Canada’s moral collapse on Gaza, and the dangerous rise of anti Palestinian racism in Canada

Canada’s refusal to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel is a diplomatic misstep, a profound moral failure, and a breach of Canada’s legal obligation under the Genocide Convention.

By Fareed Khan
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

In late April and early May 2026, more than a dozen Canadian human rights activists — including Ko Tinmaung and Marie Tota — were abducted in international waters by Israeli forces while participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian mission carrying desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. Their boats, which were part of a 40 boat fleet crewed by over 400 activists, were intercepted more than 250 nautical miles from Gaza’s shores, far outside Israeli territorial waters, in what international law experts have described as an act of state piracy and a blatant violation of international law.

The Canadians were unarmed and posed no threat. Yet they were beaten, humiliated, sexually assaulted, and tortured. Their accounts mirror the testimony of scores of other flotilla participants and align with decades of documentation by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN Special Rapporteurs, and Israeli human rights organizations.

Despite repeated requests from Canadian flotilla participants for meetings with Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand — to speak directly about the torture they endured in Israeli custody and the mistreatment Tinmaung and Tota faced at Pearson International Airport upon their return — the government has shown a consistent unwillingness to meet with these brave Canadians.

Carney and Anand did condemn a grotesque video posted by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, in which he taunted abducted flotilla activists in custody. But beyond those social media statements — beyond the PR — the government has taken no action in response to the allegations of torture. No formal protest. No demand for accountability. No sanctions. No consular investigation. No meeting with the survivors or their families. No justice.

Thirteen Canadians were abducted and tortured by a foreign state, and one was left to drown in the Mediterranean in a boat severely damaged by Israeli military personnel, and yet Canada has done nothing.

This is not a diplomatic oversight. It is a moral failure — and a political choice.

We must ask why the Canadian government is refusing to meet survivors of Israeli torture.

The answer lies in Canada’s long‑standing political alignment with Israel. For decades, Canadian governments — Liberal and Conservative alike — have treated Israel not as a nation to be held accountable, but as an ally beyond reproach. Even as Israel has violated the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Conventions, and countless Security Council resolutions for decades, Canada has rarely wavered in its support, issuing only occasional slaps on the wrist.

Meeting torture survivors would force the government to confront the truth about how Israel is committing atrocities — including genocide — in Gaza. That conclusion has already been reached by the UN Commission of Inquiry, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and the International Association of Genocide Scholars.  So Carney’s and Anand’s refusal is not about diplomacy. It is about denial.

Now let’s turn to the matter of why at least two of the Canadian flotilla activists were intimidated and threatened by security officials and police when they landed at Pearson International Airport.

When Tinmaung and Tota returned home, they expected to be reunited with their families at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. Instead, they were met by customs officers, airport security, and Peel Regional Police who subjected them to aggressive interrogation, isolation, intimidation, and threats — conduct disturbingly similar to what former UN Special Rapporteurs Richard Falk and Hilal Elver described when they were detained and interrogated at Pearson in 2025 for their pro‑Palestinian advocacy.

Anti-Palestinian racism in Canada

This is not a coincidence. It reflects a deeper, long‑standing pattern of institutional anti‑Palestinian racism in Canada — one so entrenched that even as a genocide unfolds in plain sight, our political leaders still refuse to name the crime for what it is.

Reports from the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, York University, and The Conversation have documented systemic anti‑Palestinian racism across Canadian institutions — including policing, education, media, and government. This racism manifests as:

• Silencing Palestinian advocacy; 
  
• Treating Palestinians and their allies as security threats;
  
• Defaming activists as extremists or “terrorists”;
  
• Erasing the story of Palestinian suffering and oppression;
  
• Denying Palestinian humanity.

This is exactly what happened at Pearson Airport. Canadian authorities treated at least two of the torture survivors as threats, not victims. They were intimidated, isolated, detained for hours, with Tinmaung threated with with being charged as a “threat to public safety”, before being pressured to leave the airport on terms set by police and security officials without seeing their families — a violation of their rights and a chilling message to all pro‑Palestinian activists.

This begs the question, how deep does anti‑Palestinian racism run in Canada’s political class?

The answer is it runs deep enough that the Canadian government still refuses to acknowledge the Gaza genocide — even as the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, leading genocide scholars, along with hundreds of human rights and legal scholars, have concluded that Israel is committing genocide. It runs deep enough that Canada has condemned genocide in Myanmar, China, and by Russia in Ukraine — but not in Gaza.  It is deep enough that the  government warns that calling Israel’s actions “genocide” might provoke antisemitism, rather than confronting the reality of mass murder, starvation, and ethnic cleansing. Anti-Palestinian racism is so entrenched that Canada (conditionally) recognized the State of Palestine in 2025 — but still refuses to hold Israel accountable for destroying it.

