Canada’s moral failure around the Gaza genocide has fuelled anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia in this country

History will judge Canadian leaders harshly for refusing to take action to stop the Gaza genocide. They will be seen as no different than 1930s leaders who refused entry to Jews fleeing the Nazis.

   

By Fareed Khan 

   

Canada’s leaders have long positioned themselves as champions of human rights and the international legal order, yet their response (or lack thereof) to the ongoing genocide in Gaza reveals a stark absence of moral courage. Despite overwhelming evidence of Israel’s atrocities—68,000 Palestinian deaths by July 2025, and more than 370,000 by some estimates—Canadian political leaders have failed to unequivocally condemn Israel’s actions or take tangible steps to halt the violence. This inaction, coupled with on-going trade and diplomatic support for Israel, not only enables anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia at home but also further harms Canada’s already tarnished global standing. The contrast with Canada’s robust response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underscores a troubling double standard, revealing a political class more concerned with appeasing a foreign government than upholding justice. 

Since the 2017 Quebec City mosque massacre and the 2021 London, Ontario attack that claimed a Muslim family, Canadian leaders have paid lip service to combating Islamophobia. Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau and now Mark Carney, alongside Liberal and Conservative MPs, have attended community forums, issued statements condemning hate, and pledged to protect Muslim Canadians. Yet, these gestures ring hollow when viewed against their refusal to substantively address the genocide in Gaza, a crisis that disproportionately affects a racialized, predominantly Muslim population. This hypocrisy has fueled anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia, alienating communities and emboldening bigots, while Canada’s inaction on the global stage undermines its credibility as a defender of international law.

 

The scale of the crisis in Gaza is staggering. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports that, as of July 2025, Israel’s assault has killed at least 68,000 Palestinians, with over one-third being children, and displaced nearly two million people.  A 2025 study by Israeli academic Yaakov Garb, published by Harvard, estimates the death toll could be as high as 377,000, based on Israeli data, highlighting the catastrophic human cost. Social media posts by Israeli soldiers, openly celebrating the murder of civilians, including babies, provide chilling evidence of genocidal intent. A 2025 poll published in Ha’aretz further reveals that 82% of Jewish Israelis support ethnically cleansing Gaza, with 47% endorsing genocide against all Palestinians. Despite these horrors, Canada’s leaders have refused to impose sanctions on Israel, halt arms trade, or support international efforts to hold Israel accountable, such as South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

 

Canada’s failure is not merely a diplomatic misstep, it is an abdication of moral and legal responsibility under the Genocide Convention and the UN doctrine of “Responsibility to Protect”. Canada’s leaders have defended Israel’s actions as “self-defence”, even as UN officials and global leaders have condemned the targeting of civilians, hospitals, and schools. Canada’s antipathy for Palestinians is evident in the more than 150 times it has voted against UN resolutions supporting Palestinians over the past decade.

 

Moreover, the Canadian government has opposed ceasefire resolutions at the UN in past Israeli attacks on Gaza, run interference for Israel, and vilified pro-Palestinian protesters as “terrorist sympathizers” or “Hamas lovers,” since October 2023. Such rhetoric, echoed by politicians like Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, his caucus, and some Liberal MPs, conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism, a tactic that stifles dissent and fuels both anti-Palestinian racism and hatred against Jews.

 

As well, The Maple and The Breach, independent Canadian media outlets, have documented pervasive anti-Palestinian bias in mainstream news coverage, noting how Palestinian voices are sidelined, and their suffering downplayed. This bias reinforces a narrative that dehumanizes Palestinians, portraying them as threats rather than victims of a brutal Israeli occupation of historic Palestine that has lasted for well over seven decades.

The contrast with Canada’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could not be more stark. When Russia invaded, Canada (and its allies) swiftly imposed sanctions, halted trade, and provided military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, positioning itself as a staunch defender of international law. Yet, in Gaza, where the ICJ has ruled Israel’s actions constitute a “plausible genocide,” and where far more people have been killed by Israel than in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Canada continues to engage in two-way trade with Israel, including arms deals, and refuses to sanction all the Israeli officials implicated in war crimes and genocide.

 

This double standard exposes a selective application of justice, where white, Christian, Ukrainian victims of Russia’s war are prioritized, but brown and largely Muslim, Palestinian lives are dismissed as unworthy of a similar robust response. The Canadian government’s failure to act—despite calls from over 400 organizations, including the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), for sanctions and an arms embargo—signals criminal complicity in Israel’s atrocities.

