October 7, 2024, marked one year of genocidal attacks by Israel on Gaza which have killed at least 41,000 in Gaza alone. Erasing more than 100 years of colonization and dispossession of the Palestinian people, these attacks are too often framed as a legitimate response to the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023.

As a coalition that came together in 2002 to protect and promote human rights in the context of the so-called ‘war on terror’, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) reiterates its opposition to human rights violations, violence against civilians and the curtailing of fundamental freedoms.

Not only has Israel attempted to justify its apartheid regime and occupation of Palestinian territory, partly, as a way to protect itself from “terrorism”. Not only did the so-called ‘war on terror’ draw upon legal and political legacies for criminalizing Palestinian resistance to Israel. But Hamas and other groups’ attack on October 7^th was described by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and US President Biden as “Israel’s 9/11” – thus giving Israel the same permission the US gave itself to commit mass-scale human rights and international law violations, violence and atrocities in the name of the “war against terrorism”. However, genocide can never be justified.

We therefore repeat our call for Canada to push for a permanent ceasefire, to suspend all arms transfers and military support to Israel (including support via the US). Moreover, we call upon Canada to meet its obligation under international law to do everything in its power to stop the genocide. The Canadian government must stop considering all Palestinians as potential security threats and must welcome the Gazan families of Palestinian Canadians who have applied to the “emergency” program to escape life threatening conditions.

We also denounce the smear campaigns, surveillance, harassment, fining and criminalizing of people, in Canada and abroad, expressing support for the rights of Palestinians, and their opposition to the decades-long Israeli occupation and to the ongoing genocide. In particular, we condemn:

• the conflation of Charter-protected expression and dissent with “support for terrorism”;
• the arrest of eleven people for protesting against a charity that supports IDF soldiers;
• the heavy fining and arrests of pro-Palestine protesters in Ottawa and Calgary;
• the Ontario legislature’s keffiyeh ban;
• the police violence against people at protests and campus encampments;
• the laying of criminal charges against three Palestinian Canadian protestors demanding action from Immigration Minister Marc Miller to bring their Gazan family members to safety, as one – a child – died only weeks before getting approved by the Canadian government;
• the arrest of Montreal journalist Savanna Craig while covering a pro-Palestinian protest (who thankfully has seen her charges dropped).

We are outraged that settler-colonial Canada has not only done nothing to prevent the ongoing genocide, but has actively supported it (particularly through ongoing arms exports), making itself complicit in the murder of thousands of civilians. Canada’s complicity is further amplified by its ongoing political repression of people taking action and calling for an end to the violence and human rights violations. We remain committed, alongside so many others, to the defence of human rights and international law.

The ICLMG is a national coalition of Canadian civil society organizations that was established in the aftermath of the rushed adoption of the Anti-terrorist Act of 2001. The coalition brings together 44 NGOs, unions, professional associations, faith groups, environmental organizations, human rights and civil liberties advocates, as well as groups representing immigrant and refugee communities in Canada.