Anti‑Palestinian racism is not a fringe phenomenon. It is embedded in Canadian political culture.

Despite decades of Israeli crimes Canadian leaders still defend them

The record of Israeli crimes over the decades is overwhelming:

• Illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian land;
  
• Decades of a campaign of ethnic cleansing
  
• Systematic violations of the Geneva Conventions for almost eight decades;
  
• War crimes including collective punishment, targeting civilians, and starvation as a weapon of war;
  
• Apartheid, as documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B’Tselem;
  
• Genocide, as concluded by UN experts, major human rights organizations, and genocide scholars.
  
• Yet Canada continues to defend Israel or remain silent. The million‑dollar question is why.

Because Canadian foreign policy in the Middle East has been shaped for decades by pro‑Israel lobby groups such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and B’nai Brith Canada — organizations documented as promoting anti‑Palestinian racism, Islamophobia, genocide denial, and the conflation of anti‑Zionism and criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

CIJA’s own conferences have pushed the government to adopt definitions of antisemitism that silence criticism of Israel. Their lobbying efforts have influenced every major political party, convincing party leaders to adopt policies that effectively silence pro‑Palestinian voices within their membership. This influence is so strong that Canada’s political class often appears more accountable to CIJA, which acts as an agent of the Israeli government, than to international law.

Canada refuses to support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

However, there are nations in the world with a moral compass that are standing on the right side of history and pursuing justice for Palestinians.  One of those nations is South Africa, which launched a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023 over its brutal military assault on the people in Gaza.

Regrettably, and over the objections of many Canadians, the federal government has refused to join South Africa and 20 other nations supporting their case, including NATO allies Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and Turkiye. Instead, Canada has dismissed the case as lacking merit despite the ICJ stating that it was plausible that Israel was committing genocide in a January 2024 preliminary ruling.

Canada’s refusal to join South Africa is not just a diplomatic misstep — it is a profound moral failure. It is also a breach of Canada’s clear legal obligation under the Genocide Convention to prevent genocide wherever it occurs. The decision is so indefensible that it raises an unavoidable, unsettling question — has Canadian Middle East policy become so deferential to Israel that Ottawa might as well be taking instructions directly from it? While that is not literally the case, the pattern is impossible to ignore. Again and again, Canada’s positions on the Middle East — especially where Palestinians and their rights are concerned — line up almost seamlessly with those of the apartheid state.

Canada may not take its marching orders directly from Israel, but it unquestionably takes its political cues from a familiar constellation of forces — pro‑Israel lobby groups, a political culture that treats Israel as beyond criticism, and a foreign‑policy establishment that reliably elevates strategic alliances over basic human rights, while wilfully ignoring obligations under international law.

This country’s deference becomes even starker when we examine whom our officials choose to engage with most often on issues related to Israel and Palestinians. CIJA, for one, is among the most active lobbying organizations in Ottawa — a fact reflected in the federal Lobbyist Registry. Its influence is unmistakable as the organization enjoys frequent access to ministers and MPs, helps shape policy priorities, and exerts significant influence over the Canadian narrative on issues affecting Palestinians. Yet multiple Jewish scholars and human‑rights organizations have documented how pro‑Israel organizations have promoted harmful stereotypes about Palestinians and Muslims, marginalized dissenting Jewish voices, and defended Israeli actions described by critics as grave violations of international law.

So when Canadian officials make time for these groups while refusing to meet with Canadian victims of Israeli torture, the message is unmistakable — some lives count and others do not.

What kind of nation do Canadians want this country to be?

Canadians must decide what kind of country we want to be and convey that forcefully to our leaders. Canada cannot claim to champion human rights yet ignore the torture of its own citizens, nor wrap itself in the language of justice while turning its back on Canadians tortured by a foreign state. It cannot profess to oppose genocide while refusing to acknowledge one unfolding in real time, or claim to fight racism while enabling the most entrenched and politically sanctioned form of racism in this country — anti‑Palestinian racism.

Tinmaung, Tota, and the eleven other Canadians abducted and tortured by Israel deserve justice — not silence, platitudes, or carefully crafted political statements that maintain a business as usual attitude with the genocidal state. They deserve a government that recognizes their humanity, and that of Palestinians, without reservation. Canadians deserve leaders who confront atrocities committed by allies — not ones who decide which victims matter and which to sacrifice on the altar of political expediency.

History will judge Mark Carney and Justin Trudeau for their morally bankrupt response to the Gaza genocide and for how their governments treated Canadians who stood on the side of justice for Palestinians. That judgment will not be kind. On the most basic questions of human rights, international law, and the duty to protect the innocent, both men failed — and they failed by choice.

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