More than a hundred anti-war protesters brought their concerns to the Toronto home of Canada’s Defence Minister Bill Blair last week.
Standing on the public sidewalk on February 23, the demonstrators shouted “war criminal!” at what protester’s say is Blair’s St. Clair Avenue home. They are demanding that Blair impose a full two-way arms embargo on Israel. The protest marked the “Global Day of Action to Close Bases.”
Some of the banner messages read: “Bill Blair, you are a liar, arms embargo or you are fired,” “Made in Canada: Israeli killing machines,” and “Stop arming genocide.”
The protest was organized by Jews Say No to Genocide, World Beyond War, Palestinian Youth Movement, and Scarborough Southwest for Palestine, who have been demanding an arms embargo on Israel for 16 months from the Canadian government.
“But the opposite has happened. Not only does Canada keep selling weapons to Israel, Blair, as ‘war minister,’ has kept buying Israeli weapons for the Canadian military,” says Rachel Small, an organizer with World Beyond War Canada.
Small said that this is putting Canadian taxpayers’ dollars directly in the hands of the “Israeli war machine.”
“It’s inexcusable,” she added.
In December 2023, Blair announced a new agreement to purchase $43 million worth of Spike LR2 missiles from Rafael, the Israeli state-owned defence manufacturer.
“We will not have any form of arms or parts of arms be sent to Gaza, period,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said on September 10, 2024.
This explanation came a few weeks after the U.S. announcement that a Quebec-located company would be the principal contractor “possible” $61-million U.S. sale of ammunition to Israel.
Small said that the federal government have cut some arms exports to Israel and stopped issuing new permits, but did not cut the flow of all arms to Israel and did not cancel their contracts to buy weapons from Israel.
“We are here to remind him and the other politicians… and everyone who signed off on that genocide, must be held accountable.”
Canada continues arms exports to Israel unimpeded, exploiting loopholes that allow military goods to flow through the U.S., “unreported and unregulated,” organizer Gur Tsabar, a spokesperson of the Jews Say No to Genocide Coalition, states in the news release.
“Enough is Enough. Blair has the power to enact a full two-way arms embargo on Israel, and this is his last chance to do what is right and stop Canada’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing war crimes,” Small said.
Tsabar said that they showed up at Blair’s home to remind him that “history is watching,” and that “the world will not forget those who stood by as Israel committed its atrocities against the Palestinian people.”
Tsabar said that they’ve sent tens of thousands of emails to Blair and called him hundreds of times for 16 months. He has refused to discuss this issue with constituents, human rights organizations, or journalists.
Ricochet also emailed the minister’s office for comment regarding the action in front of his house as well as the arms embargo, but received no response by press time.
Blair’s constituents in Scarborough, where he is the MP, have been trying to meet with him over a year, but he’s not answered any of their requests.
“This leaves us no other choice but to show up at Blair’s home and to make our case,” Tsabar told Ricochet. “We want him to know that we are not going to go away until there is justice, until he is held accountable until every weapon, they have sent to Israel has been accounted for.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed that 48,319 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza, while 111,749 people have been wounded, and thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble since October 7.
The ceasefire deal Hamas and Israel have agreed began on January 19. Despite this, Israel has violated the ceasefire agreement and killed and injured dozens of Palestinians since it was signed on January 15.
Activists and organizers at the protest discussed the issue in the context of the upcoming federal election. “With an election around the corner, this is your last chance to impose an arms embargo on Israel,” protesters said.
“We are here to remind him and the other politicians that the genocide that took place in Gaza, and everyone who signed off on that genocide, must be held accountable whether they’re going to be in office in the next elections, whether they are not going to be in office,” Adham Diabas, one of the organizers of the Palestinian youth movement, told Ricochet.
Diabas, who was born and raised in the West Bank, said that they want the Canadian government to stop sending their taxpayers’ money to Israel and stop buying weapons from them.
These are challenging times for many Canadians who struggle to make ends meet, he said. “There is no reason that our tax money should be sent to fund the genocide when it should be used here,” he said.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in July that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and must end “as rapidly as possible.”
Then, on November 22, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
Diabas said that despite the decision of the ICJ and the ICC, the Canadian government still has not taken any actions towards implementing an arms embargo.
“It doesn’t matter who’s in power, whether it’s Conservative, Liberals, or the NDP. If you don’t support Palestinian statehood, don’t support an arms embargo, don’t condemn the building of illegal settlements in the West Bank, we will continue to protest and mobilize the community,” he said.
Protesters told their requests that the minister cancels all current arms export permits to Israel and all ongoing and planned purchases of military goods from Israel and close the U.S. loophole that allows Canadian-made weapons and components to travel to Israel via the U.S.
Pamela Arancibia, a coordinator of Labour for Palestine, said that labourers have also a message to the minister that the way to security is through peaceful collaboration, cooperation, diplomacy and peace, instead of arms manufacturing.
Arancibia said that workers are asking for a two-way arms embargo. They also want Canada to stop selling Canadian-made weapons and components to Israel through the U.S.
