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Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Tries to Bash Israel for Electoral Gain on Monday
After nearly nine years under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada’s foreign policy has drifted into a kind of high school debating club — where policy positions on foreign affairs are usually taken on the fly, and solely for domestic consumption.
Where Israel is concerned, the end result has been an increasingly alienated Jewish community.
In the wake of Hamas’ October 7 terror attack, the Canadian government sounded the right notes, with Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland calling “for the [Israeli] hostages who were seized in this vile, horrific attack to be released immediately.”
Not surprisingly, the terrorists didn’t comply with her polite request.
And the sympathy and goodwill for Israel quickly dissipated once the Jewish State began its inevitable and necessary military response.
By mid-October 2023, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and her Parliamentary Secretary Rob Oliphant were gullibly parroting talking points from Hamas’ Ministry of Health, which claimed that Israel had bombed the Al-Ahli hospital, killing 500 people.
Days later, in a weekend press release that got lost in the news cycle, Defense Minister Bill Blair grudgingly accepted the facts: that the initial story was a lie, and the “hospital bombing” was in fact a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket that landed in a parking lot.
Neither Joly nor Oliphant ever apologized.
In March 2024, the socialist New Democratic Party (NDP) — on whose support the minority Liberals have relied to avoid a non-confidence vote and early election — put forward a motion that sought to recognize Palestinian statehood and reinstate funding to UNRWA, which had been paused due to some of its employees’ involvement with Hamas and the October 7 massacre.
In a last minute compromise, UNRWA got their money (the “pause” was removed before Canada ever missed a payment), and the aspiring State of Palestine had to make do without Canadian recognition.
But it was the Trudeau government’s decision to cease the further authorization of arms exports to Israel that was seen by many so-called progressives as the prize in the negotiations.
The gesture was mostly symbolic, as Canada’s military exports to Israel — which totaled C$21.3 million in 2022 (US $15.7 million) — are a rounding error and a shade more than the C$18.1 million (US$13.3 million) the country sent to Algeria that year.
Even tiny Qatar, which has provided both safe haven and hard cash to Hamas for years, bought more than twice the value of weapons than the Israelis.
And the military exports to all of Canada’s other non-US trading partners are dwarfed in magnitude by the C$1.15 billion (US$ 847.5 million) that Canada sent to Saudi Arabia, which represented more than half of 2022 military exports outside of the US.
When the Saudis were fighting a brutal war with the Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist group, Trudeau’s Liberals resisted calls for an arms embargo.
Saudi Arabia is by no means perfect, but in a choice between supporting a steadfast Middle East ally or giving moral quarter to an unapologetically anti-Western death cult, there was no question about which side to support.
Yet selling a nominal amount of weapons to Israel, which was fighting an existential war against Iranian-backed terrorists on multiple fronts, while trying to exert leverage to free civilian hostages, was somehow beyond the pale.
One could be forgiven for thinking that this shameful episode ended matters, but domestic politics have taken some additional turns against the Liberals, and they’ve decided to dust off the old Israeli punching bag.
In June, the Liberals lost a close by-election in a Toronto-area riding they had held since 1993, in which roughly 15% of the voters are Jewish. According to one exit poll, nearly two thirds of those Jewish voters chose the Conservative candidate.
Last week, the NDP decided they were not going to continue to support Trudeau’s government after all — not that they were going to bring down the government and call an actual election. But they were no longer guaranteeing a rubber stamp and would henceforth start the conversation about every confidence vote with a very firmly Canadian “maybe.”
On Monday, the Liberals will face a by-election in another “safe” Montreal-area riding that they have held since its creation in 2015.
According to current polls, they’re in a tight race, but trailing the separatist Bloc Quebecois and only one percentage point ahead of the NDP, whose candidate has circulated a pamphlet featuring a Palestinian flag and a caption in French saying “I’m voting for Craig Sauvé to stop the genocide in Gaza.”
With Trudeau’s own national polling numbers badly lagging those of the opposition Conservatives, it was time yet again to do something — not of global import, which the country is powerless to achieve — but at least good enough for an Ottawa press conference in both of Canada’s official languages.
Enter Foreign Affairs Minister Joly, who is Trudeau’s fifth cabinet minister in the role, and his fourth in the last six years.
Joly failed up to her current role after a disastrous tenure in her first job as the nation’s Heritage Minister, before taking on less prominent roles in multiple cabinet shuffles.
A few days before the Palestinian statehood vote, she and Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks, who is Jewish, posed for a cringe-worthy photo in which they held hands with Palestinian Authority strongman Mahmoud Abbas.
With another by-election embarrassment looming, the last symbolic arms embargo was suddenly not good enough and another was apparently warranted.
And while selling much larger quantities of weapons to Saudi Arabia and Qatar is just good business, Israel is apparently such a menace that Canada now needed to ban ammunition exports to the United States from Quebec because they would eventually find their way to Israel.
The decision will, of course, have no impact on Israel’s war effort whatsoever: ammunition is fungible, and if the Americans want the Israelis to have it, then they will have it.
But it felt like yet another slap in the face for Canadian Jews and a cynical ploy to capture NDP votes from the anti-Israel left.
Whether any of this rescues Trudeau’s government from another electoral embarrassment remains to be seen. Regardless of what happens on Monday, the only cold comfort for Canadian Jews is that their government’s hostility toward the Jewish State is blunted only by their country’s irrelevance.
Ian Cooper is a Toronto-based lawyer.
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‘Half Human’: Antisemitism Rampant in Ontario Public Schools, New Canadian Report Says
Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters, primarily university students, rally at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square on Oct. 28, 2023. Photo by Sayed Najafizada/NurPhoto
Antisemitism has been rampant in public schools of the Canadian province of Ontario since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, according to a new report published by the country’s federal government.
Nazi salutes in the hallways, assaults, pronouncements of solidarity with the aims of Hitler’s Final Solution coupled with expressions of regret that he did not live to “finish the job,” and teachers converting their classrooms into outposts for the distribution of anti-Zionist propaganda compose the background of the lives of Jewish students in the province, the report says. One teacher, it added, even called a student “half human” after learning that she has one Jewish parent.
Written by University of Toronto sociology professor emeritus Robert Brym, the report is based on data drawn from interviews conducted with 599 Jewish parents as well as nearly 800 reports of incidents of antisemitic hatred which took place in Ontario public schools, roughly three-fourths of which occurred in the Toronto District School Board, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, and York Region District School Board systems.
Toronto specifically was the site of 61 percent of the incidents, part of a broader trend in which Ontario’s largest city, home to half of Canada’s 400,000 Jews, has seen a surge in antisemitism following the Oct. 7 atrocities. Last year, 40 percent of all hate crimes reported to law enforcement involved antisemitic bigotry, according to police data.
“The 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli retaliation in Gaza provoked a three-month outburst of hostility against Jewish K-12 students such as never before seen in Ontario schools,” Brym wrote. “One is immediately struck by the high percentage of responses that have nothing to do with Israel or the Israel-Hamas war. More than 40 percent of responses involve Holocaust denial, assertions of excessive Jewish wealth or power, or blanket condemnation of Jews — the kind of accusations and denunciations that began to be expunged from the Canadian vocabulary and mindset in the 1960s and were, one would have thought, nearly totally forgotten by the second decade of the 21st century.”
Some 30,000 Jewish school-age children live in Ontario, according to the report, which was commissioned by the Office of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, in order to provide a picture of the situation in Ontario schools.
Brym noted that many Jewish students abstain from reporting antisemitic discrimination due to fear of “being ostracized, re-victimized, or physically harmed.” In lieu of pursuing a course of action which guards their civil rights, they resort to effacing “visible symbols of their Jewishness,” which, he explained, “suppresses the visibility of the problem and contributed to the undercounting of incidents.” He recommended that school boards correct the hostile environments on their grounds by applying the widely adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and recognizing the Zionist component of Jewish identity, which is often the target of antisemitic bullies.
“This report exposes an appalling reality that far too many Jewish students face antisemitism and harassment on a regular basis, and worse yet, many schools are failing to take the necessary steps to protect them,” Michael Levitt, chief executive officer and president of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights nonprofit which raises awareness of discrimination and racial intimidation, said in a statement responding to the Canadian government’s findings. “These latest revelations are a searing indictment of what we’ve been hearing anecdotally for some time now.”
He added, “While the Ontario government and some school boards are making an effort to bring antisemitism training and Holocaust education to staff and students, our education must do more to root out antisemitism and hold perpetrators accountable. There must be a genuine commitment by schools and school boards to ensure every student, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, feels welcome and safe.”
Antisemitism infects all levels of Canadian society, as The Algemeiner has previously reported, from the streets to the halls of government. Following the Oct. 7 attack, the Toronto Police Service (TPS) issued data showing that Jews had been the victims of 57 percent of all hate crimes, with 56 of the 98 hate crimes that occurred in the city from Oct. 7 to Dec. 17 being documented as antisemitic. Compared to the same period in 2022, the number of hate crimes targeting the Jewish community during that period more than tripled.
During all of 2023, Jews were the victims of 78 percent of religious-based hate crimes in Toronto, according to police-reported data. Overall in Canada, Jewish Canadians were the most frequently targeted group for hate crimes, with a 71 percent increase from the prior year.
