(Photo by World Economic Forum via Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
After nearly a decade in power, Justin Trudeau is resigning as Canada’s Prime Minister. Back in 2015, when he was first elected, Trudeau promised to make real change and move Canada forward. Yet, in recent years, Trudeau’s popularity steadily eroded, and his government’s approval rate was hitting record lows, ultimately ending his tenure.
Economic mismanagement, internal party divisions, and transgressions are among the things to remember Trudeau for. Still, he will also be remembered for his foreign policy on Palestine—one characterized by hypocrisy, inaction, and complicity in the genocide in Gaza.
At the 2024 Global Peace Summit in Switzerland last year, Trudeau described the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia as “an element of genocide” that Russia “needs to be accountable for.” However, Trudeau never condemned or applied such a term to the killing of over 18,000 children in Gaza by Israel. While Trudeau’s foreign policy rhetoric was centred on championing human rights, his actions proved otherwise, with his government exporting arms to Israel over the years and “fuelling” the latter’s atrocities and war crimes against Palestinians.
This blatant hypocrisy does not end here. The Trudeau government has taken significant steps in the past to provide a safe haven for displaced populations, including the Afghanistan resettlement initiative, the emergency travel program for Ukrainians, and the Syrian refugee program in 2015. However, its temporary visa program for Palestinians has been inadequate, with high barriers to entry and a limited number of approvals. Given the scale of displacement in Gaza, this response does not match Canada’s historical commitments to humanitarian protection.
As Trudeau’s time in office comes to a close, I spoke with Muhannad Ayyash, professor of Sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary, to examine his stance on Gaza and the legacy he leaves behind.
Contradictions in Foreign Policy
Trudeau’s foreign policy emphasized human rights and international law. Yet, Canada’s response to the genocide in Gaza—refusal to call for a ceasefire for months, freezing of UNRWA funding for weeks, and questioning the ICJ—suggests political considerations often outweighed humanitarian commitments.
What factors under Trudeau’s leadership contributed to the contradiction between Canada’s stated foreign policy principles and its geopolitical realities?
Ayyash: The Trudeau government is not different from previous Canadian governments in that they follow their stated humanitarian principles only when they align with their material self-interest. The past two years should make it clear that Canada does not actually stand up for the principles and ideals it proclaims to stand for but acts on the international stage in ways that only advance its self-interest.
This much is clear: Canada is a staunch ally of US imperialism and Israeli settler colonialism and has been for decades. Canada has never been serious about the rights of the Palestinian people, and its position on Palestine should make us question Canada’s actual commitment to the ideals and principles it proclaims to stand for.
Canada’s Failure as a Middle Power
Amid the genocide in Gaza, countries like South Africa brought Israel to the International Court of Justice, Brazil recalled its ambassador, and Colombia cut diplomatic ties. However, the Trudeau government failed to take any meaningful, bold action.
Why did Trudeau choose to make Canada irrelevant as a middle power in this genocide, and what does this say about the credibility of his foreign policy legacy?
Ayyash: The notion that Canada is helpless and cannot oppose the will of the US when it comes to the issue of Palestine is not convincing. Canada could have easily joined with other middle powers (Norway, Ireland, Spain, Turkiye, South Africa, Brazil, and others) to form a strong coalition of states that would stand up to the US and demand an end to the genocide. This is how middle powers can become effective players on the world stage.
Today, I think Canada is viewed as no more than a lackey of the US, and its reputation has rightly suffered greatly around the world because of its position on Palestine, among other things, of course.
Voting Record on Palestine at the UN
Despite Trudeau’s public commitment to a two-state solution and the rhetoric of peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians, Canada has consistently abstained or voted against UN resolutions supporting Palestinian rights, following a voting pattern similar to that of the Harper government. Just last year, Canada abstained from a UN motion calling on Israel to end its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and from a UN assembly vote backing Palestine’s bid for membership.
What does this continuity suggest about the limitations of Canada’s foreign policy on Palestine, and why do you think Trudeau has maintained this approach?
Ayyash: The continuity clearly shows that Canada is not serious about Palestinian rights. Canadian politicians, foreign policy experts and advisors are not blind or stupid. They can easily see that Israel is strongly opposed to the two-state solution. Israel has made it very clear, in words but more importantly in its policies, practices, and actions, that it will never accept the creation of a Palestinian state. So, if any Canadian politician wants to be taken seriously about their commitment to the two-state solution, then they must also present a concrete plan for how they will force Israel to accept a Palestinian state. Otherwise, it is just empty talk that is allowing the Israeli state to continue its settler colonization of Palestine.
Enabling the Genocide
In an important report released in 2022, Amnesty International classified Israel as an apartheid state, citing systematic human rights violations against Palestinians. Despite these findings, Canada set a new record in 2023, exporting $30.6 million in military goods to Israel. The Trudeau government has continued to allow arms exports, even throughout the 15-month genocide in Gaza. The government claimed in early 2024 that it paused new arms export approvals. However, a report by Al-Jazeera revealed that Canadian military goods have still reached Israel through off-the-record channels, raising serious questions about the transparency and accountability of Canada’s export practices.
Why do you think the Trudeau government has allowed this to continue, and why has not such crucial information, including Amnesty’s apartheid report, been fully considered in shaping Canada’s stance on arms sales and its foreign policy toward Israel?
Ayyash: The reality of Israeli settler colonialism is clear to anyone who approaches the question of Palestine and Israel honestly and sincerely. Since the violence of settler colonialism is so brutal and unjustifiable, settler colonial and imperial powers try to conceal it. It is a simple equation for settler colonial and imperial states: if the truth is going to reveal your actions as indefensible, you conceal the truth.
Given that Canada is itself a settler colony that has practiced the concealment of this kind of brutal and violent reality for decades, it is not surprising that the Canadian state, which includes all of the main institutions such as education and media, would participate in the censoring and concealment of the truth of Israeli settler colonialism. In short, Canadian governments actually know what is happening on the ground. Still, they choose to conceal that reality (even from themselves), allowing the conditions to get even worse for Palestinians, and continuing in the process to materially benefit from the colonization of Palestine.
Trudeau’s Legacy
As Trudeau steps down, how will his handling of the Palestinian cause—particularly his response to the genocide in Gaza—define his legacy in global affairs? And what key lessons should future Canadian governments take from his failures when shaping their approach to Palestine?
He should be remembered as the epitome of hypocrisy—as the classic liberal politician who conceals brutal genocidal violence by dressing up Canada’s active support of Israeli settler colonialism with grand-sounding ideals, values, and principles. If a future Canadian government wants to become known around the world as a force for good, as a force for universal human rights and freedoms, then they must completely change their position on Palestine.
There is only one way to ensure that Palestinians can achieve their inalienable rights, and that is by putting pressure on Israel. Without economic and political isolation, Israel will continue its violent settler colonial conquest of Palestine. Barring a complete severing of political and economic ties with the Israeli state, nothing will change, and conditions will in fact get worse, leading us further down the path of genocide and regional wars.
If Canada wants to be seen as something other than a lackey of US imperialism, then it must form strong multilateral relations with states around the world to oppose Israeli settler colonialism in Palestine and US imperialism in the region and beyond. A democratic world order is better for everyone, including the vast majority of people who live in Canada and the US, and Canada should play its role to decolonize the international system and bring about this democratic world order. Is this likely to take place when Canada is not even interested in dismantling its own settler colonial structures? Probably not at the moment, but that is what is needed: decolonization of states around the world as well as a decolonization of the international system itself.
Edited by Light Naing
