How the NDP's motion on Israel could bring a profound shift in Canadian foreign policy

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly made it clear within minutes of the pas‐ sage of the NDP's motion on the Gaza war and the Is‐ raeli-Palestinian conflict that the government didn't regard it as just another non-binding opposition day motion that could be swiftly forgotten.

"This is clearly the intent of this government, to make sure that we follow what is written in this motion," she said. "And that is why we've worked very hard to make sure that we could get to a text where we could abide by it."

In fact, most of the origi‐ nal text in the motion was rewritten during last-minute talks between New Democra‐ ts and Liberals.

That extensive rewrite changed or toned down much of the substance of the original motion, and com‐ pletely removed its most con‐ troversial clause - the one calling for unilateral recogni‐ tion of a Palestinian state, a move already taken by 139 other countries.

Disappointment among those who had pushed for a stronger motion coloured ini‐ tial reactions to it. New De‐ mocrats countered that they had still won important con‐ cessions that would do more to protect Palestinian civil‐ ians in the short term.

"We were able to force the government to move on things that they had not sup‐ ported before," said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. "Things that will provide im‐ mediate relief to people on the ground in Gaza."

NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson, the dri‐ ving force behind the motion, pointed to specific achieve‐ ments.

"We can now hold the government accountable for a ceasefire, for access, for humanitarian care, to make sure Canadians in Gaza are able to come home, to make sure that arms are no longer being sent to Israel," she said.

WATCH | NDP motion on Israel and Gaza passes af‐ ter major amendments:

Neither one that night mentioned one of the few clauses in the deal that was not heavily rewritten during negotiations.

That clause may yet turn out to be the most significant part in the long run, said in‐ ternational law professor Mark Kersten of the Univer‐ sity of the Fraser Valley, who in November testified before the Commons foreign affairs committee about Canada's legal position on the conflict.

"I was actually surprised that part stayed in the mo‐ tion," he told CBC News, "be‐ cause it is one of the few things that I think is a dia‐ metrical shift in what the Lib‐ erals have said in the past, or what the government has ever said in the past."

The major change buried in the wording

That part of the final text says Canada will:

(d) support the prosecu‐ tion of all crimes and viola‐ tions of international law committed in the region; (e) support the work of the In‐ ternational Court of Justice and the International Crimi‐ nal Court.

Those simple words, if they're turned into policy, represent a reversal of Canada's previous positions, Kersten said.

"There's no statement from a senior government of‐ ficial ever that has said they would support the ICC in re‐ lation to the Palestinian situ‐ ation," he said.

Kersten said that ac‐ cording to what he's heard about the negotiations, the Liberals were reluctant to al‐ low those clauses to go through.

"But it came down to the last five minutes and they had to say either go or no," he said. "And it had already been watered down so much that that part survived."

McPherson agreed that those clauses reverse Canada's previous positions on Israel.

"Our expectation, based on the motion the govern‐ ment supported, is a signifi‐ cantly changed approach to the International Criminal Court," she said. "This mean‐ ingful step forward brings Canada in step with interna‐ tional law.

"Canada must support, and of course recognize, ICC/ICJ investigations and de‐ cisions."

Canada has long argued that neither the ICJ, which es‐ sentially sues governments, nor the ICC, which prose‐ cutes individuals, should have any jurisdiction over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be‐ cause Israel has not accepted their jurisdiction, and Pales‐ tinians cannot ask for their protection or intervention because Palestine is not a recognized state.

Canada most recently reit‐ erated that position at a United Nations-mandated ICJ hearing on Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian ter‐ ritories in February.

But under the govern‐ ment of Prime Minister Justin

Trudeau, Canada has gone much further. The govern‐ ment has sent letters to ICC prosecutors warning them not to pursue cases against Israel or Israelis - while re‐ minding them that Canada is one of the court's major sources of funding.

An about-face in Canadi‐ an foreign policy

McPherson told CBC News the new motion should prevent those interventions.

"Now the Liberal govern‐ ment can't pick and choose when they'll support the work of the court, and when they'll interfere based on which countries are under in‐ vestigation," she said.

Kersten said that while the Trudeau government's policy may have been inten‐ ded to shield Israeli officials from legal accountability, it also has the effect of oppos‐ ing the prosecution of lead‐ ers of Hamas for their welldocumented war crimes against Israelis - effectively placing the entire conflict un‐ der an umbrella of legal im‐ punity that is the opposite of the rules-based international order the government says it supports.

