{"id":99139,"date":"2025-09-08T10:25:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T14:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/?post_type=cu_story&p=99139"},"modified":"2025-10-20T22:10:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T02:10:43","slug":"canadas-response-to-the-war-in-gaza-raises-questions-about-its-commitment-to-human-rights-and-justice","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/canadas-response-to-the-war-in-gaza-raises-questions-about-its-commitment-to-human-rights-and-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s Response to the War in Gaza Raises Questions About Its Commitment to Human Rights and Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Canada’s Response to the War in Gaza Raises Questions About Its Commitment to Human Rights and Justice\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished<\/a> from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. All photos provided by The Conversation<\/a> from various sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeremy Wildeman<\/a> is an adjunct assistant professor at Carleton University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada and Canadians have long considered themselves defenders of human rights, democracy, justice and the rule of law. Canada played a significant role in the development of what’s known as the liberal international order<\/a>, including multilateral institutions like the United Nations, and international law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada was once highly respected for the role it played developing the framework for United Nations peacekeeping<\/a>, the Mine Ban Treaty<\/a>, championing the UN’s Responsibility to Protect<\/a>, supporting Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations<\/a> and establishing the International Criminal Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada has acted as a moral voice denouncing abuses of human rights and violations of international law. It challenged South African apartheid, and passed a parliamentary motion calling China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims a genocide<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has advocated for Iranian women’s<\/a> rights at the United Nations and sanctioned Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, Canada joined a declaration<\/a> of intervention against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice over its treatment of the Rohingya people, reaffirming the requirement for states to prevent genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where is Canada on Gaza?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada intends<\/a> to recognize a Palestinian state<\/a> at this week’s UN General Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Canada’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza since October 2023 and countless well-documented instances of war crimes committed against Palestinians \u2014 including allegations of ethnic cleansing<\/a> and genocide<\/a> \u2014 raises serious questions about Canada’s commitment to its own values and the liberal international order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Observers have documented countless Israeli violations of international law while turning Gaza into an unliveable wasteland. Seventy-eight per cent of all structures in Gaza have been<\/a> destroyed, including housing (92 per cent), water and sanitation infrastructure (89 per cent), hospitals (50 per cent), schools (91.8 per cent) and roads (81 per cent).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The health-care system has been systematically<\/a> dismantled, and Gaza has recorded the highest number<\/a> of deaths of health-care workers, United Nations staff and journalists<\/a> of any recent conflict zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel has denied and attacked humanitarian aid<\/a>. Since mid-March, it has enforced a total siege<\/a> on Gaza, blocking entry of food, water, medical supplies, hygiene and dignity kits, and infant and maternal care items, including baby formula<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Famine<\/a> has been unfolding and starvation<\/a> is widespread, but now 100 per cent of Gaza’s estimated 2,100,000 people face<\/a> acute levels of food insecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aid is scarce<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Only four aid<\/a> distribution sites currently operate in Gaza, down from 400. They were set up in May by the United States\/Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. M\u00e9decins sans fronti\u00e8res (Doctors Without Borders) say they violate<\/a> core humanitarian principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been accused of weaponizing aid, engaging in ethnic cleansing<\/a> and funnelling Palestinians south to displace them. Its contractors and Israeli forces have been accused of firing on<\/a> starving Palestinians, accounting for many of the 1,838 Palestinians killed and 13,409 wounded while seeking aid since the foundation began operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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