In 2024, according to the latest TPS data, Jews were the victims of over 80 percent of religious-based hate crimes in Toronto.
“These numbers reflect a disturbing reality: antisemitism in our city is growing more aggressive, more visible, and more tolerated,” Michelle Stock, vice president of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said in May, commenting on the statistics. “Jewish Canadians — like all Canadians — deserve to feel safe. It’s time for governments to match words with actions.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Israel to Raise Defense Spending to Meet Security Challenges
Israeli tanks are positioned near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, March 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
Israel will raise defense spending by 42 billion shekels ($12.5 billion) in 2025 and 2026, the finance and defense ministries said on Thursday, citing the country’s security challenges.
The budget agreement will allow the Defense Ministry to “advance urgent and essential procurement deals critical to national security,” the ministries said in a statement.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the new defense budget “fully covers the intense fighting in Gaza, alongside comprehensive security preparations for all threats — from the south, the north, and more distant arenas.”
Israel‘s military costs have surged since it launched its military offensive on Gaza following the deadly attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Since then, Israel has also fought Hezbollah in Lebanon and waged a 12-day air war with Iran, and carried out airstrikes in Syria this week after vowing to destroy government forces attacking Druze in southern Syria and demanding they withdraw.
Over the past 21 months, Israel‘s missile defense systems have been working almost daily to intercept missiles fired by Hezbollah, Iran, and Houthis in Yemen.
Current annual defense spending is 110 billion shekels – about 9 percent of gross domestic product – out of a total 2025 budget of 756 billion shekels.
The extra budgetary funding “will allow the Defense Ministry to immediately sign procurement deals for the weapons and ammunition required to replenish depleted stocks and support the IDF’s ongoing operations,” said Amir Baram, director general of the Defense Ministry.
It would also enable the defense establishment to initiate development programs to strengthen the Israel Defense Forces’ qualitative edge for future systems, he said.
MULTIPLE SCENARIOS
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the funds would allow Israel to prepare for multiple scenarios since “enemies are openly declaring their intent to destroy us … For this we require complete military, technological, and operational superiority.”
Separately, the Defense Ministry said it had signed a deal with state-run Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to accelerate serial production of Arrow interceptors.
The Arrow, developed and manufactured in cooperation with the US Missile Defense Agency, is a missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles.
The Arrow had a high interception rate during the conflicts with Hamas and Iran. As part of the deal, IAI will supply the military with a significant additional amount of Arrow interceptors.
“The numerous interceptions it carried out saved many lives and significantly reduced economic damage,” Baram said.
On Wednesday, the ministry signed a $20 million deal with Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) to supply advanced machine guns aimed at significantly enhancing the IDF ground forces’ firepower capabilities.
($1 = 3.3553 shekels)
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French Court Backs Release of Lebanese Terrorist Jailed for US, Israeli Diplomat Murders
A protester holds a flag with the slogan “Freedom for Georges Abdallah” during a demonstration to demand the immediate and unconditional release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese terrorist held in France since 1984, on the eve of a French appeals court ruling on his conditional release, in Paris, France, July 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Abdul Saboor
A French court on Thursday ruled in favor of releasing Lebanese terrorist Georges Ibrahim Abdallah from prison, after he served almost 40 years of a life sentence for attacks on US and Israeli diplomats in France.
The Paris Appeals court agreed to Abdallah’s release on July 25 on the condition he leaves France, a judicial source said. A second source familiar with the case said he would be deported to Lebanon.
Abdallah is the former head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions. He was jailed in 1987 for his role in the 1982 murders in Paris of US military attache Charles Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov and for the attempted murder of US Consul General Robert Homme in Strasbourg in 1984.
The US Department of Justice and France’s general prosecutor have for years vigorously opposed his release, and eight previous release requests had been rejected.
Neither Abdallah’s lawyer nor the Lebanese and US embassies were immediately available for comment.
In a hearing in February, the Paris court said Abdallah should make an effort to compensate his victims’ families, according to a person familiar with the matter.
His lawyer said in June that around 16,000 euros ($18,546) had been disbursed into his account, an amount the US Department of Justice and France’s general prosecutor said was insufficient and did not come from Abdallah.
A source familiar with the case said on Thursday that Abdallah will not have to pay compensation to the victims.
It was not clear if there could be further appeals.
Abdallah, 74, has remained a staunch defender of the Palestinian cause.
The Paris court has described his behavior in prison as irreproachable and said in November that he posed “no serious risk in terms of committing new terrorism acts.”
However, the US Department of Justice has asserted that his release would pose a threat to the safety of US diplomats.
Washington has also used Abdallah’s previous comments that he would return to his hometown Qobayyat on the Lebanese-Syrian border as a reason not to release him, given the recent conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.
($1 = 0.8627 euros)
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