Gaza response tarnishes Canada’s human rights record

Opinion

Canada and Canadians have long considered themselves defenders of human rights, democracy, justice and the rule of law. Canada played a significant role in the development of what’s known as the liberal international order, including multilateral institutions like the United Nations, and international law.

Canada was once highly respected for the role it played developing the framework for United Nations peacekeeping, the Mine Ban Treaty, championing the UN’s Responsibility to Protect, supporting Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations and establishing the International Criminal Court.

Canada has acted as a moral voice denouncing abuses of human rights and violations of international law. It challenged South African apartheid, and passed a parliamentary motion calling China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims a genocide.

It has advocated for Iranian women’s rights at the United Nations and sanctioned Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

In 2023, Canada joined a declaration of intervention against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice over its treatment of the Rohingya people, reaffirming the requirement for states to prevent genocide.

WHERE IS CANADA NO GAZA?

Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada intends to recognize a Palestinian state at this week’s UN General Assembly.

Yet, Canada’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza since October 2023 and countless well-documented instances of war crimes committed against Palestinians — including allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide — raises serious questions about Canada’s commitment to its own values and the liberal international order.

Observers have documented countless Israeli violations of international law while turning Gaza into an unliveable wasteland. Seventy-eight per cent of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed, including housing (92 per cent), water and sanitation infrastructure (89 per cent), hospitals (50 per cent), schools (91.8 per cent) and roads (81 per cent).

The health-care system has been systematically dismantled, and Gaza has recorded the highest number of deaths of health-care workers, United Nations staff and journalists of any recent conflict zone.

Israel has denied and attacked humanitarian aid. Since mid-March, it has enforced a total siege on Gaza, blocking entry of food, water, medical supplies, hygiene and dignity kits, and infant and maternal care items, including baby formula.

Famine has been unfolding and starvation is widespread, but now 100 per cent of Gaza’s estimated 2,100,000 people face acute levels of food insecurity.

AID IS SCARCE

Only four aid distribution sites currently operate in Gaza, down from 400. They were set up in May by the United States/Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Médecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders) say they violate core humanitarian principles.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been accused of weaponizing aid, engaging in ethnic cleansing and funnelling Palestinians south to displace them. Its contractors and Israeli forces have been accused of firing on starving Palestinians, accounting for many of the 1,838 Palestinians killed and 13,409 wounded while seeking aid since the foundation began operations.

Gaza’s official death toll now stands at 61,722 people, but is likely much higher. Gaza has recorded more child deaths than any other conflict zone, and Israel’s own military data indicates an almost unheard-of 83 per cent civilian death rate.

CANADA’S SUPPORT OF ISRAEL

Canada claims to support a fair-minded approach to Palestine-Israel peacebuilding. It does not recognize permanent Israeli control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory, recognizes Palestinians’ right to self-determination and is committed to the goal of a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in the Middle East.

But despite Israel’s assault on Gaza, attacks in the West Bank and violations of international law, Canada continues to ship Israel arms, financially supports Israeli settlements on Palestinian land and offers Israel diplomatic support and multilateral cover.

If Canada makes a statement critical of Israeli violations, it rarely follows through with tangible consequences for Israel. Canada has admitted few Palestinian refugees from Gaza and has participated in dangerous humanitarian aid air drops that have been called expensive public relations stunts that don’t help very many people.

CRITICS OF ISRAEL UNDER ATTACK

Meanwhile, critics in Canada of Israeli violations regularly find themselves under assault. Institutions like universities and the media, which should be defenders of core Canadian values, and federal, provincial and municipal governments, regularly spread misinformation and try to silence opposition to Israel’s actions.

Some Canadians have even been fired for speaking out and law enforcement has been deployed against them.

When the United States sanctioned four International Criminal Court prosecutors and judges, including a Canadian judge, for investigations into Israeli and American war crimes, Canada chose to remain silent. Canada had previously criticized the court for bringing charges against Israeli leaders.

WHAT EXPLAINS CANADA’S SUPPORT?

Between 2021 and 2023, I co-edited three scholarly volumes exploring Canada’s relations with the Palestinians that help explain Canada’s commitment to Israel throughout its genocidal war on Gaza.

“Canada as a Settler Colony on the Question of Palestine” (2023) argues there’s a strong historical bond between Canada and Israel as two European settler colonies established by the British Empire through the extermination and displacement of Indigenous Peoples.

The volume argues that a close socio-political bond and shared colonial interests cause Canada and Israel to support each other robustly on the international stage.

The suppression of voices critical of Israel is unsurprising when reading “Advocating for Palestine in Canada” (2022). It documents how this has happened over decades. Nonetheless, Palestine has become central to anti-racist, decolonial and other progressive movements across Canada.

Finally, in “What Lies Ahead? Canada’s Engagement with the Middle East Peace Process and the Palestinians” (2021), I argued that while there are clearly some elite voices in Canada advocating for a fair approach to Palestine-Israel peace-building, they are always outweighed by pro-Israel considerations.

These books and empirical observations since Oct. 7, 2023 suggest that Canada may be more committed to Israel and their shared colonial interests than Canadians’ own values or the liberal international order.

A DEFINING TEST

Genocide is considered the most heinous of all crimes, and Gaza is the defining ethical test of the 21st century.

Illiberal measures deployed to silence dissent and support a country accused of genocide represent a grave threat to core liberal-democratic values.

Double standards like Canada’s policies toward Palestine raise serious questions about the fairness of international and domestic law, governance and policy and the Canadian state’s commitment to basic principles of human rights, democracy and justice.

» Jeremy Wildeman is a research fellow at the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa and adjunct assistant professor, Carleton University. This column was originally published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca.