Canada toughens stance on Israel by freezing arms export permits

Canada’s Parliament on Monday passed a motion on the Gaza conflict calling on the government to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel.” Although it was a non-binding motion, tabled by the New Democratic Party (NDP), a government partner of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, Ottawa announced after the vote that it will halt future arms sales to Israel. “It’s a reality,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared Tuesday.

The decision is more symbolic than effective — new export permits for non-lethal military equipment were already frozen on January 8 — but it is in any case one of the strongest messages issued by the G7 member countries to exert pressure on Israel over its military offensive in Gaza. Spain and Ireland have also called on the European Commission to take stronger measures in this regard. Last February, appellate judges in The Hague ordered the Dutch government to stop shipping F-35 aircraft parts to Israel — manufactured by the United States but distributed from the Dutch military base in Woensdrecht. The acting government of liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced that it would appeal the decision.

Trudeau’s foreign policy shift includes another key decision: after withdrawing funding to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in late January over unproven Israeli allegations that a dozen local agency workers were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks, the U.S. resumed funding on March 8. Canada was among the first countries in the West to second the U.S.-led disbandment, and also among the first to pull back. The Ottawa government contributed $66.5 million to UNRWA from 2019 to mid-2023. Canada has also supported the proposals for a humanitarian ceasefire resolution in Gaza tabled so far — and vetoed by the U.S. — in the U.N. Security Council.

The weaponry provided by Canada to Israel represents a tiny percentage of the total. Ottawa will keep in place the freeze on non-lethal military export permits adopted on January 8 (previous contracts were exempted) until the government can ensure that the weapons are used in accordance with Canadian law, it said Wednesday. Since the Hamas attacks that triggered the war in Gaza, Canada had authorized new permits worth at least $21 million, more than the amount of total such contracts awarded the previous year.

A minority government

Contributing to the shift in policy towards Israel is the fact that the survival of the minority Liberal government depends on the support of the left-leaning NDP, which is calling for a tougher line on Israel. Monday’s successful vote followed a last-minute deal between the two coalition partners. The NDP had called on the government to recognize the State of Palestine, but the Liberals drastically reworded the text to indicate that Ottawa will simply “work with international partners to actively pursue the goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East, including towards the establishment of the State of Palestine as part of a negotiated two-state solution.”

“The two-state solution definition was really important, as of course we know that Canada, as a G7 country, is sending a message to other G7 countries,” Minister Joly said after the vote. The head of diplomacy downplayed, however, the importance of the NDP motion: “Our position has been clear, it is a position that many G7 foreign ministers have been expressing across the world, which is: we need a hostage deal, we need to make sure that we get to a humanitarian ceasefire, humanitarian aid must go into Gaza.”

The NDP motion — passed by 204 votes to 117, with the support of the Liberals, Bloc Québécois and Greens — has caused divisions within Trudeau’s Liberals: three members voted against it and one raised the possibility of leaving the party. Much like U.S. President Joe Biden, Trudeau has in these five months of war traveled a path from his initial staunch support for Israel to a more critical stance over the loss of tens of thousands of lives and the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip. The stability of his minority government depends on the external support of the New Democrats, but by transferring the outcome of this non-binding motion to his government program the prime minister risks losing support in his ranks. “It’s an issue that’s emotional across the country... and that is reflected in our discussions,” said government chief whip Steve MacKinnon, as quoted by Reuters.

Following the vote, two major lobbying groups laid bare the acrimonious positions of public opinion on the conflict. The Canadian Lobby for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, supported by some of the Arab and Palestinian population, called the motion “watered down” in a statement, but said it represented a “small step forward in ending Canadian complicity in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.” In contrast, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs called the outcome of the vote “misguided and false” in establishing a moral equivalence between victims and executioners.

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