Canada will cease all future arms exports to Israel, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has said.
The move comes after lawmakers voted 204 – 117 in favor of a non-binding motion to stop the weapons sales after a lengthy debate on Monday, the Anadolu news agency reported.
“It is a real thing,” Joly told the Toronto Star newspaper on Tuesday.
The original motion was for a weapons sales suspension but that was changed to an outright ban.
Also included in the motion was a clause that called for support of the eventual “establishment of the State of Palestine” in concert with Canada’s international partners, Anadolu reported.
Canada had earlier placed a temporary suspension on export permits for millions of dollars worth of military goods and technology, over possible human rights violations.
Existing Contracts
But there was some confusion previously as Global Affairs Canada continued to receive applications on arms exports to Israel and they were reviewed on a case-to-case basis, the Star reported.
Joly, however, reportedly insisted that after the Monday vote calling for the weapons ban, the Canadian government decided to honor the pledge.
Canada’s Defense Minister Bill Blair said Joly will decide how the ban is enforced.
“There are a number of existing contracts that are already in place, but this was a going-forward basis, I think that’s how the minister’s looking at it,” Blair reportedly told the Star.
“There has been a lot of concern expressed with respect to … lethal military sales to Israel during the conflict,” he was quoted as saying.
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East called the amended motion “watered-down” in a statement, but that it was “nonetheless a small step forward for ending Canadian complicity in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.”
While the final motion adopted by Parliament no longer called for the total suspension of all trade in military goods and technology with Israel, it called on Canada to cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel to ensure compliance with Canada’s arms export regime,” the group said in a statement.
“This policy is critically urgent in light of evidence that Canada exported a record-breaking $28.5 million in military goods to Israel in the first three months after October 7,” the statement added.
