The federal government’s decision to support an NDP motion on the Israel-Hamas war has sown confusion within the Liberal caucus and the NDP over what Canada’s official foreign policy is on arms exports to Israel.
On the way into their Liberal caucus meeting on Wednesday, MPs had different conclusions about what the government agreed to when cabinet voted for a motion that included a call for Canada to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel.”
Ontario Liberal MP Chandra Arya said he believed it meant Canada would implement an arms embargo with Israel, while B.C. MP Patrick Weiler said he thought it maintained the status quo policy not to approve new permits. Manitoba MP Ben Carr said he was hoping to get more clarity during the Liberal caucus meeting.
Three sources with direct knowledge of the discussions told The Globe and Mail that the NDP and groups in the Muslim community believed that by supporting the motion the government had agreed to an arms embargo on Israel. The Globe is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to comment.
“We have been transparent about our expectations of the government to end all arms exports to Israel. This means all military goods and technology requiring an export permit,” NDP MP Heather McPherson said in a statement to The Globe.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims, an advocacy group, also said it believed the motion led to an arms embargo.
However, two government sources said Canada has not imposed an arms embargo on Israel.
The Globe is not naming the sources because they were not authorized to comment on the matter.
An arms embargo is a sanction that is aimed at preventing weapons and military equipment from leaving or reaching a targeted country, according to the federal government’s website. Such an embargo is currently applied to dictatorships like North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
A statement from Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s office said that export permits to Israel approved up until Jan. 8 remain in effect. Her office said suspending all open permits would “have important implications for both Canada and its allies.”
The government sources said Canada would continue to accept applications for new permits to export military goods to Israel. However, they cautioned, Ottawa will not be approving any for the time being because officials feel they are unable to verify whether these exports might violate human rights.
Ms. Joly’s office has repeatedly referred to the distinction between “lethal” and “non-lethal exports” to Israel, but the federal government’s Canada’s Export Control List contains no such distinction of controlled goods that require permits.
Canada does not typically export full weapons systems to Israel, but does export military end-use components on an annual basis, valued in the tens of millions of Canadian dollars. Waterloo, Ont.-based Project Ploughshares, an arms-control advocate, says by its count Canadian companies exported more than $21-million in defence equipment to Israeli customers in 2022, the latest year with complete data.
All goods on Canada’s Export Control List require approval from officials in Global Affairs Canada to be exported. Goods on Group 2 of that list, known as the “munitions list,” are military goods for military end-use. This includes both full-systems (for example, combat aircraft and light armoured vehicles) and their parts and components (such as targeting sensors, fire control computers for tanks and parts of firearms).
Ms. McPherson, who agreed to the government’s changes to the motion on Monday that dramatically softened it, called on Ms. Joly to explain why the country is allowing any arms transfers after the Monday vote.
The House foreign affairs committee is studying the export permits that were already approved but Ms. McPherson said the government only released a partial set of documents.
“We will be pursuing this issue at the Foreign Affairs committee and holding the government’s feet to the fire to ensure they honour the commitments they made to Canadians to stop sending arms to Israel,” Ms. McPherson said.
Marieke Walsh
Steven Chase