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.”
  

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Calling for a “Zionist Palestinian state” shows Canadian PM is clueless about the history of Palestinian suffering

By framing a Palestinian state as needing to align with Zionism PM Mark Carney implicitly dismisses the legitimacy of Palestinian suffering and aspirations.

  

By Fareed Khan 

  

In a CNN interview at the NATO summit on June 25, 2025, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney ignited a firestorm of controversy in Canada by declaring that peace in the Middle East requires a “Zionist Palestinian state” that recognizes Israel’s right to exist and prosper. This statement, uttered in response to a question from Christiane Amanpour about his vision for a Palestinian state where its indigenous people can live in harmony, is not only profoundly ignorant but also deeply offensive.

 

Carney’s statement reveals a shocking disregard for the history of Palestinian suffering under Zionism and represents a slap in the face to Palestinians, particularly the more than 90% who are Muslim, as well as to the broader Muslim community. 

 

The prime minister's remark is more than a diplomatic misstep, it is an anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic assault on the cause of Palestinian human rights, exacerbating the anger and alienation felt by Palestinian Canadians, Muslims and their allies. Some who have criticized Carney’s statement have said it is irrational in its contradiction. 

 

Zionism, as a political ideology, advocates for the racist concept of a Jews only ethno-state in historic Palestine (similar in concept to white supremacy calling for a whites only Canada), at the expense of indigenous Palestinian rights and Palestinian self-determination. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, Zionist policies have driven the systematic and brutal dispossession, ethnic cleansing, and oppression of Palestinians, culminating in what many, Holocaust, genocide and human rights scholars, international law experts and human rights organizations have described as an ongoing genocide in Gaza.

 

To suggest that a Palestinian state should adopt the very ideology responsible for their decades of suffering is not only unhinged but also a cruel mockery of their struggle. There have been many remarks on social media deriding Carney’s comment with one comment calling Carney’s comment “hateful”, “bigoted”, “cruel” and “evil”.  While another likened Carney’s remark to telling Blacks in the US South during the Jim Crow era that they should be more like white supremacists if they wanted to live in peace. Clearly Carney’s remark is a nonsensical contradiction that demonstrates a fundamental illiteracy about the history of what Palestinians have endured.

 

Carney’s remark demonstrates a staggering ignorance about Palestinian suffering. For the better part of eight decades Palestinians have endured ethnic cleansing, land theft, military occupation, and systemic violence under Zionist policies. And the Nakba made over 750,000 Palestinians refugees and resulted in tens of thousands murdered at the hands of Zionist terrorist militias.

 

Since October 2023 Israel’s actions—blockades, settlement expansion, military assaults, and crimes against civilians—continue to deny Palestinians their basic rights. In Gaza alone, over 63,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ongoing genocide, with one Israeli scholar releasing a study which says that more than 377,000 Palestinians are missing—presumed dead, unaccounted for, or buried beneath the rubble of Gaza’s destroyed buildings. A recent Ha’aretz poll also revealed that 47% of Israeli Jews support the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza, and 56% favor the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian citizens within Israel to create a Jews only ethno-state. For Carney to propose that Palestinians embrace Zionism as a prerequisite for peace is to demand that the oppressed ignore the crimes committed against them by their oppressors, a suggestion that is as insulting as it is unrealistic.

 

The reaction from Palestinian Canadians and their allies has been one of visceral anger and betrayal. The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) condemned Carney’s remarks as “insulting” and contrary to Canada’s stated foreign policy, which ostensibly supports a “sovereign, independent, viable, democratic, and territorially contiguous Palestinian state.” In a detailed thread on X, NCCM argued that Carney’s statement continues a troubling trend of ignoring Israel’s criminal actions in Gaza, which many international bodies now qualify as genocide, including the president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. Similarly, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) decried Carney’s comments, stating, “In doing so, Carney is asking Palestinians to adopt the political ideology of their oppressors as a pre-condition for self-determination. He is dead wrong.”

