Dear Prime Minister Carney,
Re: Urgent Canadian intervention to end the genocide in Palestine
On behalf of Unifor and its 320,000 members across Canada, I am calling on your government to take urgent action to end the genocide in Palestine.
Canada must demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as an end to all existing blockades by the state of Israel of aid delivery to Palestinian civilians in the region.
Unifor has regularly denounced violent attacks against civilians by Hamas as well as the disproportionate military response by the Israeli government. We have joined calls by labour unions, human rights organizations, and national and international NGOs for an immediate ceasefire in the face of irrefutable evidence that the ongoing conflict in Palestine constitutes a genocide.
According to the UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ (OCHA) most recent Humanitarian update report, more than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 127,000 injured. UN Women have further reported that 28,000 Palestinian women and girls have been killed since October 2023, while UNICEF places the death toll of children at over 15,000.
Last year, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, concluded “that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating that Israel has committed genocide has been met”. This year, UN Experts further described the situation in Gaza, calling it “…one of the most ostentatious and merciless manifestations of the desecration of human life and dignity,” adding, “states must act swiftly to end the unfolding genocide, dismantle apartheid, and secure a future in which Palestinians and Israelis coexist in freedom and dignity.”
Hospitals, schools and emergency shelters in Gaza have been attacked and destroyed. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 460 aid workers have been killed, while the International Federation of Journalists places the number of journalists and media workers killed at more than 180.
We commend your government for immediately taking steps to join the United Kingdom and France in pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end his military campaign, including an end to the ongoing aid blockade. However, as the daily death toll continues to mount—and workers and civilians continue to be killed as they attempt to secure food and other forms of aid—it is clear that more must be done to bring Israel’s actions to end.
Prime Minister, we call on your government to fulfil Canada’s obligations under domestic and international law and suspend exports to Israel of any and all arms and military equipment manufactured in Canada. Canada’s participation in a global arms embargo on Israel is the only reasonable course of action to end the genocide in Palestine.
The possibility of the current conflict broadening into a wider—and far more deadly confrontation between Israel and Iran is gravely concerning in efforts to get to a peaceful accord in the broader region. As trade unionists, we know that workers, civilians and the most vulnerable in society always pay for war with their lives. As Canadians, we have every moral, legal, and humanitarian obligation to do everything in our power to prevent conflict and pursue peace at all times.
Canada must join with the broader community of countries which share our core values of peace and social justice and have already ceased exporting arms to Israel. We are past the point of urgency and approaching the point of no return. We know a better world is possible where diplomacy is the rule and war is the exception. We must fight for that world and fight for it now.
Sincerely,
Lana Payne
National President
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