Carney’s foreign policy stance reflects a broader trend: in an era of renewed great-power competition, Canada’s political and economic elite have chosen to deepen their alignment with the US—an increasingly unstable global power. This posture not only risks escalating international tensions but also carries serious consequences for people living in Canada.

This is the end. The final blood-soaked chapter of the genocide. It will be over soon. Weeks. At most. Two million people are camped out amongst the rubble or in the open air. Dozens are killed and wounded daily from Israeli shells, missiles, drones, bombs and bullets. They lack clean water, medicine and food. They have reached a point of collapse.

One of the most remarkable—not to say shameful—features of the last 20 months of carnage in Gaza has been the near-unanimity of support for Israel’s assault from Western governments and political parties of otherwise sharply opposed persuasions, regardless of how criminally Israel has conducted its “war.”

Last week, virtually every attendee arriving at CANSEC—North America’s largest annual arms trade show—was met with the piercing cry of “war criminal,” as over 300 protesters gathered to denounce war profiteering and Canada’s complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli armed forces and political authorities since October 7, 2023.

The fact that the Russian state has instrumentalized Victory Day for its own political purposes, including justifying the war in Ukraine, begs an important question—why does this seem to be working? If the parallels the Kremlin draws between the Great Patriotic War and current events prove convincing to people, there must be a reason.

Canadians have an opportunity in this election to demand that politicians sincerely commit to divesting from American imperial warfare. Rather than fixating on the merits and demerits of the F-35 and jobs, they should press political parties to affirm their commitment to international law and human rights—and demand they follow through.

The two-day congress of the Platforma network in Brussels brought together hundreds of anti-war activists, some of whom are still active in Russia. On stage hung the theme of the gathering: “Standing Together for Ukraine and for Freedom.” Around 300 people gathered under it, including Russian activists, Ukrainian human rights campaigners, and delegates from the EU and beyond.

While in Gaza an intensifying series of air strikes killing hundreds of Palestinians does not constitute an act of war, the US is the victim of a “invasion” launched by Venezuela involving neither ground troops nor air power, but whose “devastating effects” nevertheless justify the suspension of normal due process rights. Truly we are living in the upside-down.

It is obvious that Israel does not allow itself to be bound by ceasefire terms, the UN, international law, or humanitarian law. It exists in a bloodthirsty state of exception, unrestricted by any law or agreement, its violent expansionism fuelled by ordnance from the very countries that claim to endorse a fair and transparent “rules-based order.”

By now renewing aid to Ukraine, it has thrown away its leverage for the smallest of concessions rather than trying to extract something more meaningful. The Americans may now find that they have locked themselves into supporting a proposal that it is thoroughly one-sided and incapable of producing the result they want, namely an end to the war.