Jerry Grafstein
JNS, Jan. 8, 2025
“… some parliamentarians are tainted by their premature declaration of “Palestine” as a state without the putative state having met the necessary principles of accepted international law, further undermining Canada’s reputation as a nation founded on the rule of law.”
As he prepares to step down from his post as prime minister, Justin Trudeau’s legacy as it relates to Canada and Israel will be shadowed by his failure to stand up for the Jewish state in the face of a highly criticized ruling by the International Criminal Court in The Hague against its leadership.
Even before the Canadian minister of justice could weigh in on the ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for “crimes against humanity,” Trudeau pronounced that the country would “abide” by the court’s “regulations and rulings.” But unlike his father, Pierre Trudeau, who twice served as prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau is not a lawyer and was ill-equipped to make this determination.
As such, he must be held accountable for his wrongheaded decision, which allows Canada to be used as a political tool against the State of Israel and its duly elected leaders. Moreover, as Canada played a pivotal role in establishing the ICC and contributed to its development in a variety of important ways, the prime minister had the opportunity to leverage Canada’s standing in the world body for the betterment of the courts. Instead, by supporting its decision, Trudeau allowed the justly criticized ICC to drag down Canada’s reputation. …SOURCE