The Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister qualified the move to 'cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel,' already paused since January 8, as 'a real thing,' and not merely symbolic.

Israel has historically been a top receiver of Canadian arms exports, with CAN$21 million worth of military materiel exported to Israel in 2022, according to Radio Canada, following CAN$26 million in shipments in 2021. That places Israel among the top 10 recipients of Canadian arms exports.

  • @GrymEdmEnglish
    19•3 months ago

    Canada paused military shipments to Israel on Jan. 8th, has stopped for realsies now apparently, and resumed UNRWA funding before any payments were missed. On Feb. 14th the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand issued a joint statement calling any Rafah offensive “catastrophic” and calling for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. My guess is evidence of war crimes and potentially genocide is so undeniable that countries are scrambling to distance themselves from what will be years of condemnation by the ICJ and other regulatory/watchdog institutions.

    I’m Canadian, and for months I’ve been posting about how my country has given Israel too much support given the evidence of long-standing apartheid and other human rights violations (and war crimes since Oct. 7th). My first post on Lemmy was actually about how ashamed I was that Western countries like Canada were being so silent about the Gazan crisis. Hopefully measures like stopping sales and promoting a two-state solution are first steps on the road to stopping the suffering of the Palestinians and making up for those months of inaction or even unethical support.

    • @[email protected]English
      3•3 months ago

      Per Canada:

      As of September 2019, under the 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, acts constituting an offence under international conventions relating to terrorism or organized crime, or serious acts of gender-based violence.

      Turkey is blacklisted since 2021 for cause, and if you’ve followed the way they’ve dealt with Kurdish rebels and civilians, it’s completely clear why. Same with Israel and Gaza/Lebanon, the IDF and IAF have repeatedly demonstrated an astonishing lack of restraint towards civilians if doing so means they cannot pursue their military objectives.