Politics
Explainer: The controversy over Canada’s rules on military exports to Israel – National TenX News
A Canadian senator is calling on Ottawa to be more transparent on its policy to restrict arms exports to Israel, following contradictory reports about what manufacturers have been allowed to send to the Middle East.
“I’m horrified to hear this news about certain arms exports and parts going to Israel, directly or indirectly,” Sen. Yuen Pau Woo said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“Civilians are being killed and starved, and the Israeli government has only made things worse.”
Ottawa insists it hasn’t been allowing exports of lethal weapons to Israel and has been blocking any military goods that could be used in Gaza.
Here’s a look at what we know — and don’t know — about Ottawa’s efforts to keep Canadian weapons out of Gaza while allowing Israel to import military goods for other purposes.
What is Canada holding back from Israel?
In March 2024, Parliament voted in favour of a non-binding motion to halt new arms permits for Israel. The government announced a review of export permits and suspended about 30 of them to determine whether they involved lethal uses.
Ottawa has allowed all other military export permits for Israel to continue. There were 164 such permits used to export military goods to Israel in 2024, and some of them are valid for years.
Of the 30 suspended permits, some have expired and the rest remain suspended, says Global Affairs Canada.
In March 2024, the office of then-foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly said that none of the valid permits allowed for the export of “lethal goods” to Israel, such as weapons technology and equipment.
Her office also said Canada stopped approving permits for Israel on Jan. 8, 2024, citing human rights concerns.
While Israel’s foreign minister suggested at the time the decision would undermine Israel’s ability to defend itself, Israeli Ambassador Iddo Moed said “we will be able to continue to defend ourselves.”
What is Canada still allowing into Israel?
Ottawa has said its restrictions exclude “non-lethal” equipment.
The government provided Parliament with a list of all existing permits in June 2024. The list mentions circuit boards well over a hundred times.
In September 2024, after the U.S. State Department approved the purchase of mortar cartridges made in Quebec for Israel, Joly said Canadian-made weapons were prohibited from reaching the Gaza Strip.
“We will not have any form of arms or parts of arms be sent to Gaza, period,” Joly said at the time. “How they’re being sent and where they’re being sent is irrelevant.”
Anand said in an Aug. 1 statement that this pledge actually goes back to January 2024.
Groups like Project Ploughshares argue the term “non-lethal” is poorly defined and misleading.
Activists say Israel can use Canadian-made components such as lenses and cameras in the Gaza war and in military campaigns in the West Bank, despite Ottawa saying Israel is violating international law in both theatres.
What does Israeli customs data say?
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In late July, pro-Palestinian activists reported that the Israel Tax Authority had listed publicly imports from Canada that were officially recorded in customs data as bullets, guns and other weapons.
The data suggested 175,000 bullets were sent from Canada to Israel under the customs code that Israel uses for “munitions of war and parts thereof,” with three similar shipments in 2024.
Israeli customs agents recorded another Canadian shipment in the category of “tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, motorized, whether or not fitted with weapons, and parts of such vehicles.”
It took the Canadian government three days to respond to the claims. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office said it took the time “to verify if any of the serious allegations of wrongdoing were true.”
In her reply, Anand said the report was flawed and its findings “are misleading and significantly misrepresent the facts.”
The bullets were “paintball-style projectiles” that cannot be used in combat, Anand’s office said.
Sen. Woo called that explanation trivializing and suggested Israel is likely using those materials to train its soldiers.
Woo was among 32 senators — a third of the Senate — who called for a thorough investigation into what’s reaching Israel from Canada. He called Anand’s statement “very limited, slippery and highly defensive.”
“She missed an opportunity to grasp the gravity of the situation in Gaza,” he said.
What about aircraft?
Advocates argue Canadian components are being used in Israeli fighter jets and drones, citing exports of items such as circuit boards and scopes or cameras.
The July report noted that specific companies in Israel receiving Canadian imports have also been equipping Israel’s offensive in Gaza. The report pointed to no direct, explicit evidence that Canadian arms had been used on the ground in Gaza.
Ottawa insists it is doing everything it can to ensure Canadian components aren’t used in Gaza.
What about that parliamentary report?
On Aug. 4, the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council released a report assembled by the Library of Parliament that it said disproves much of what the government has claimed.
The July 8 report is marked “not to be published” and the Library of Parliament said in a statement that it “provides impartial customized research services for individual parliamentarians,” on the basis that the “client’s research request (will) remain confidential.”
The government says the report is a rehash of publicly available information that doesn’t contradict what the government has said publicly.
Advocates seized on the portion of the report showing two arms permits to send goods to Israel were issued in 2024.
Anand’s office noted the permits were disclosed to Parliament last June and were issued on Jan. 8, 2024, the day Ottawa stopped issuing new permits.
The advocates also noted that the report cited $2.3 million in Canadian sales to Israel listed as “bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges and related accessories, components and equipment.”
Anand’s spokesman James Fitz-Morris wrote that these were “electronic components for detection equipment” in Israel’s Iron Dome system, which intercepts and destroys incoming rockets.
Did Carney change the Trudeau government’s policy?
While the government insists it hasn’t changed policies, its language has shifted.
Joly and her office spoke about non-lethal uses for arms. Anand has avoided that language.
“For a year and a half, we have been clear: if an export permit for an item used to protect civilians is requested, it will be approved,” her office wrote in a statement this week.
“Canada has not approved the export of any lethal weapons or munitions to Israel since January 2024, and any such permit that could have allowed such items were suspended and remains inactive today.”
Woo said Anand is “prevaricating, with the shift in language and … an effort to try to be legalistic about the government’s adherence to its own promise.”
Fitz-Morris wrote that it would be “a disingenuous claim, at best” to suggest Ottawa’s language has been shifting.
“The government’s position has not changed. Minister Anand is not reading from a script. She uses different words sometimes to convey the same message or to add clarity, depending on the circumstances and what she is responding to,” he wrote.
“The only permits that may be granted are for the items used to defend civilians, such as the Iron Dome, and items that are transiting through Israel as part of the global supply chain such as items (whose) end-users include Canada and/or NATO allies.”
Why not end all arms exports to Israel?
The government says it would compromise the complex supply chains that Canada and its allies rely on if Canada refused to export military goods to Israel, or to import them from that country.
“Any consideration of a two-way arms embargo that would block Israeli-made components from entering Canada would need to take into consideration the impact that would have on Canada, including the (Canadian Armed Forces),” Fitz-Morris wrote.
Sen. Woo said Anand should halt all military trade with Israel.
“She’s digging a deeper hole for herself and for our government, particularly if there are in fact legal consequences around complicity, aiding and abetting war crimes,” he said.
“We are witnessing, in the memorable words of Amnesty International, a live-streamed genocide. It’s tearing at our souls.”
Israel says it’s in an existential war of self-defence and blames Hamas for the high casualty count.
What do Canadians want?
In an online survey of 1,522 Canadians conducted by the Angus Reid Institute from July 31 to Aug. 5, 54 per cent said they want Ottawa to ensure Canada is not selling lethal military equipment to Israel.
One-fifth of respondents said they want the restrictions dropped. Another 27 per cent said they were unsure or opted not to respond.
Is the government being transparent?
“The Government of Canada tables regular reports concerning arms exports and has provided thousands of pages of documentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs — which the committee then published to its website,” Fitz-Morris wrote.
That’s not good enough, Woo said. “To play with words, when a genocide is happening before our very eyes … it’s scandalous,” he said.
The Trump administration said Friday it was denying and revoking U.S. visas from members of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
That comes ahead of next month’s United Nations General Assembly, where Canada and several other countries have said they intend to officially recognize a Palestinian state.
The U.S. State Department cited the groups’ efforts to secure statehood recognition at the UN, along with their appeals to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice to investigate alleged Israeli crimes in Gaza, as reasons for the decision by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Both steps materially contributed to Hamas’s refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks,” the department said in a statement.
“The Trump Administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace.”
The statement did not name the officials being denied entry. It was not immediately clear if the list included Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was expected to travel to New York for the UN gathering.
The Palestinians’ ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, told reporters at the UN headquarters that they were checking exactly what the U.S. move means “and how it applies to any of our delegation, and we will respond accordingly.”
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Representatives assigned to the Palestinian Authority mission at the UN, led by Mansour, will be granted waivers so they can continue their New York-based operations, the U.S. statement said.
Mansour said Abbas still intends to lead the delegation to the high-level meetings and is expected to address the General Assembly — as he has done for many years — and to attend a meeting on the afternoon of Sept. 22 on a two-state solution co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.
U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to New York and address the general assembly on Sept. 23, the White House said on Thursday.
Canada, Britain, Australia and France in recent weeks have announced or signalled their intention to recognize a Palestinian state during the meeting.
The countries have said their recognition is conditional on the Palestinian Authority — which has limited self-rule over parts of the occupied West Bank and has for years been positioning itself as a legitimate government alternative to Hamas in Gaza — undergoing reforms and new elections.
Abbas has signalled he will co-operate with the Western nations’ demands.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization is an internationally recognized coalition that represents Palestinian people in its occupied territories and abroad.
The Trump administration has staunchly backed Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. The U.S. has also refused to condemn expanded Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Canada and other allies have said undermine two-state solution efforts.
Rubio hosted Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in Washington on Wednesday “to reaffirm our two nations’ close cooperation,” the U.S. secretary said in a post on X.
Saar, asked after the meeting what the plan was for a Palestinian state, said there would not be any.
The Israeli minister on Friday thanked Rubio for holding the PA and PLO “accountable for rewarding terrorism, incitement and efforts to use legal warfare against Israel” in a social media statement.
Officials with the Palestinian Authority reject that they’ve undermined peace prospects.
Under the 1947 UN “headquarters agreement,” the U.S. is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the UN in New York. But Washington has said it can deny visas for security, terrorism and foreign policy reasons.
Hamas earlier this month said it had accepted a U.S.-backed proposal on a ceasefire in Gaza that would see the release of some hostages in exchange for talks with Israel that would end the conflict and see the return of all remaining hostages.
But Israel has said it will only accept the full return of all the hostages and has pressed ahead with a plan to occupy Gaza City, which international monitors like the UN have warned could worsen a famine already afflicting the Palestinian territory.
Rubio last week announced sanctions against multiple International Criminal Court judges and prosecutors involved in the court’s investigation into Israel’s actions in Gaza and the issuing of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
—With files from Reuters
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Politics
Israel launches new offensive in Gaza, says remains of 2 hostages returned – National TenX News
Gaza City is now a dangerous combat zone, Israel says, adding that it is in the “initial stages” of a planned offensive that has drawn international condemnation.
Israel’s military said it suspended midday pauses to fighting, which had allowed food and aid supplies to enter from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Gaza’s largest city.
It also said it had recovered the body of a hostage and the remains of another, and vowed its military offensive would return more.
The shift comes weeks after Israel first announced plans to widen its offensive in Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering and enduring famine.
Father of hostage calls recovery operation a ‘bittersweet moment’
Israel’s recovery of more hostages Friday felt like a “stab in the stomach” for Rubi Chen, who believes his son is still in captivity in Gaza.
Israel said it had returned the body of one captive and the remains of another from Gaza Friday. It identified one as Ilan Weiss, a man killed in the initial Hamas attack.
“It’s a bittersweet moment that the Weiss family is reunited with their loved one, even though he’s coming back not as they would have wanted,” said Chen. “But at least they have closure … there are still 49 families waiting to have that closure.”
Chen said his family has received intelligence that his son did not survive the Oct. 7 attack but Hamas has not provided any information about his son’s whereabouts.
Netanyahu details hostage recovery operation
The Israeli prime minister said the body of a dead Israeli and the remains of another were recovered following an operation in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces and the country’s internal security service Shin Bet.
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Netanyahu said Friday one set of remains belongs to Ilan Weiss who was killed on Oct. 7, 2023 while defending Kibbutz Be’eri against attacking Hamas gunmen.
The remains of the second Israeli are now being examined for positive identification at the Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Weiss’ wife Shiri and daughter Noga, also kidnapped in the Hamas attack, were released from captivity in November 2023.
He has two other daughters.
The Israeli Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the return of all hostages remains the “highest national priority” and urged the Israeli government to enter into negotiations “and stay at the table until every last hostage comes home.”
Israeli military says attack on Gaza City will intensify
A spokesman for the Israeli military says the country’s forces have started their attack on Gaza City which are operating “with great force” on the city’s outskirts.
Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-speaking spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces, posted on X Friday that the military operation is in its initial phase, but that the Israeli military will “intensify our strikes” and “will not hesitate” until all Israeli hostages are returned and Hamas is dismantled “militarily and politically.”
Adraee said Israel is “not waiting” and is moving ahead with its attack against Hamas which has “transformed from a military organization into a defeated organization waging guerrilla warfare.”
The U.N.’s humanitarian agency said they were “deeply concerned” by the military’s statement that it would intensify its operation in Gaza City.
It predicted that the offensive would have a “horrific impact on people already exhausted, malnourished, bereaved, displaced, and deprived of basics needed for survival.”
It said UN and NGO teams would remain on the ground in Gaza City to provide life-saving support but maintained that its work would need to be facilitated.
Israel says hostage bodies recovered
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the body of Ilan Weiss of Kibbutz Be’eri and the remains of another unnamed hostage were returned to Israel.
“The campaign to return the hostages continues continuously. We will not rest or be silent until we return all of our hostages home — both the living and the dead,” Netanyahu said.
Israel on Friday said its military had recovered the bodies of two hostages, including an Israeli man who was killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants almost 22 months ago, roughly 50 remain in Gaza including 20 that Israel believes to be alive.
Israeli military begins Gaza City offensive
Israel declared Gaza’s largest city a dangerous combat zone and said it was in the ″initial stages″ of a planned offensive that has drawn international condemnation.
The suspension comes weeks after Israel first announced plans to widen its offensive in Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering and enduring famine.
440 people are now sheltering inside Gaza’s only Catholic church, spokesman says
A spokesman for Gaza’s only Catholic church said some 440 people who have taken shelter there had unanimously agreed to stay, despite word that Israel was preparing to mount a new military offensive in the Palestinian territory.
Farid Jubran told The Associated Press Friday that their decision to stay in Gaza City’s Holy Family Catholic Church was made of their own free will and “wasn’t imposed on the people.”
He said five clergy have also stayed in the church to assist those sheltering that include women, children and older people.
But Jubran, who is currently outside of Gaza, said it’s “up to them” if they want to leave the church at some point later.
The spokesman said there are no additional measures that have been taken inside the church to bolster the safety of the people.
He said “when we feel danger, people get closer to the walls or whatever, it’s more protected” but that the church “doesn’t have any specific defenses.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Politics
Canada places further sanctions on Russia over Moldova interference claims – National TenX News
Ottawa is placing further sanctions on Russia after allegations that Moscow interfered to influence elections in Moldova, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office said on Thursday.
Canada is imposing sanctions against 16 individuals and two entities under the Special Economic Measures (Moldova) Regulations for their role in “Russia’s malign interference activities in Moldova,” Anand’s office said.
“These individuals have actively participated in coordinated efforts aimed at destabilizing the democratically elected government in Moldova. They are associated with politician and businessman Ilan Shor, who has been sanctioned by Canada, and who fled Moldova in 2019,” the statement continued.
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The list of people who’ve been sanctioned include officials of the Shor Party, a political party led by Ilan Shor. The party was sanctioned by the Canadian government in June 2023.
The list also includes former officials of Moldova and officials of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, “a region in Moldova whose current administration has strong links to Russia.”
Canada is also placing sanctions on members of pro-Russian Moldovan media outlets accused of “disseminating disinformation,” as well as “other participants in Russia’s malign operations abroad.”
The two entities on which Canada placed sanctions Thursday include Victory/Pobeda, a political bloc led by the Shor Party, and a Shor-backed paramilitary group that Canada accused of being “involved in organizing a series of anti-government protests in Moldova in 2023.”
Anand’s office said Canada is rolling out these measures “as political actors and organizations under Mr. Shor’s influence are ramping up their efforts to interfere in Moldova’s next parliamentary elections, which will be held on September 28, 2025.”
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
U.S. scraps Palestinian officials’ visas ahead of UN General Assembly – National TenX News
Israel launches new offensive in Gaza, says remains of 2 hostages returned – National TenX News
Canada places further sanctions on Russia over Moldova interference claims – National TenX News
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