John,

Earlier this year, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, imposed an unreported suspension on the export of arms and military equipment to Israel. Initially, government officials denied any embargo and insisted there was no record of such a decision, but we engaged with both Israeli and Canadian manufacturers of this equipment.

As it became clear which direction the Foreign Minister and the federal government were taking, we continued our interventions. The government was not issuing ‘end-user certificates’ for the export of commodities to Israel. Several weeks ago, the Minister finally confirmed that 30 licences had been ‘suspended pending further investigation into their intended use.’

Today, Minister Joly publicly confirmed that the suspensions were in place, even mentioning a specific contract involving a joint venture with a U.S.-based defence contractor. Although we have engaged the government on this issue, to date, it has not responded to our questions or to those raised by Israel.

As a result, and in response to Minister Joly’s disclosure today, we have undertaken several initiatives, including:

• Issuing a strong comment in The Globe and Mail against Joly, questioning her motivations and what this means for Canada’s traditional alliance with Israel.
  
  
• Working with the Conservative caucus to push for a hearing on the issue at the Parliamentary Defence Committee.
  
  
• Meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to discuss the impact of the embargo on U.S. defence interests and what pressure the Americans can bring to bear on Canada.
  
  
• Calling for the convening of the Canada-Israel Parliamentary Association to increase political pressure on the government.

CIJA has assured Canadian Federations that we will continue to monitor developments and engage as appropriate on this issue, not just with the strategy outlined above, but with any further tactics required.

Our full comment on Minister Joly is linked here.

CIJA