MONTREAL — After a daylong debate March 19, the Canadian Parliament adopted a motion approving Ottawa’s shift away from its longstanding support of Israel’s armed forces defending the country from attack.
The motion adopted, proposed by the social democratic New Democratic Party and amended by the governing Liberal Party, called for an end to arms sales to Israel, support for the South African government frame-up charge before the International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, as well as support for Ottawa funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, despite its documented ties to Jew-hating Hamas.
The Bloc Quebecois and the Greens supported the resolution while the Conservatives opposed, it along with three Liberal Members of Parliament.
“Canada is the first G7 country to stop sending weapons to [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s extremist government,” boasted MP Heather McPherson from the Edmonton New Democratic Party. Six days later Melanie Joly, Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, hailed the U.N. Security Council’s adoption of a call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
The U.N.’s call isn’t conditional on the release of Israeli hostages. Nor does it condemn — or even mention — the murderous Oct. 7 pogrom against Jews in Israel by Hamas.
Katy LeRougetel, Communist League candidate in the upcoming federal by-election in Montreal, condemned Parliament’s action. She described the decision “as moving Canadian imperialism in lock-step with the Joseph Biden White House, which, while claiming to ‘support’ Israel, is ratcheting up pressure on the Israeli government to end its military operations aimed at destroying Hamas. The truth is that neither Washington nor Ottawa have ever based their actions on defense of the Jews in Israel, but on doing whatever serves their own imperialist economic and political interests.
“A victory in Israel’s planned offensive in Rafah is in the interests of both Palestinians and Jews,” LeRougetel said. “Hamas is responsible for the humanitarian crisis and suffering in Gaza. In pursuing its stated aim to kill Jews and destroy Israel, Hamas sets up in hospitals and civilian areas to use the population as human shields.”
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs also issued a statement March 19 condemning the House of Common’s vote. The group said it was “concerned the motion will further fuel the increased animosity towards the Jewish community in Canada that has plagued our streets since Hamas’ depraved and unprovoked attack that resulted in the barbaric murder of more than 1,200 innocent men, women, and children in Israel and the kidnapping and brutalization of more than 250.”
Spike in Jew-hatred
There has been a sharp spike in Jew-hatred across Canada since Oct. 7. Jewish-owned business across the country have been defaced by red paint and pro-Nazi graffiti. Synagogues and Jewish schools have been attacked in Montreal and elsewhere.
The Hamilton Jewish Film Festival was cancelled March 20 because of threats to the venue, the owners of the facility said. The same day a caricature of Netanyahu, portraying him as a vampire with blood dripping from his hands depicted as claws, echoing historic antisemitic blood libels, was only pulled from the website of the Montreal La Presse after a storm of protest.
Hundreds of people rallied here in Montreal March 23 backing the call for an immediate cease-fire and an end to Ottawa’s military support for Israel. The call for the action didn’t mention Hamas, its Oct. 7 pogrom or the rise of acts of Jew-hatred.
This was the first time a pro-Hamas rally was endorsed by top officials from a number of unions, including the Confederation of National Trade Unions and the Montreal Labour Council of the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ). Nonetheless, there were only a couple dozen union flags or banners at the rally.
The next day hundreds rallied at the Parliament Building in Toronto to denounce “the surge of Jew-hatred that calls for the complete annihilation of Israel and views Jews in Canada and around the world as legitimate targets,” said Canadian Women Against Antisemitism, which called the action.
“I was disgusted beyond belief when I saw my union OPSEU [Ontario Public Service Employees Union], marching” and “yelling for the genocide of my community and another intifada,” marcher Serena Lee-Segal, an occupational therapist, told the Canadian Jewish News.
“The large majority of working people are horrified by Hamas’ pogrom and many support Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews and to defend itself,” LeRougetel told the Militant.
“Opposing Jew-hatred is a life-and-death question for the labor movement. As the crisis of their system deepens, the ruling capitalist families will turn to fascist forces and Jew-hatred will once again be their banner to attack the unions and working-class political parties, as they did in Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.”