In Gaza today, the dead lie beneath the ruins and the living face starvation and epidemic disease. Canada has decided to cut off vital funding to the UN body that has historically been the main source of support for Palestinian refugees in that long suffering land.

While Gaza is being reduced to smoking rubble by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), the government of Canada has announced a decision to cut its funding to the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main source of food and other lifesaving aid for Palestinians.

A group of Canadian unions has condemned this decision and called on the Prime Minister to reverse it. The public debate about the decision by the US, Canada and other US allies to cut UNRWA funding takes place in the context of as yet unsubstantiated claims by Israel that a handful UNRWA staffers were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians. A report on February 22 states that the death toll created by the IDF in Gaza is now approaching 30,000, with uncounted other dead still buried in Gaza rubble and nearly 70,000 injured and 118 deaths reported on February 21 alone.

In a letter sent to Prime Minister Trudeau on February 9, leaders of six unions, the United Steelworkers (USW), UNIFOR, CUPW, CUPE, NUPGE and PSAC wrote, in part:

“On behalf of six Canadian labour unions representing over 2 million workers, we are writing to raise concern about the recent announcement by the Government of Canada to suspend funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the primary aid agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza and throughout the region. In the interest of safety and security for millions of Palestinians, we request that you reverse this decision. UNRWA is an irreplaceable aid organization relied upon by millions of Palestinians for over 7 decades. It is particularly cruel for large donor countries to deny this critical organization its funding at this time, considering the current catastrophic humanitarian crisis caused by ongoing bombardment by Israel. Interim measures announced for funding to other aid organizations are not a sufficient response and do not mitigate the devastating impact the suspension of funding will have on the work of UNRWA.”

In the wake of the announced decision to cut UNRWA funding, Canada announced $40 million in grants to other NGOs working in Gaza. It is not at all clear that this adequately replaces the work being done by UNRWA.

Like Canada, other US allies have also cut aid to UNRWA, including Germany, the European Union, Sweden, Japan, France, Switzerland, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Austria, Finland, New Zealand, Iceland, Romania, and Estonia.

Some legal observers have suggested the Canadian decision to defund UNRWA might leave

Canada open to charges of failing to prevent genocide. Writing on the Jurist website,

Nabil Iqbal and Syeda Mehar Ejaz say, in part:

“It is non-debatable that the allegation against UNRWA employees is grave. However, at this point, there is no concrete proof against such allegations. Moreover, those employees were sacked immediately by UNRWA. Despite this, Canada’s decision to suspend funding to UNRWA immediately after ICJ’s judgment appears to violate the duty to prevent genocide.”

On January 31, 28 NGOs including Oxfam and Save the Children issued a statement arguing that funds should be restored to UNRWA immediately.

The aid and human rights organizations argued that: “We urge donor states to reaffirm support for the vital work that UNRWA and its partners do to help Palestinians survive one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our times. Countries must reverse these funding suspensions, uphold their duties towards the Palestinian people and scale up humanitarian assistance for civilians in dire need in Gaza and the region.”

Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre has pledged that if his Conservatives come to power in the next federal election, it will make the cuts to UNRWA, which he denounced as a “terrorist organization,” permanent. (An earlier Conservative government under Stephen Harper cut UNRWA funding, which the Trudeau Liberals restored in 2016. US funding for the UN group was restored in 2021 by the Biden administration.)

In contrast, Heather McPherson, the NDP’s foreign affairs critic, said Canada is wrong to halt funding to UNRWA.

The Canadian unions calling for restored funding for UNRWA are on the right side of history, but that will not keep them from being attacked by Poilievre and other voices of bigotry and Islamophobia. Union members and allies should be prepared to vigorously defend our unions against these attacks.

Tom Sandborn

Tom Sandborn lives and writes on unceded Indigenous territory in Vancouver. He is a widely published free lance writer who covered health policy and labour beats for the Tyee on line for a dozen years,...