Mark Carney announced on July 30 that Canada would recognize the state of Palestine. This empty gesture came a day after a detailed report was released showing that the Canadian government has been providing Israel with a continual stream of military equipment.
Empty words
The official death toll in Gaza has just surpassed 60,000. Israel is starving the Palestinians, restricting access to food aid and firing on people gathered at food stations. So far, 147 people have died of starvation, including 88 children.
As they are no longer able to hide the truth, western governments are all trying to appear critical of Israel. France and Britain both announced last week that they would recognize a Palestinian state in September. Now Carney has jumped on the bandwagon.
“The deepening suffering of civilians leaves no room for delay in co-ordinated international action to support peace, security, and the dignity of all human life,” his statement said.
But these empty words stink of hypocrisy as Canadian manufacturers continue to supply the arms necessary for the Israeli army to continue its genocide.
To add insult to injury, Carney places all sorts of conditions on Palestinian sovereignty. In particular, he demands that the Palestinian Authority hold elections in which Hamas cannot participate, and that Palestine must demilitarize.
The idea that Palestine should demilitarize as it is actively being attacked is utterly absurd and untenable. And it is up to Palestinians to choose their own government. Whatever form of “sovereignty” is on the table is a mockery of the concept.
Actions speak louder
Since Jan. 2024, Global Affairs Canada has stopped issuing permits for weapons to be shipped to Israel. Government officials have leaned on this policy whenever they’ve been pressed about Canada’s complicity in the genocide. In April, Carney even claimed that Canada had an arms embargo against Israel (a statement he later had to walk back).
A report, Exposing Canadian military exports to Israel, reveals just how underhanded the Liberals are. It states,
“The Canadian government appears to have pursued a strategy of rushing through a record-breaking number of arms export permit approvals to Israel prior to publicly committing to pause approving any new ones. This was then quietly undermined by a series of exceptions and loopholes that were only acknowledged when exposed through media investigations or parliamentary scrutiny. This indicates that the government’s policy shifts were more symbolic than substantive, aimed at diffusing public criticism while maintaining material support.”
As the report points out, hundreds of export permits are currently active. Not only did military exports to Israel continue after the so-called freeze, but exports for 2024 exceeded any previous year on record. Israel was the fourth largest customer of the Canadian defence industry in 2024, receiving nearly $19 million in weapons shipments.
Nor were these shipments of merely “non-lethal” equipment, as former Prime Minister Trudeau claimed. Publicly-available records show that exports included ammunition, armaments, components for war planes, and more.
Nothing indicates that shipments have slowed down this year. In April, around the same time that Carney made his claim about an arms embargo, Canada sent 175,000 units of ammunition to Israel. Another shipment arrived in Israel the week before the report was released.
Symbolic gestures won’t stop genocide
The uselessness of state recognition was captured by one Israeli commentator, who posted on X, “Britain: We will recognize a Palestinian state in September. That’s fine, by September, God willing, there won’t be anything left to recognize.”
All of this reveals the true nature of Carney and the Liberals. They’ll cry crocodile tears and talk about international law and humanitarianism, while participating in the worst atrocities.
In the conclusion to their report, the authors (World Beyond War, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East and Independent Jewish Voices) call for the government to abide by its obligations under domestic and international law, stop supporting Israel’s genocide, and impose an arms embargo.
However, the report itself shows that the ruling class will lie and maneuver in order to keep sending weapons to Israel. They do not care about their own laws. The sheer horror of the genocide is forcing western governments to make gestures condemning Israel, but they will never voluntarily cut Israel off.
If there is to be an arms embargo, it needs to be enforced by the working class. The Hot Cargo Kills campaign, launched in June, points in the right direction. It calls on workers to refuse to handle military goods bound for Israel. The report actually provides a lot of information that can be useful for the campaign: a list of companies that manufacture war materials, exactly what those materials are, where they’re made, and the routes they’re shipped through. This information must be used to start a targeted campaign for a workers’ embargo.
Only the working class can stop Canadian complicity. Only the working class can stop the genocide. Only the working class can put an end to imperialism which threatens to drag the world into the abyss. Only the working class can overthrow these bloody capitalist governments and usher in a new society free of war, militarism, inequality and dispossession.
