The Senate

Honourable colleagues, I rise today to speak to Senator Woo’s motion with respect to any degree of support the Government of Canada might be providing the State of Israel in the context of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Senator Woo’s motion would ask our government whether any of its policies or exports conflict with its international legal obligations in the context of a genocide. It’s a call for an audit of arms exports and any related aid or support to Israel in the context of the war in Gaza.

Colleagues, this has been a brutal, bloody and devastating war.

All of us here, and Canadians across the country, were horrified by the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which almost 2,000 Israelis and foreign nationals — including 815 civilians — were killed and 215 were taken hostage. The first victims of the Hamas attack were women, members of the Israel Defence Forces, who were working on the front line as border monitors that day, and whose repeated warnings of irregular activities on the other side of the border in the days leading up to the attack had been ignored. The relatives of these women are pressing for a long-delayed inquiry into why Israel’s reputed border security apparatus was so easily breached that day.

Nevertheless, as we would expect, the government of Israel and its cabinet struck back. Israel’s response has seen 68,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza. Almost half of them — 34,000 — have been women and children. More than 170,000 have been injured by missiles, bombs and high-powered weapons which inflict massive damage to limbs and body tissue, as they are designed to do. The death and casualty figures include independent Middle Eastern journalists. I mention that because the broader global journalistic community has, of course, been banned from entering the war zone by the government of Israel.

Compared to other recent global conflicts, the numbers of known deaths of journalists, humanitarian and health workers and children are among the highest. Thousands more uncounted dead bodies are thought to be lying under the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza.

As of May 2025, traumatic injury deaths are estimated at 93,000, representing 4% to 5% of Gaza’s pre-war population. The number of injured is greater than 160,000.

As a result, Gaza has the most child amputees per capita in the world; the war in Gaza has caused disabilities for more than 21,000 children.

Alongside this human carnage has been the purposeful and massive destruction of Gaza’s hospitals and health clinics, water and sewage infrastructure, homes, places of business and facilities that prepare food.

The distribution of emergency aid has been seriously disrupted. We have seen emergency rooms purposely destroyed in the midst of lifesaving surgeries; we see emaciated Palestinian children and infants; we see entire families annihilated; and we see bloodied children wandering down destroyed roads crying for their parents — as we imagine might have also been seen in Israeli villages on October 7, 2023.

In the context of this vast swath of devastation in Gaza, emergency food distribution previously organized and delivered by the UN relief agency was replaced by a contract organization that we learned just last week, at a Senate committee, was operated predominantly by military contractors with an inclination to shoot and kill some of those queuing for food. These food distribution sites — which have, thankfully, now been replaced — became death traps. With no other choice, those needing to feed their starving families, including children who walked long distances, were literally risking their lives for a bag of flour, and many died as a result. They were purposely killed while seeking food for their families.

The common denominator in this story, colleagues, is that Gaza has become a literal death trap, one purposely designed and lethally delivered by the Israel Defense Forces, many members of which will live with this politically and religiously driven slaughter for the remainder of their lives. It will haunt them as it haunts us.

The parents of hostages are not cheering this; neither are many other Israelis. Those cheering this carnage are, for the most part, religious zealots in positions of power and influence, who have used the opportunity of this war to expand illegal settlements in Gaza and drive out Palestinian farmers and their families, killing many in the process. Against this devastating backdrop, Senator Woo is asking us what we can do about this.

The first is to inform ourselves. The second is to speak out, as I am doing today, which I do not find easy, given the collateral damage to our Jewish friends here in Canada and around the world.

The second is to speak out against harassment and violence against Jews. It is repulsive that schools and synagogues across this country have been attacked and damaged. It is repulsive that our Jewish friends and colleagues feel intimidated and threatened, and every effort must be made to respond to this.

Third, I note the findings of the International Court of Justice that Israel has violated the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. To this, we add efforts such as Senator Woo’s motion, the goal of which is to ensure that our government is not wittingly or unwittingly condoning or supporting the tragedy in Gaza. By this, I mean that it is not supplying — directly or indirectly — materials that could intensify or extend the horror in Gaza.

Colleagues, I don’t say these words lightly. I don’t make this statement lightly. I have examined my own conscience. I have dug into my religious upbringing, and I have been horrified over and over again. I would like to know that our government is not in any way aiding or abetting this brutal and savage crisis. And to the extent that it has, even in small ways, it should now shut this down immediately and table its response to Senator Woo’s motion which essentially, colleagues, is saying as we would say, I think, in this chamber, “No more, no more, no more.”

Colleagues, I ask you to consider supporting this motion. Thank you.