Montreal Canada – Palestinian Canadians and human rights lawyers are suing Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly over exports of military equipment to Israel, which they say violate Canada’s obligations under domestic and international law.
The suit, filed Tuesday, asks a federal court to order the Canadian government to stop issuing export permits for military goods and technology destined for Israel.
He also asks the court to consider the issuance of such permits as illegal.
“We seek to hold Canada to its own standards and international legal obligations,” said Henry Off, a board member of Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR), one of the groups involved in the case.
“We do not want the Canadian government to contribute to the mass famine and bombing of Gaza. One way to end Canada’s contributions is to cut off its military support (to Israel),” Off told Tel Aviv Tribune in a telephone interview.
Military exports to Israel have come under closer scrutiny since October 7, when the Israeli army launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip that killed more than 30,000 Palestinians. Thousands more are believed to have died, buried under the rubble.
CLAIHR wrote an open letter to the Canadian government in late January, urging Ottawa to “immediately stop” all exports due to concerns that the weapons could be used in human rights violations against Palestinians in the coastal enclave.
Canadian arms exports to Israel totaled more than $15 million (C$21.3 million) in 2022, according to official figures.
Citing government data, the Maple news site first reported in February that Canada had authorized at least $20.9 million (C$28.5 million) in new military exports to Israel over the past few years. first two months of the war in Gaza.
This report sparked widespread criticism and calls to end exports. Last week, protesters gathered outside arms company facilities in several cities across Canada, including Vancouver, Quebec and Scarborough.
“Canada’s disregard for international and Canadian law in approving a dramatic increase in military exports to Israel since it began its bombing of Gaza compels us to take legal action to hold Canada accountable,” Ayman said Oweida, a Palestinian Canadian and one of the plaintiffs. candidates, said in a statement.
What does Canada export to Israel?
Global Affairs Canada, the country’s foreign ministry, did not immediately respond to Tel Aviv Tribune’s request for comment on the trial Tuesday morning.
In an email sent last month, a ministry spokesperson, Jean-Pierre Godbout, told Tel Aviv Tribune that the permits granted since October 7 “concern the export of non-lethal equipment.”
He did not provide an exact dollar amount for these exports or provide details on the equipment that received a permit to be sent to Israel. When asked for examples of goods considered “non-lethal,” Godbout did not provide an answer.
“In accordance with Canada’s long-standing policy, all permit applications for controlled items are considered on a case-by-case basis under Canada’s risk assessment framework,” Godbout said.
Experts have said the vast majority of Canada’s military exports to Israel are in the form of parts and components. This includes electronics and space equipment; military aerospace exports and components; and bombs, missiles, rockets and explosives and general military components.
But most exports are shrouded in secrecy. “We don’t know which companies export them. We don’t know exactly what their end use is,” Kelsey Gallagher, a researcher at peace research institute Project Plowshares, told Tel Aviv Tribune last month.
Lawyers and human rights activists also suspect that Canadian military components are arriving in Israel via the United States, particularly for installation in fighter jets such as the F-35, but the scale of these exports is not It’s also not clear.
The export regime
Meanwhile, Canada’s Export and Import Permits Act requires the Minister of Foreign Affairs to “refuse applications for permits to export and broker military goods and technology…if there is a risk “substantial that these articles compromise peace and security”.
Under the law, exports should also be blocked if they “could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law” or in “serious acts of gender-based violence or serious acts of of violence against women and children.
Canada is also a party to the Arms Trade Treaty, a United Nations pact that similarly prohibits such transfers if states know the weapons could be used in genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of war and other violations of international law.
There is little publicly available information on how Canada makes its decisions regarding military equipment exports. In 2022, 50 requests for “military, dual-use and strategic goods or technologies” were refused, the government indicates on its website. Of these requests, several were refused due to sanctions against Russia, while others were rejected to remain consistent with “Canada’s foreign policy and defense interests.”
In 2021, Canada said it had refused export permits to Libya due to its obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty.
In this context, international law experts have warned that providing weapons to Israel could constitute a violation of the Genocide Convention. In a preliminary ruling in late January, the International Court of Justice ruled that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and ordered Israel to take measures to prevent acts of genocide in the bombed Palestinian territory.
Last month, a Dutch court ordered the government to stop exporting F-35 components to Israel after determining “there is a clear risk that Israel’s F-35 fighter jets could be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law.
Off cited that decision by the Netherlands as an example and said he hoped Canada would follow.
“We ask that the courts of Canada follow suit and recognize this illegality,” he said.