 

Carney’s statement is not only anti-Palestinian but also carries Islamophobic undertones, given that over 90% of Palestinians are Muslim. By framing a Palestinian state as needing to align with Zionism—a movement that has been violently antagonistic with regard to Palestinian self-determination—Carney implicitly dismisses the legitimacy of Palestinian suffering and aspirations. This aligns with a broader pattern of Canadian foreign policy that has often sidelined the rights of Muslims. From Canada’s role in the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya to its support for US led sanctions and aggression against Iran, the Canadian government has repeatedly prioritized Western geopolitical interests over the well-being of ordinary Muslims. Carney’s remark reinforces this pattern, signalling to Palestinian Canadians that their government views their struggle through a lens that privileges Israel’s hegemony over their bodies and territories.

 

The Islamophobic undertones of Carney’s statement are particularly galling in light of Canada’s domestic context. Palestinian Canadians, alongside other Muslim communities, have faced rising hate and discrimination for years, but particularly since the escalation of violence in Gaza following October 7, 2023. Carney’s failure to acknowledge this reality, coupled with the offensive comment during his CNN interview, dismisses the lived experiences of these communities and reinforces the systemic anti-Palestinian bias within the Canadian government.

 

Carney’s statement must be viewed within the broader context of Canada’s foreign policy, which has consistently favoured Israel over Palestinian rights. Canada’s close relationship with Israel—marked by significant financial, military, and diplomatic support—sets it apart from other nations. No other country sees such a steady flow of its citizens joining a foreign military, as Canadians have done with the Israeli military. Ottawa has gone to extraordinary lengths to shield Israel from accountability, from threatening the International Criminal Court over arrest warrants for Israeli leaders to opposing South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice. The Canadian government has also failed to impose sanctions on the large number of Israeli officials responsible for war crimes, despite mountains of evidence of atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank.

 

Even as Carney has occasionally criticized Israel’s actions—such as calling the suffering in Gaza “intolerable” in a joint G7 statement in May 2025—his government has taken no concrete actions to hold Israel accountable. This inaction stands in stark contrast to Canada’s rhetoric about upholding international law where it concerns Russia’s war against Ukraine. As noted Canadian human rights expert Alex Neve wrote on social media, “Waiting, vacillating, remaining silent and failing or, worse, refusing to act in the face of mounting and incontrovertible evidence of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity can no longer be options for Canada.” Carney’s “Zionist Palestinian state” remark underscores this hypocrisy, revealing a government more concerned with appeasing Israel than with defending Palestinian human rights.

 

Carney’s statement is not an isolated gaffe but a reflection of a deeper anti-Palestinian bias within his government. Despite campaigning as a progressive alternative to the Conservatives, Carney has shown himself to be little different on this issue. His appointment of Marco Mendicino, a Zionist and vocal supporter of Israel, as interim chief of staff further signals his alignment with pro-Israel interests. Palestinian Canadians and their allies are rightly demanding an apology and a course correction. As Jason Toney of CJPME stated, “Carney’s call for a future Palestinian state to be ‘Zionist’ is a step backwards. Such a statement is offensive to the principle of Palestinian self-determination and undermines Canada’s credibility as a fair or credible partner in any future peace process.”

 

To restore trust, Carney must retract his statement and take concrete steps to align Canada’s foreign policy with international law and human rights, of which the government has often claimed to be a defender. This includes imposing sanctions on Israeli political and military leaders, enforcing a comprehensive arms embargo, recognizing the State of Palestine, and supporting international efforts to hold Israel accountable for its actions. Canada must also address the rising tide of anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic sentiment at home, ensuring that Palestinian Canadians and Muslims feel heard and protected.

 

Mark Carney’s “Zionist Palestinian state” comment is a shameful moment, exposing a profound ignorance of Palestinian history and suffering. It is an affront to Palestinian Canadians, whose righteous anger reflects decades of marginalization by a government that protects Israeli criminality rather than standing in defence of Palestinian justice and human rights. By framing peace as contingent on Palestinians embracing the ideology that created Israel, Carney has not only undermined their right to self-determination but also perpetuated an anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic narrative. It is time for Carney to apologize, listen to the voices of Palestinian Canadians, and commit to a foreign policy that upholds the principles of equality, justice, and international law for all.

  

© 2025 The View From Here. © 2025 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

OP-ED -- School board must apologize to Palestinian-Canadians

The “Free Palestine” slogan is an obvious call for freedom from oppression and brutal colonial domination, much as the “Free Ukraine” slogan is a call for freedom for the people of that nation. 

 

By Thomas Woodley and Fareed Khan 

 

https://rabble.ca/human-rights/school-board-must-apologize-to-palestinian-canadians/ 

 

In recent years there has been much public debate about fighting hate and racism in Canada, whether it is against Black people, Indigenous people, Muslims, Jews, Asians, members of the LGBTQ2 community, or other marginalized groups. However, one community that continues to be the target of racism, particularly by some public institutions and right-wing politicians, is Palestinians.

 

    Street art promoting a free Palestine. Credit: Duncan Cumming / Flickr

The latest public incident took place recently in London, Ontario when the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) issued its school dress code. In the online FAQ (frequently asked questions) section which explained the policy, a “Free Palestine” t-shirt was used as an example of attire which “promotes or incites violence”. Unfortunately, despite calls by Palestinian advocacy and anti-racism organizations for the TVDSB to issue a public apology for this racist incident on its Website, it has yet to do so.

 

Reacting to complaints from Palestinian-Canadian and Muslim organizations, the School Board did quietly remove the image from its website about a week after it first went up. However, this removal cannot take the place of a public apology to the affected students who attend TDVSB schools, nor does it explain why the TVDSB would attack the freedom of expression rights of their students or the broader Palestinian-Canadian community.

 

Many Palestinians came to Canada as immigrants and refugees, fleeing Israeli oppression and brutality in historic Palestine, and later from Israeli occupied territories. The TVDSB’s actions are notable for their disregard of this history, and for their insensitivity to decades of suffering that Palestinians have endured at the hands of their Israeli oppressor.

 

The “Free Palestine” slogan is an obvious call for freedom from oppression and brutal colonial domination, much as the “Free Ukraine” slogan is a call for freedom for the people of that nation. The TVDSB’s use of the “Free Palestine” message in its FAQ as one that would incite violence is clearly racist and offensive to the district’s Palestine-Canadian students and community, as well to those who sympathize with the Palestinian struggle for justice.

 

This is the most recent example of anti-Palestinian racism by an Ontario school board. Last year, Canadian journalist Desmond Cole wrote about a series of anti-Palestinian racist incidents at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) – from a Black student suspended for saying “Free Palestine” during morning announcements, to the banning of a book from school libraries which included journal entries by Palestinian children, to a student being told by a teacher to remove a keffiyeh (a traditional Palestinian scarf) or leave the classroom. One incident which caught the attention of the Washington Post was that of a TDSB educator sharing anti-oppression resources on Palestine with colleagues, who was suspended, investigated, and publicly accused of anti-Semitism for simply doing his job. He was later fully exonerated and restored to his position.

 

The Arab-Canadian Lawyers Association published a report earlier this year in which they defined anti-Palestinian racism as a form of racism that silences, excludes, erases, stereotypes, defames or dehumanizes Palestinians and their narratives. Sadly, anti-Palestinian racism in Canada has become far too common, with those who call for freedom and justice for Palestinians, or criticize Israel’s brutal oppression of the Palestinian people, attacked with defamatory accusations of antisemitism by powerful pro-Israel lobby groups.

 

The TDVSB should also note that well respected international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Israel-based B’Tselem, have recently issued reports detailing how Israel is practicing Apartheid against Palestinians, a crime under international law. Even former Israeli attorney general Michael Ben-Yair says his country is an “Apartheid regime.”

Since the incident, the TVDSB has apologized privately to groups and individuals who have contacted the Board directly. However, such instances of racism are not properly dealt with through private exchanges behind closed doors. When racism in our institutions occurs we need to discuss it publicly, understand its origins, and collectively implement mechanisms to prevent it from occurring in the future.

 

The TVDSB needs to explain publicly how and why this incident occurred, and what it will do to ensure it does not happen again. It also needs to incorporate zero-tolerance for anti-Palestinian racism into its equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) frameworks. Otherwise, without collective accountability, hurtful and offensive incidents like this are bound to happen again.

Thomas Woodley is the president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME).  Tom has a BS EE from Carnegie-Mellon University and an MS EE from Stevens Institute... More by Thomas Woodley

 

Fareed Khan is the founder of Canadians United Against Hate / Canadiens Unis Contre la Haine... More by Fareed Khan

 

© 2022 Rabble.ca 

© 2022 The View From Here.  © 2022 Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved.

© 2022 Thomas Woodley.  All Rights Reserved.