James Kafieh, vice-presi‐ dent of the Palestinian Cana‐ dian Congress, called the two clauses "a 180-degree rever‐ sal" that was "long overdue."

"It does represent a real material change in Canadian policy" toward the two inter‐ national courts, he told CBC

News. "Canada has worked relentlessly to undermine these. And an obvious exam‐ ple is Canada sending regular briefs to the International Criminal Court to argue that Palestine has no jurisdiction, that the court had no juris‐ diction to hear any complain‐ ts from the Palestinians, ef‐ fectively giving Israel political cover."

CBC News asked Global Affairs Canada about what that part of the motion would mean for Canadian policy but received no re‐ sponse.

Israel's supporters focus on arms export ban

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who opposed the motion and says he is now reconsidering his future in the Liberal caucus, said the motion violated an under‐ standing that the Trudeau government would follow Stephen Harper's famously pro-Israel approach to the conflict - with one exception.

"This would be completely in violation of what the Liber‐ al Party has promised in 2015, 2019, in 2021," he told CBC News, "which is that Canada would be an ally of Israel and that our policy would be no different than the Conservatives with re‐ spect to Israel, other than the fact that we wouldn't make this a wedge issue."

WATCH | Liberal MP says

he has to reflect after NDPsponsored motion on Israel passes:

His reaction to his govern‐ ment's decision to back an amended version of the mo‐ tion was mirrored by respon‐ ses from the Israeli govern‐ ment and from Canadian pro-Israel organizations, some of whom focused on the damaging symbolism of prohibiting arms exports to Israel.

"By adopting such a onesided and irresponsible mo‐ tion, the House has ex‐ pressed an appalling degree of disregard for Israel's right to defend itself," said David Granovsky of B'nai Brith Canada.

"It's regrettable that the Canadian government is tak‐ ing a step that undermines Israel's right to self-defence against Hamas terrorists," Is‐ raeli Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz posted on X, for‐ merly Twitter. "History will judge Canada's current ac‐ tion harshly."

Idit Shamir, Israel's consul general in Toronto, went fur‐ ther. "Now Canada is going to deny weapons to Israel?" she asked in a social media post. "That's going to be a moment that Canada's going to have to deal with now for 10, 20, 30, 40 years. That in Israel's darkest moment they abandon it. That's what they just did and frankly I think it's shameful."

A symbolic victory

Palestinian advocates saw that part of the motion as a major victory, although a symbolic one.

"It's very significant not because Canada sells a lot of weapons to Israel. We're lim‐ ited to about $20 million a year - very little," Kafieh, of the Palestinian Canadian Congress, told CBC News.

"The real problem, as is witnessed in the Jerusalem Post's editorial about it, is that Israel is in a full panic because this essentially gives permission for other Western allies that have historically aided and abetted Israel to take similar action. And that's the beginning of censure, the beginning of holding Israel accountable to international laws."

Montreal-born Knesset member Dan Illouz, a mem‐ ber of the governing Likud party, sent a letter to Joly warning that the arms ban "sends a dangerous signal to the world." It comes as Israel faces warnings from other governments that its access to their arms could be lim‐ ited.

British and Israeli media reported Friday that British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has ordered a re‐ view of Israel's actions that could lead to a suspension of arms sales. Alicia Kearns, chair of the U.K. Parliament's foreign affairs committee, said a decision could come "within the week."

Cameron also warned Is‐ raeli officials they could face a Europe-wide "arms embar‐ go" if they continue to deny Red Cross officials access to prisoners, as required by in‐ ternational law.

Unanswered questions about arms contracts

The government has clari‐ fied that it will allow Canadi‐ an companies to honour all commercial arms contracts already signed.

It says no permits for ex‐ ports of lethal arms to Israel have been granted since Oc‐ tober 7, and no permits for non-lethal military equip‐ ment exports have been granted since January 8, 2024.

But the NDP clearly sus‐ pects that arms will continue to flow to Israel under older contracts.

On Tuesday, the day after the motion, NDP MP Charlie Angus asked in Parliament about two contracts that have drawn attention.

"Will the minister respect Parliament and tell us whether deals like the guns from Colt in Kitchener and armed vehicles from Roshel in Brampton will be sent to Israel, yes or no?" he asked.

Angus did not receive the straight answer he was seek‐ ing.

