Email PM Carney and UN Ambassador Bob Rae to demand they follow their international legal obligations before they become more responsible for Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide.

In response to the ICJ’s July 2024 Advisory Opinion, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution that called “for Israel to comply with international law and withdraw its military forces, immediately cease all new settlement activity, evacuate all settlers from occupied land, and dismantle parts of the separation wall it constructed inside the occupied West Bank.” The resolution required Israel to end its illegal occupation within 12 months — making the deadline September 18, 2025.

More recently than the UNGA resolution, on September 16, 2025, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (UN Commission) released a report stating that “Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

This is not news to us – and it is of course not news to Palestinians who have been enduring genocide for the last 77+ years. However, this new report can be used to our advantage; to pressure the government to take action. There is a strong argument that they have been on notice for grave violations of international law since October 2023 (and before), and the UN Commission does note that State Parties have been on notice “since at least 26 January 2024.”

The UN Commission stated:

“[T] the duty to prevent genocide was triggered due to the actual or constructive knowledge of the immediate plausibility that genocide was being or was about to be committed. According to the International Court of Justice, where States Parties are able to contribute to the prevention of genocide, they are obligated to ‘employ all means reasonably available to them, so as to prevent genocide so far as possible.’ Responsibility may be incurred if a State Party ‘manifestly failed to take all measures to prevent genocide which were within its power, and which might have contributed to preventing the genocide.’

The Canadian government has clearly ‘manifestly failed to take all measures to prevent genocide which were within its power, and which might have contributed to preventing the genocide.’ Instead, Canada has done the opposite and continued to tangibly support Israel and its genocide in Gaza, including through:

1. Continuing to export weapons to Israel (directly and through the United States);
2. Providing military support through the Canada-Israel Strategic Partnership (CISP);
3. Sending Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM), including troops from Joint Task Force 2, to Israel on October 29, 2023;
4. Allowing the recruitment of Canadian volunteers to the Israeli military (which also violates the Foreign Enlistment Act);
5. According charitable status and/or qualified donnee status to organizations that support Israel’s military;
6. Maintaining the Canada Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA) despite it bolstering the Israeli economy which is relevant to Israel’s genocide in Gaza;
7. Providing financial support to companies that support the Israeli military through federal pension plans (CPPIB and CDPQ); and
8. Refusing to impose any sanctions on Israel or its military and refusing to impose a two-way arms embargo.

Member States must:

“Cease the transfer of arms and other equipment or items, including jet fuel, to the State of Israel or third States where there is reason to suspect their use in military operations that have involved or could involve the commission of genocide” and “Ensure individuals and corporations in their territories and within their jurisdiction are not involved in the commission of genocide, aiding and assisting the commission of genocide or incitement to commit genocide and investigate and prosecute those who may be implicated in these crimes under international law.”

Canada must take action to comply with international law and their duty to prevent and punish genocide.

Importantly, Canada’s obligations are not isolated to the Gaza Strip, but rather all of Palestine. The UN Commission also explicitly stated this, noting that “the specific intent to destroy the Palestinians as a whole has extended to the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, that is, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem;” including before October 7, 2023.

Yet, Canada has similarly failed to take meaningful action to stop the ongoing annexation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Rather, Canada has supported the Israeli occupation and apartheid state through the supply of weapons, tax-subsidized funding to settlements and settlement organizations, strategic and military support, and economic benefits through CIFTA.

While the Canadian government recognizes – in writing – that Israel’s illegal settlements and construction of the Annexation Wall inside the West Bank, including East Jerusalem violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, it’s actions stand in stark contrast. In reality, Canada actively supports and participates in Israel’s occupation and apartheid. Canada is tangibly providing financial, material, and strategic assistance to Israel, as described above.

The UNGA resolution not only put the responsibility on Israel, but also called for Member States to “fulfill their obligations arising from Israel’s internationally wrongful acts, including, inter alia, the obligation to promote the realisation of the Palestinian right to self-determination as well as the obligation not to recognise, aid or assist in Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Canada has clearly failed on all accounts. As a settler-colonial nation itself, Canada has no incentive to end its complicity in Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide. Yet, public opinion continues to shift, with Israel losing its propaganda campaign. States are taking action against Israel. Spain has agreed on a full arms embargo on Israel, as well as other measures. Germany has refused to export military equipment that could be used in Gaza. Slovenia has banned all arms trade with Israel. Belgium has ordered the Flemish government not to allow the transit of military equipment to Israel.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, worth $2 trillion, announced it is divesting from various Israeli companies and completing due diligence reviews of others.

Tell Canada to take action. Two-way arms embargo and sanctions. End CIFTA. End CISP. End foreign military recruitment. End tax-subsidies for genocide. Divest from all companies complicit in Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide.