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Canada’s Record at the UN General Assembly 2013:
17 Votes Against the Palestinian and Arab Peoples, And In Support of Israel Aggression and Apartheid

Canada’s voting pattern at the United Nations shows that the current government blindly and unconditionally supports Israel’s position, even when it is in contradiction with officially stated Canadian policies. The most recent UN General Assembly voting record of Canadian representatives demonstrated the shameful and biased positions of the Canadian Government that fly in the face of international humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Canada voted against the vast majority of the resolutions relating to Palestine/Israel (the one exception we could find was an abstention on humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees). Israel’s fan club in the UN, according to Prof. Richard Falk, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, includes “its three staunchest supporters, each once a British colony: the United States, Canada, Australia, with the addition of such international heavyweight states as Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands.” (The combined population of these three “heavyweight states” amounts to less than the population of the Palestinian city of Hebron or the Canadian city of Burnaby).
Here are just a few highlights of Canada’s position:
– Canada voted against the Right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (Not really surprising, given Canada’s own long history of trampling on the rights of aboriginal people).
– Canada voted against “2014: International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” (Don’t wait for any official celebrations in Ottawa to mark this!)
– Canada voted against “the right of all persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities to return to their homes or former places of residence in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967”. (And yet Canada hypocritically insists it “does not recognize permanent Israeli control” over occupied territories.)
These votes are further proof of Canadian complicity in settler colonialism (1,2,3,14), occupation (11,13,14,15,17), ethnic cleansing (6,8,9), land theft (8,11,13,14,15), apartheid(1,2,9,11,12), war crimes (7,9,10,11,13,14), human rights abuses (7,8,9,11,12,13), theft of natural resources (8,17), state terrorism (9,16) and nuclear proliferation (18) (numbers indicate relevant resolution listed below).

Here is the record – Canada has voted against all significant UN resolutions dealing with Palestinian human and national rights. Grassroots organizations and all people of conscience must challenge this outrage being implemented in our names, so that future generations will not be burdened with the shame and consequences of such reckless and criminal policies.

Hanna Kawas,
Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association
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Detailed Canadian Voting Record on Relevant UN Resolutions 2013:
17 Votes Against, One Abstention
1. The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination (A/C.3/68/L.68): 178 in favour to 7 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, United States), with 4 abstentions (Cameroon, Paraguay, Tonga, Vanuatu).
2. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People “2014 the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” (A/68/L.12): : 110 in favour to 7 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 56 abstentions.
3. Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat (A/68/L.13): 108 in favour to 7 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 59 abstentions
4. Special information programme on the question of Palestine of the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat (A/68/L.14): 163 in favour to 7 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 7 abstentions (Cameroon, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Togo, Tonga).
5. Assistance to Palestine refugees (A/C.4/68/L.12):173 in favour to 1 against ( Israel), with 8 abstentions ( Cameroon, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau, Paraguay, South Sudan, United States).
6. Persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities (A/C.4/68/L.13) by a recorded vote of 170 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Palau, Marshall Islands, United States), with 6 abstentions (Cameroon, Kiribati, Panama, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu).
7. Operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (A/C.4/68/L.14): 170 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 6 abstentions (Cameroon, Kiribati, Malawi, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu).
8. Palestine refugees’ properties and their revenues (A/C.4/68/L.15) was adopted by a recorded vote of 172 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 5 abstentions (Cameroon, Kiribati, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu).
9. The work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories (A/C.4/68/L.16): 95 in favour to 8 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, Panama, United States), with 75 abstentions.
10. The applicability of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the other occupied Arab territories (A/C.4/68/L.17): 169 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 7 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu).
11. Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan (A/C.4/68.L.18), 167 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 9 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Honduras, Kiribati, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu).
12. Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (A/C.4/68/L.19): 165 in favour to 8 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, Panama, United States), with 8 abstentions (Cameroon, Honduras, Kiribati, Malawi, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Vanuatu)
13. Peaceful settlement of the Question of Palestine (A/68/L.15): 165 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Israel, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 6 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Tonga).
14. Jerusalem (A/68/L.16): 162 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 8 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, South Sudan, Togo, Tonga).
15. The Syrian Golan (A/68/L.17): 112 in favour to 6 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, United States), with 58 abstentions
16. Oil slick on Lebanese Shores (A/C.2/68/L.26):169 in favour to 6 against (Australia, Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Palau, United States), with 4 abstentions (Cameroon, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Tonga)
17. Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources (A/68/446): 162 to 5 against (Canada, Israel, Micronesia (Federated States of), Palau, United States of America) with 9 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Honduras, Jamaica, Malawi, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Tonga.)
18. Risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East (A/68/414): 169 in favour to 5 against (Canada, Federated States of Micronesia, Israel, Palau, United States), with 6 abstentions (Australia, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, India, Panama).
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Statistics for countries with the most number of votes at the 2013 UN General Assembly (68th session) cast against the Palestinian and Arab peoples’ human rights and national aspirations:
Israel…18
Canada…17
Federated States of Micronesia…17
Palau…17
United States…17
Marshall Islands…14
Australia…6
Panama…2