"We will continue to advo‐ cate for a ceasefire, we will continue to not sell arms, as we have promised, and con‐ tinue to make sure that we bring hostages back to where they belong - in their homes," said Liberal MP Robert Oliphant, Joly's parliamentary secretary.

Roshel is an armoured ve‐ hicle company based in Brampton, Ont. that has sold to Israel in the past. The Colt contract concerns an Israeli order for 24,000 Armalitestyle assault rifles that al‐ ready has been the subject of a hold order from the U.S. government. Three-quarters of those rifles are expected to be supplied by Colt.

Protests have targeted both the main Colt plant in West Hartford, Conn., and the Colt Canada plant in Kitchener, Ont, partly over concerns the rifles might be distributed to Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

The U.S. State Depart‐ ment demanded reassur‐ ances from Israel that the ri‐ fles would not be given out to civilians or settlers as part of a large gun-giveaway pro‐ gram under the auspices of Israel's far-right national se‐ curity minister, Itamar BenGvir, head of the Jewish Power Party.

Ben-Gvir, who has crimi‐ nal convictions for support‐ ing terrorism and inciting ha‐ tred, has held several such giveaways, pledged to issue 400,000 new civilian gun per‐ mits and recently boasted on

about arming 100,000 Is‐ raeli citizens since Oct 7.

Ben-Gvir's opponents have warned that the guns are going to his far-right sup‐ porters, including violent West Bank settlers who use them to kill and displace Palestinian civilians.

XGlobal Affairs Canada did not respond to questions about the sale, but on Mon‐ day Colt's Czech parent com‐ pany told CBC News that it will not be fulfilling that order from its Kitchener plant.

"Colt Canada has never delivered any of its products or parts to Israel," said a Colt CZ Group spokesperson, "and there are no ongoing or pending contracts and deliv‐ eries from Colt Canada to Is‐ rael."

Sanctions on settlers

Much of the rest of the mo‐ tion was merely a reiteration of existing policies, or of measures the Liberal govern‐ ment already had announced it would back.

A commitment to sanc‐ tion extremist settlers, who have dramatically escalated their attacks on Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank under the current gov‐ ernment, had already been made verbally by Joly on Feb. 4 (although there has been no followup).

The call for an "immedi‐ ate" ceasefire also changed little. Canada already voted for such a ceasefire at the UN back on Dec. 12, 2023. It re‐ peated that call in conjunc‐ tion with Australia and New Zealand on Feb. 14.

As for Palestinian state‐ hood, recognition was re‐ placed with the language that has guided Canadian policy through decades of Liberal and Conservative govern‐ ments - language that leaves it up to the two parties to ne‐ gotiate a division of the land.

Kafieh said that language "is a non-starter" given the Netanyahu government's de‐ clared intention to continue to oppose a two-state solu‐ tion.

"Even if people made good faith efforts to support it," he said, "fundamentally you have Palestinians who are a subject people in a room with the Israelis who dominate them.

"How are you supposed to free them or negotiate a set‐ tlement that could be based on anything other than the massive power imbalance that exists between the two parties?"

NDP will hold govern‐ ment's 'feet to the fire'

But Kafieh said he is confi‐ dent that the statehood issue will return. McPherson said the same on Monday night.

For now, she said, New Democrats will make sure the Liberal government is not allowed to forget that it has changed its posture on the international courts' jurisdic‐ tion over the Israeli-Palestin‐ ian conflict.

"This cannot be an empty promise from the Liberal gov‐ ernment," she said. "New De‐ mocrats will continue to do the hard work of holding this government's feet to the fire. We'll use the tools we have in committee and Parliament to ensure the government hon‐ ours their commitment to this approach that respects the role of the ICC/ICJ."'

Kersten said it's the pres‐ sure applied after the fact that will determine how sig‐ nificant the change is.

"Whether or not it has an impact depends on, do peo‐ ple expect it to have an im‐ pact?" he said. "If no one thinks it has an impact, then it's just a vacuous statement saying, 'Support the ICC.'"

Kersten said most people have focused on issues such as statehood and weapons sales and have failed to notice the important legal change.

"And if that continues and this ICC/ICJ part of the mo‐ tion falls out the bottom as a result of that, then it can't re‐ ally change much because the Liberals don't want to act on that," he said.

"I don't think this motion changes the fact that they do not want to act on that. And whether they do act on that will depend on whether their feet are held to the fire."