Why Canada stands with Ukraine but not Gaza

AI Summary

The Canadian government exhibits double standards by strongly supporting Ukraine with aid and sanctions against Russia, while endorsing Israel's war actions in Gaza despite concerns over war crimes and humanitarian crises. Canada's policy shifts reflect geopolitical interests rather than consistent human rights advocacy.

Why Canada stands with Ukraine but not Gaza Jeremy Wildeman on Wed, 07/01/2026 - 20:24 Ottawa's double standards are on full display as it condemns Russia's war, while enabling Israel's genocide Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attend the G7 summit in France on 16 June 2026 (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP) On Ottawa speaks about international law and human rights only when it suits western geopolitical interests. The contrast between Canada’s response to Israel over the Gaza war, and Russia over the Ukraine conflict, highlights the government’s dangerous double standards, which come at the expense of the legitimacy of global norms.  This  analysis, co-authored with Joseph Bouchard, of Canadian government statements on both conflicts shows a clear contrast. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Canada responded with moral certainty.  Justin Trudeau, then the prime minister, denounced it as illegal and unjustifiable. Ottawa rapidly imposed sanctions, and within two months of the war breaking out, the House of Commons unanimously declared that Russia was committing genocide.  By 2025, Canada had given Ukraine $22bn in aid, including $6.5bn in military assistance, while training upwards of 47,000 Ukrainian military and security personnel. This past May, Prime Minister Mark Carney declared that Ukraine’s fight is “our fight”.  Compare this to Canada’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza, which began after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack. Ottawa has long emphasised Israel’s right to self-defence, even as leading human rights organisations and UN experts have raised alarms about potential war crimes and genocide.  (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); When asked in September 2024 whether Canada would condemn Israel or impose an arms embargo after much of Gaza had been destroyed, and at least 40,000 Palestinians killed, Trudeau asserted: “Israel has a right to defend itself.” Canada’s tone shifted only after immense public pressure, with Carney recognising a Palestinian state on 21 September 2025. But even as Foreign Minister Anita Anand acknowledged last August that “humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels”, with famine declared across the territory, Canada refused to take concrete action against Israel. Competing frameworks Canada conveniently oscillates between two competing frameworks. Against rivals like Russia, it invokes the language of the liberal international order, a global system espousing universal human rights, international law, and principles like the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).  Canada helped create the R2P framework, which holds that countries must protect their populations from genocide and war crimes; otherwise, the international community has a duty to intervene. For friends like Israel, Canada defaults to the rules-based order - a flexible framework that pays lip service to global norms, but ensures they never actually constrain western allies, while applying them disproportionately against geopolitical adversaries and weaker non-western regimes. Any moral policy Canada pursues is out of convenience or coincidence. Until Canada confronts reality, its moral claims will remain hollow and its international influence weak The rules-based order is an adaptation that reinforces western hegemony while preserving the appearance of universality.  This structural double standard exposes an uncomfortable truth that few western elites want to acknowledge: their support for Israel, a state built on mass forced dispossession, reveals that only some lives are considered grievable, and only the geopolitically convenient ones are worth fighting for. After analysing more than 250 official Canadian statements on the Ukraine and Gaza wars using 10 binary codes, we saw a systemic pattern emerge. On Ukraine, Canada demanded an immediate ceasefire, condemned Russian attacks on hospitals and schools, affirmed Ukraine’s sovereignty, explicitly named Russia as the aggressor, and invoked R2P.  On 28 February 2022, Melanie Joly, then Canada’s foreign minister, told the UN Human Rights Council: “Human rights are universal and can’t be manipulated to justify war and crime.”  Evincing Canadian middle-power activism, she added: “The Russian regime is challenging the international system of peace and law and the very charter that we have been building since the end of the Second World War. Russia has tried to make a mockery of our international system, to force a reversion to a ‘might-makes-right’ world. We will not allow this to happen.” (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Damaged moral standing On Gaza, however, Canada initially resisted making calls for a ceasefire, avoided condemning Israeli strikes as indiscriminate or disproportionate, affirmed Israel’s “right to exist” while shunning equivalent language for Palestine, and failed to summon the R2P