Dec. 20, 2013
Open letter to John Baird, Canadian Foreign Minister
Mr. Baird:
Your latest call for the removal of Richard Falk, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, smacks of hypocrisy and racism; it also exposes your (and your government’s) blind support for Israeli war crimes and Apartheid.
While your government officially claims that “Canada does not recognize permanent Israeli control over territories occupied in 1967 (the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip)”, you are nonetheless supporting not only settlement building but also settlement products that are not exempt under the “Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA)”. You, your Prime Minister and your government also support unconditionally the discriminatory policies of the “Jewish National Fund” (JNF), which is financing illegal Israeli settlements and the infamous Canada Park that is built on the rubble of three Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank. By doing so, you are violating the Fourth Geneva Conventions to which Canada is a signatory.
Your comments not only “undermine the fundamental values of the United Nations”, they also deny the terrible suffering and the slow genocide of the Palestinian people since the Zionist ethnic cleansing started in 1947/48. Recently, your spokesperson Rick Roth dismissed the new mini-genocide, the “Prawer Plan” which the Israeli government is planning for the Bedouin Israelis, as an “internal Israeli matter”.
You called for Prof. Falk to be fired “for his numerous outrageous and anti-Semitic statements”. However, it is your statement that is outrageous and libellous considering that he is a Jewish international law scholar that fought all his life for the truth, justice, equality and peace (contrary to what your government stands for). Once again it is you Mr. Baird that is promoting anti-Semitism by claiming that everything Israel does falls on the shoulders of all Jews. We asked you previously, clearly to no avail: “Mr. Baird: Don’t Equate Zionism with Judaism”‏.
Stop taking your marching orders from Tel Aviv and start, if you care for your dignity and humanity, listening to the vast majority of Canadians who yearn for peace and justice.
Hanna Kawas,
Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association

December 7, 2013
Canada Palestine Association, Vancouver and the Voice of Palestine, Canada received the news of Nelson Mandela’s passing with great sadness and extend our deepest condolences to his family, the South African people and all of humanity. We have lost a unique and selfless leader who never wavered from his principles and never bowed to expediency in the most critical moments of the anti-Apartheid and anti-Colonialist struggles.
The Palestinian people have lost a solid supporter and outspoken advocate for Palestinian human rights and self-determination. He once said “The temptation is to speak in muffled tones about an issue such as the right of the people of Palestine … yet we would be less than human if we did so.” And surely Madiba never spoke “in muffled tones” about human rights and freedom for oppressed peoples all over the world. We will be forever grateful for his solidarity and unequivocal stand in support of liberation movements all over the world.
Madiba lives forever!
Hanna Kawas, Chair, Canada Palestine Association-Vancouver
Cohost, Voice of Palestine
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Some of Madiba’s words that you will not find quoted by international officials in their hypocritical rush to exploit his historic and profound legacy, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
1. “But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” (Address by President Nelson Mandela at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, December 4, 1997, Pretoria)
2. At a news conference, Mandela said “We expect everybody who is exploring the possibility of lasting solutions to be able to face the truth squarely. I believe that there are many similarities between our struggle and that of the PLO. We live under a unique form of colonialism in South Africa, as well as in Israel, and a lot flows from that.” (From an article in JTA, March 2, 1990 South African and U.S. Leaders Dismayed over Mandela’s Remarks)
3. “We identify with the PLO because, just like ourselves, they are fighting for the right of self determination.”…”Arafat is a comrade in arms.” (Mandela answers criticism on ABC by Ted Koppel and American Zionists in attendance regarding his support for the Palestinian cause.)
4. “He told the Australian news media, ‘We agree with the United Nations that international disputes should be settled by peaceful means. The belligerent attitude which is adopted by the Israeli government is to us unacceptable’. Mandela said the ANC does not consider the PLO a terrorist group, adding: ‘If one has to refer to any of the parties as a terrorist state, one might refer to the Israeli government, because they are the people who are slaughtering defenseless and innocent Arabs in the occupied territories, and we don’t regard that as acceptable’.” (JTA article October 25, 1990 Mandela Angers Australian Jews with Fresh Anti-Israel Rhetoric)
5. And see also: 12 Mandela Quotes That Won’t Be In the Corporate Media Obituaries (December 6, 2013 by Common Dreams)