 

The NCCM also cancelled meetings with former prime minister Justin Trudeau, and said that MPs would be unwelcome at mosques across the country until they called for a ceasefire and met other conditions that were published in a letter released in early 2024. Essentially, this and other statements by Canadian Muslim leaders, make it clear that Canadian Muslims no longer have a partner in the federal government when it comes to meaningfully addressing the Gaza genocide, combatting anti-Muslim hate, and address the explosion in anti-Palestinian racism in the public and private sectors. This sentiment is echoed by Canadian Muslims, Palestinians and Arabs who feel betrayed by political leaders who claim to champion diversity while ignoring their demands for justice. In the last quarter of 2023, the NCCM released numbers showing that hate targeting Muslims or Palestinians increased by 1,300%, while the Muslim Legal Support Centre had seen a 400% rise in intake on issues ranging from employment discrimination to improper treatment in schools related to support for Palestinian rights. Annually, the January 29 anniversary of the Quebec City Mosque attack serves as a painful reminder of this growing hostility, yet politicians offer little beyond platitudes and band-aid measures, failing to address the systemic racism embedded in their policies.

 

Moreover, anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia are not confined to the streets. They also permeate Canada’s political, media, and corporate spheres. The Maple has highlighted how Canadian media outlets like CBC skew coverage against Palestinians, often framing Israel’s actions as justified while ignoring the occupation’s context. The Breach has documented cases of journalists and academics being fired or blacklisted for criticizing Israel, reflecting a chilling Neo-McCarthyism. Pro-Palestinian protesters face harassment, doxxing, fines, and arrests, despite exercising their Charter rights to free expression. In contrast, Canada has not prosecuted Canadian citizens who have travelled to Israel to join that nation’s military, even as it commits documented war crimes and genocide, further entrenching the perception that Palestinian lives are expendable.

 

This moral failure has domestic and international repercussions. At home, it risks shredding Canada’s social fabric, alienating Muslim, Palestinian and Arab communities who feel their government prioritizes Israel’s interests over their rights. The Senate Human Rights Committee’s 2023 report underscores that Islamophobia remains a persistent problem, exacerbated by political inaction. Internationally, Canada’s refusal to uphold its obligations under the Genocide Convention—unlike its decisive response to Russia—undermines its reputation as a principled actor. The EU and UK are reevaluating trade with Israel, while Canada lags behind, clinging to a free trade agreement that indirectly funds Israel’s military machine.

 

Ordinary Canadians, however, are not silent. Since October 2023, hundreds of thousands have protested weekly across Canada, demanding a ceasefire, an arms embargo, and sanctions on top Israeli political and military officials for their genocidal crimes. These voices, representing diverse communities, reject the elite narrative peddled by pro-Israel groups like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Yet, the government’s inaction suggests it values geopolitical alliances over the will of its people and defending human rights, a stance that echoes the indifference of pre-World War II leaders to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.

 

To restore Canada’s moral and global standing, leaders must act decisively by imposing a comprehensive arms embargo, suspend the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement, and sanction Israeli officials complicit in genocide.  Similar demands were made in a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney signed by over 400 academics, lawyers, former ambassadors, ministers, human rights experts, and civil society, labour and faith leaders to which the government’s response has been to sanction only two Israeli politicians.  Far more needs to be done if Canada wants to repair its tattered international reputation, including recognizing anti-Palestinian racism in the national Anti-Racism Strategy, as urged by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association. Failure to do so will deepen divisions at home and further erode Canada’s credibility abroad, cementing its complicity in one of the worst human rights crises of our time.

 

The genocide in Gaza is not a “two-sided” conflict, as some Canadian politicians claim. It is asymmetric warfare by one of the most powerful military forces in the world against a helpless people without an army, navy or air force, and systematic assault on Palestinians who have been subjected to the longest and most brutal occupation in modern history. Canadian leaders must choose: either uphold the international legal order which they claim to defend, or continue enabling racism and genocide through their actions and inaction. 

 

The world is watching, and history will not only judge Canada and its leaders harshly for their silence, it will put them in the same box with those pre-World War Two politicians who, when asked how many Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis Canada would accept, responded with the words “none is too many.”
  

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