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A Promise Is Not a Policy: Canada Must Act on Illegal Settlements Now, and Toronto’s Leading Candidates Must Say Where They Stand
This week, members of the Canada-Palestine Parliamentary Friendship Group, led by MP Salma Zahid, wrote to Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand urging immediate action on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. I add my voice to theirs, and I ask the two leading candidates for mayor of this city to do the same.
Last week marked three years since the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza began.
What is happening now
On August 18, Israel’s Ministry of Housing opened bidding on 1,234 housing units in the E1 settlement project. That is more than a third of the 3,401 units approved for E1, a plan that was held back for decades because of what it would do on the ground.
E1 sits between East Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Building there would cut East Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank and break the territorial link between the north and south of the territory. For years, governments around the world, including Canada’s allies, treated E1 as a red line, because it would make a viable Palestinian state far harder to achieve.
The bidding window closes within days, and the bids cannot be opened before November 19. Once they are signed and construction begins, the facts on the ground become much harder to reverse. The time for pressure is before those contracts are awarded, not after.
Canada has already made the promise
In September, Prime Minister Mark Carney joined the leaders of France and the United Kingdom in pledging to ban imports of goods from settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The three governments said they would bring forward national measures.
That pledge has not yet become law. Canada does not lack the tools. The Special Economic Measures Act allows the government to act, and Canada already uses it here: in June, Minister Anand announced new sanctions under the Special Economic Measures (Extremist Settler Violence) Regulations. The Global Sanctions Coalition has set out practical measures the government can take immediately under the same Act, and I support that proposal.
Canada’s long-standing position is that settlements violate international law. A country that holds that position should not let goods from those settlements cross its border. Our allies are moving, and Canada should not be the last to follow through.
Why I am raising this as a candidate
Some will say this is not a municipal issue. It is true that a mayor does not set foreign policy. But a mayor speaks for more than three million people, and Toronto is home to communities from every part of the world, including many families with roots in Palestine and Israel alike. They are entitled to know whether those asking to lead this city believe Canada’s commitments mean something.
My platform is built on one principle: people lead the government, and government serves the people. That means keeping promises, in City Hall and in Ottawa. A government that pledges action and then delays has broken faith with the people it serves.
My challenge to Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford
So I ask the two leading candidates directly: do you support Canada keeping its promise to ban trade with illegal settlements?
This is not a trick question, and it does not need a long answer. Yes or no. Torontonians deserve to know where the people asking for their vote stand on a question of law, human rights and keeping one’s word.
I have given my answer. I hope they will give theirs.
Dr. Bahira Abdulsalam is an engineer, educator and independent candidate for Mayor of Toronto. Her full platform is at bahira.ca.
Toronto needs an engineer. Vote Bahira.
On October 26, vote Bahira Abdulsalam for Mayor of Toronto.
Dr. Bahira Abdulsalam, PhD, P.Eng.
Independent Candidate for Mayor of Toronto
bahira.ca
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