The federal election is underway, and we need your help to force Gaza back into the political conversation and beat the media blackout. Despite Israel renewing its genocidal campaign, the leaders of all Canada’s political parties have been nearly silent.The Leaders’ Debates will be held on April 16 and 17 in Montreal. We need to ensure that the federal leaders are directly asked about Canada’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing crimes.It’s time to ask about genocide. Click here to send an email to the Leaders’ Debates Commission and debate moderators, and insist that they ask the party leaders whether they believe Israel committed genocide, and whether they will continue to allow Canadian companies to sell weapons to Israel.

Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney has an opportunity to adopt a new approach to Israel's genocide in Gaza. In a troubling first decision, however, Carney has appointed Marco Mendicino to be his Chief of Staff, a staunchly pro-Israel politician who is openly hostile to Palestinian human rights. Mendicino has amplified far-right anti-Palestinian figures and is one of the only Liberal MPs who is opposed to a ceasefire in Gaza. At every opportunity, Mendicino has urged Canada to oppose efforts to restrain Israel’s actions in Gaza or to hold its leaders accountable for war crimes. It is outrageous and alarming that Carney would choose him for a top position of power and influence in his transition team and next government. Mendicino has been advising Canada to abandon international law and become even more complicit in Israel’s genocide. He has no place in advising Carney on foreign policy.

We need to stand together against US President Trump. He has been crystal clear since returning to the White House that there is no place for Palestinians in the future of Gaza, and he has been threatening to take over the territory and permanently expel the population. Meanwhile, he is hellbent on empowering Netanyahu and his cronies to sabotage the ceasefire deal and steal the entirety of the West Bank. We can’t afford to stand by and let Canada be bullied by Trump into meekly accepting his dangerous plan for ethnically cleansing Gaza, nor his assault on the Canadian economy. When someone shows you who they are, believe them. Trump is a bully who thinks stealing other people’s land is justified. Canada’s leaders must stand up to Trump’s annexationist and genocidal agenda in Palestine, just as they would oppose it closer to home.

At the direction of the Ford government’s secretive and Orwellian named “Hate Crimes Working Group” (HCWG), police in Ontario have intensified their crackdowns and suppression of the Palestinian community and its allies, violating Charter rights. On November 18, Ottawa Police illegally blocked a planned peaceful march, arrested six organizers that evening and imposed draconian bail conditions. This adds to a dangerous trend of over-policing the Palestinian solidarity movement under the pretext of hate crime enforcement, with Ontario police and crown prosecutors using these measures to persecute Palestinian Canadians for opposing Israel’s genocide and Canadian companies profiteering from it.

The possibility of holding Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes in Gaza has never been closer. After months of delay, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has finally issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for crimes against humanity. As a signatory to the Rome Statute, Canada is legally obliged to support the court’s rulings and arrest Netanyahu if he comes to Canada. While Trudeau did not promise to arrest Netanyahu, he did state that Canada would abide by the ICC’s regulations and rulings. Not surprisingly, pro-Israel groups are now pressuring Trudeau to oppose the ICC ruling and abandon its commitments under international law.

Palestine satisfies all the criteria for statehood according to the Montevideo Convention: it has a permanent population, a defined territory, a government and the ability to enter relations with other states. Over 140 countries have already recognized Palestine, with Spain, Ireland and Norway joining the chorus just recently. If Canada says it supports Palestinian self-determination, it should delay no longer, and recognize Palestine immediately!

Almost a year after Israel launched its campaign of genocide on Gaza, Israel is now propagating war across the Middle East.  Israel proclaims that it's only acting in self-defence, and many of our Canadian political leaders eat it up.  But Israel's decades of militarism, colonialism and occupation tell a different story, and 2023-24 will go down in the history books much as 1947-48, 1956, 1967, 1982, 2006, 2008-09.  It is long past time for Canada to rebuke Israel's war machine and end the sale of Canadian military goods and technology to Israel: millions of people in Palestine, Lebanon, Israel, Syria and Iran depend on it.

Over a thousand Palestinians with connections to Canada are stranded in Egypt, while thousands more may still be stuck in Gaza. All of them face devastating bureaucratic obstacles from Canada’s Gaza Temporary Resident Visa (TRV) program. In early 2024, Canada had pledged to help Palestinians escape Israeli violence and reunite with their families in Canada. Instead, our TRV program has utterly failed and has revealed deep flaws and anti-Palestinian racism in Canada’s visa system. This failure continues to prolong the suffering of Palestinian families and tarnishes Canada’s global reputation as a safe haven.

We are deeply alarmed that Prime Minister’s Special Envoy Lyons has published a dangerous handbook to guide institutions in applying the extremist anti-Palestinian IHRA definition of antisemitism. IHRA strategically conflates antisemitism with nearly any criticism of Israel and Zionism, and is often used to suppress, censor, and persecute Palestinian perspectives. It is clear that this anti-Palestinian, pro-censorship handbook will be used to target anti-genocide protestors and put a deep chill on criticism of apartheid, genocide and Zionism. Stand with us against Trudeau’s censorship campaign, and urge him to withdraw this dangerous handbook!

We were shocked to learn that Canada is about to allow 50,000 “high explosive” mortars to be transferred to the Israeli military, even as it commits a genocide in Gaza. As part of the $20B arms package just approved by the United States Congress, the US will be purchasing $83.7M (CAD) worth of mortars, made in Quebec. Canada cannot allow this shipment of 50,000 explosives to go ahead. Just earlier this year, grassroots pressure led Parliament to vote to stop sending weapons to Israel. This shipment blatantly violates the will of Parliament and there is no question that these weapons will be used against civilians in Gaza. Canada has an obligation to intervene.