organizations, making it an “offence to knowingly participate in or contribute to, directly or indirectly, any activity of” that group.
The first ever Canadian-based group added to the terror list was the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy (IRFAN). A state subsidized registered charity until 2011, IRFAN was designated a terrorist organization in 2014 largely for supporting orphans and a hospital in Gaza through official (Hamas-controlled) channels. They delivered a dialysis machine to a hospital controlled by the health ministry and sent money for orphans through the post office, which was also under Hamas’ authority after the organization took control of Gaza in 2007.
A year into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network was listed a terror organization. No one even claimed the Vancouver based grassroots solidarity organization was involved in violence. They simply claimed Samidoun had “close links with and advances the interests of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine”, which itself had engaged in little armed struggle for decades.
Canada’s post 9/11 terror list undermines freedom of association and expression. The arbitrary political tool undercuts due process and standard legal burdens of proof. In essence the government can just list a group and poof it’s a criminal association and near impossible for that organization to seek to be de-listed.
Many constitutional experts believe the list is ripe for a Charter challenge. Whether it stands up to legal scrutiny, it’s outrageous that groups like Samidoun, IRFAN and the PFLP were listed while the Israeli military, Likud, Mossad as well as B’nai Brith, the Heseg Foundation for Lone Soldiers and Sar-El haven’t been listed.
Another unique form of Canadian assistance to Israel, which often violates the law, are the vast sums raised by registered charities. At the time of publication, 300 Israel-focused organizations raised upwards of a half billion dollars a year. Since the federal government introduced deductions for charities in 1967, $5-10 billion in donations to Israel have been subsidized by taxpayers, costing the public billions of dollars. (Tens of billions of dollars more have been raised by domestically focused pro-Israel charities such the Jewish federations, synagogues and private schools.)
While the tax credit for middle class donors generally covers thirty or fifty percent of individual’s contributions, up to 90 percent of donations from the wealthy may be subsidized by all Canadians. The ultra-wealthy create foundations and purchase resource-based flow-through shares, which have added charitable tax credit benefits.
Why should all taxpayers subsidize the symphony, a guide dog society, hospitals, etc. of a country with a GDP equal to Canada’s? How many Canadian charities funnel money to Sweden or Japan?
Even worse, dozens of registered charities violate the Income Tax Act by supporting the Israeli military, racist organizations, public entities or West Bank colonies. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) rules state that “increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Canada’s armed forces is charitable, but supporting the armed forces of another country is not.” Nor are registered charities supposed to assist Israeli colonies in the West Bank since Ottawa officially considers them a violation of international law. CRA rules also preclude assisting public entities abroad and a 2003 CRA policy statement mandated charities to promote racial equality.
In a bid to press the CRA to uphold the law, formal complaints have been submitted to the revenue agency detailing how over a dozen charities’ – with over $100 million in annual revenue – violate the rules.
In maybe the most egregious example, billionaire power couple Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz donated $200 million over twenty years to a charity they established to assist non-Israelis who join that country’s military. In 2005 Reisman and her husband established the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers “to recognize and honor the contribution of Lone Soldiers to Israel.” Heseg Foundation provides scholarships and other forms of support to Torontonians, New Yorkers and other non-Israelis (Lone Soldiers) who join the IDF. At the first Heseg Foundation Grants Awards Ceremony in 2005 Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said that “Encouraging and supporting young individuals from abroad” to become lone soldiers “directly supports the morale of the IDF”.
Under pressure from campaigners, the CRA revoked the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund of Canada and Ne’eman Foundation in the summer of 2024. While these revocations restored some confidence in the CRA’s ability to apply its rules fairly, it took the agency decades to revoke the Jewish National Fund’s special tax provisions. A law-abiding revenue agency would do far more to curtail illegal subsidies to Israel.
When it comes to Israel, forcing Ottawa to simply uphold existing Canadian laws on registered charities, assisting foreign militaries, war crimes and arms sales would be a significant step towards justice.
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Yves Engler is the author of Stand on Guard for Whom? A People’s History of the Canadian Military and twelve other books.
