On November 14 and 15, 2025, the Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility took place in Ottawa and online. It featured testimonies by many amazing panelists and elders, including Palestinians who lived through the genocide, Canadian and international human rights activists, legal and international law experts, and humanitarian and aid organizations.

ICLMG’s National Coordinator Tim McSorley joined to speak about our work on how Canada’s counter terrorist financing regime is used to target, surveil, undermine and shut down Muslim-led charities and the impact that this has on support for and solidarity with Palestinians. Watch his presentation from Day 2 of the tribunal above. If the timestamped link falters, go to 4:06:00. Watch Day 1 of the Tribunal here.

The event almost did not happen. It was originally going to take place at the University of Ottawa but university administration canceled the room reservation at the last minute without proper justification. Luckily, Senator Yuen Pau Woo was able to secure a room in the Senate to host the event.

In addition to this, Richard Falk, a prominent international legal scholar and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories who had been invited to speak at the Tribunal, was detained, with his wife and fellow scholar Hilal Elver, by the CBSA for more than four hours upon their arrival from the US at the Toronto Pearson Airport. Falk and Elver were told by a CBSA agent that they were detained because they “pose a national security threat to Canada.”

While detained, Falk was asked questions such as: “What exactly will you be saying about Israel in Ottawa?”; “Why did your UN reports criticize Israeli military actions?”; “What is your position on the war in Gaza?” In his decades-long career, Falk — who turned 95 on the day of his detention — said this was a first.

Finally, another tribunal speaker traveling from Europe had their Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) revoked for unknown, and we suspect, illegitimate and problematic reasons. It fits a pattern, though, of Canada refusing or revoking entrance for travellers coming to speak at conferences, including those who are critical of Canadian foreign policy.

Tribunal organizers and supporters are looking into all these issues to figure out exactly what happened.

These attempts to silence the Palestine Tribunal and critics of Canada, Israel and their allies are outrageous and unacceptable. Government and university officials must explain how these events were allowed to happen and what they will do to prevent this from happening in the future. We will share updates on any developments as we learn about them.