Countries traditionally aligned with Israel are warning its right-wing government against contemplating a displacement of people who live in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli officials repeatedly suggest Canada could take in Palestinians.
This week, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said his country should “encourage migration” of Palestinians from Gaza and re-establish Israeli settlements there, echoing similar comments from National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller condemned remarks from both politicians as “inflammatory and irresponsible.”
French President Emmanuel Macron called them “unacceptable” commentswhile the German foreign ministry rejected them “in the strongest terms,” with a spokesman saying they were unhelpful for peace.
Last month, members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party reportedly discussed countries willing to accept Palestinians in Gaza as refugees.
The report by the Israel Hayom newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying a member of the Knesset had pointed to Canada, mentioning its new program offering limited visas to relatives of Canadian citizens who are seeking passage out of Gaza.
The report has not been independently verified by The Canadian Press.
A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Canada will not condone the mass displacement of Palestinians.
“In response to the situation in Gaza, our priority is to reunite families in a way that does not hinder their ability to return to Gaza, when circumstances allow,” Miller’s press secretary Bahoz Dara Aziz said in a statement Wednesday.
In a social-media post last week, Miller said that he has never discussed the transfer of Gazans out of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory.
“It’s obscene that I’d have to say this, but at no time have I discussed with any member of the Israeli government the so-called ‘voluntary transfer’ of Gazans out of Gaza,” Miller posted online on Dec. 29.
“Anyone pretending otherwise is full of it.”
Miller’s office says he has had no contact with Israel’s government at all.
Next week, Canada is expected to launch a temporary immigration program for the extended family members of Canadians who are trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The program would offer three-year visas to up to 1,000 Palestinians whose family members are willing to support them while they are in Canada.
“Vulnerable people are looking for safe haven and to be reunited with their loved ones in Canada, while also having aspirations of one day returning to Gaza,” Dara Aziz said in the statement.
“This program not only allows for this but was constructed with this in mind.”
Palestinian Canadian Shaymaa Ziara has been pleading with the federal government to help her father, siblings and pregnant sister-in-law out of the Gaza Strip since the conflict began in October.
In November, one of her brothers was killed when their neighbour’s house was bombed.
Even now, the prospect of leaving Gaza without knowing if they will be able to return is a difficult one for her family, she said in an interview.
“If given the choice between staying on the land right now or saving their lives, I want to save their life while preserving their rights to go back to their land and be able to rebuild their home,” said Ziara, who lives in Markham, Ont.
Her grandmother was among 700,000 Palestinians who were displaced during the Israel-Palestinian war in 1948, and was forced to leave her home in Jaffa, north of the Gaza Strip.
“She never got to go home to her house in Jaffa,” Ziara said. “I don’t want the same thing to happen for my family.”
During the first month of the latest Israel-Hamas war, an Israeli government ministry drafted a proposal to transfer all 2.3 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip into Egypt and have them resettled into other countries.
The memo specifically noted that Canada’s “lenient” immigration practices could make the country a target for resettlement. Israeli officials have confirmed the document’s veracity but said the proposal is not government policy.
In November, Ram Ben Barak, former deputy director of intelligence agency Mossad, told Israeli television in November that for Palestinians, “it’s better to be a refugee in Canada” than to live in Gaza.
University of Ottawa professor Thomas Juneau said the recent statements by Smotrich and Ben Gvir amount to “openly advocating for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”
In a joint statement with Australia and New Zealand on Dec. 12, the federal government called for a pause in hostilities in Gaza and progress toward a sustainable ceasefire.
In the statement, Canada opposed “the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, the re-occupation of Gaza, any reduction in territory and any use of siege or blockade.”
Later that month, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Paula Gaviria Betancur, warned that Israel appears to be seeking to permanently alter the composition of Gaza’s population.
“As evacuation orders and military operations continue to expand and civilians are subjected to relentless attacks on a daily basis, the only logical conclusion is that Israel’s military operation in Gaza aims to deport the majority of the civilian population en masse,” Gaviria Betancur wrote in a Dec. 22 statement.
Israel’s government spokesman Eylon Levy responded by saying that his country asked Palestinians to move to a humanitarian zone within the Gaza Strip, from which Hamas then launched rockets.
“We want civilians to be protected in areas where Hamas is not already using them as human shields,” Levy said on social media on Dec. 26.
“The only people encouraging the mass displacement of Gazans are those who falsely label most of them ‘refugees’ and indulge their dreams of relocating into Israel through violent struggle, instead of living in peace alongside us.”
The war began after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing an estimated 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.
The Israeli military has bombarded Gaza almost constantly since then, through air strikes and a large-scale ground operation. Authorities in the territory say the war has killed 22,300 Palestinians.
The Palestinian ambassador to Canada, Mona Abuamara, has repeatedly said that her people fear Israel wants to evacuate the Gaza Strip and take it over.
“You are seeing these ministers who come out and talk about wiping out cities (or) throwing a nuclear bomb on the Palestinian people,” Abuamara, who represents the Palestinian General Delegation to Canada, said in an interview last month.
In November, Netanyahu suspended his heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu, after he said in an interview that dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza was an option.
In March, Smotrich called for the West Bank village of Huwara to be “erased” following violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
“Israel wants to — and you hear it every day — to send all the Gazans out. That’s a solution that they think would bring the calm that they want,” Abuamara said, adding that she believes many Israelis disagree with what their country’s government is doing.
“The Palestinian people don’t want to leave their land.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 3, 2024.
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 250 points in late-morning trading, led by strength in the base metal and technology sectors, while U.S. stock markets also charged higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 254.62 points at 23,847.22.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 432.77 points at 41,935.87. The S&P 500 index was up 96.38 points at 5,714.64, while the Nasdaq composite was up 486.12 points at 18,059.42.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.68 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was up 89 cents at US$70.77 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down a penny at US2.27 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$9.40 at US$2,608.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.33 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
MONTREAL – Quebec Premier François Legault says the Bloc Québécois must vote to topple the federal Liberal government next week and trigger an election.
Legault called on Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon to summon the “courage” to ask the Bloc to support the expected Conservative non-confidence motion against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government on Tuesday.
The Bloc and PQ, which both campaign for Quebec independence, are ideologically aligned and have historically worked together.
But moments later Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet said on X that he would not vote to topple Trudeau, saying he serves Quebecers “according to my own judgment.”
Legault made the comments after expressing frustration with what he described as Ottawa’s inaction on curbing the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec, especially asylum seekers.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said he will put forward a motion of non-confidence in the government on Sept. 24, and specifically challenged NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to back it.
The Conservatives don’t have enough votes to pass the motion with just one of the Bloc or the NDP.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
