Montreal, August 7, 2025 — Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is calling on the Canadian government to align its policies with the clear views of the Canadian public in support of Palestinian human rights, as revealed by a new poll by Angus Reid. The results show that Canadians overwhelmingly reject complicity in Israel’s actions in Gaza, which a majority now recognize as genocide.

The poll shows that:

• The majority of Canadians (52%) believe that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, which is more than twice the number of those who disagree (25%).
• More than half (54%) of Canadians say that Canada needs to do more to ensure it is not selling lethal military equipment to Israel, while only 20% say it should end the arms embargo.
• Far more Canadians now sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis (37% to 19%), doubling in support over the last two years. Even among Liberal voters, only 5% say they mostly sympathize with Israel, underlining a sharp disconnect between the government and its own base.

“Despite these findings which reveal that most Canadians support greater action on Palestinian rights, Canadian foreign policy continues to act as if the reverse were true,” said Michael Bueckert, Acting President of CJPME. “Canadians have spoken: they do not support arming a state that they know is committing genocide," he added.

Last week, CJPME joined partners in the Arms Embargo Now Campaign in issuing a report which found that Canada has continued to ship arms to Israel, despite claiming the opposite. With these new poll findings demonstrating that a majority of Canadians want their government to do more to stop the flow of arms, CJPME urges the government to immediately enact a full, two-way arms embargo with Israel and impose sweeping sanctions to help stop the genocide.

“During the federal election, Prime Minister Carney repeatedly refused to name Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide. Yet Canadians are not so ambivalent. Not only does a majority of Canadians view it as a genocide, but so do 74% of his party’s supporters, with only a tiny fringe saying that they disagree. What will it take for Carney’s words and actions to reflect the reality that everyone else can see — that Canada’s ‘friend and ally’ is committing a genocide in Gaza?” said Bueckert.