Huge Rally on Parliament Hill Demands End to Canada’s Complicity in Genocide
by YK
OTTAWA, April 12 — Thousands gathered in Ottawa for the National March for Palestine, calling for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and an end to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. Organizers with the Palestine Youth Movement estimated 30,000 protesters filled Parliament Hill to condemn the Zionist occupation and its brutal assault on Gaza, and to challenge Canada’s role in enabling the brutal violence through arms exports and political complicity.
The rally, which drew participants from across the country, responded to 17 months of genocidal bombardment and invasion of Gaza, during which over 50,000 Palestinians—two-thirds of them women and children—have been killed. According to Gaza health authorities, an additional 11,000 people are either injured or still trapped beneath the rubble. The Lancet estimates total fatalities could exceed 200,000 due to starvation, malnutrition, and disease. In the occupied West Bank, Zionist pogroms, supported by Israeli tanks, have claimed hundreds more lives, part of a process of ethnic cleansing.
The previous so-called ceasefire, protesters warned, offered no meaningful reprieve. On March 1, Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza, halting all humanitarian aid and food shipments. Within days, bombardments resumed, accompanied by ground invasions. Demonstrators rejected claims of de-escalation and warned of a wider conflict, noting Israel’s recent threats to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Socialist Action: A Broader Imperialist Project
Socialist Action/Ligue pour L'Action Socialiste, one of the parties present at the march, issued a statement framing the genocide in Gaza as part of a broader imperialist project. “This horror did not begin with the October 7 Gaza prison break,” the statement reads. “The current slaughter and famine were preceded by 77 years of brutal occupation and mass incarceration of Palestinians.” According to Socialist Action, the West’s unwavering support for Israel is rooted in the desire to control vast oil reserves and the geopolitical need for a military outpost in the region.
“Israel is a colonial settler state. It is an outpost of imperialism in the Arab East. Zionism began as an extreme bourgeois nationalist movement that ran counter to the strong socialist and internationalist traditions of Jews in the Diaspora.”
Ceasefire in Name Only
Ottawa’s role in the genocide continues. A new report by the Peace Research Institute Project Law Shares revealed that Canada approved a US$55 million export permit for ammunition from Quebec-based General Dynamics to the U.S.—despite the federal government’s commitment to block any transfers that could end up in Israel. But only 16 days after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Canada would bar Canadian-made arms from reaching Gaza, more money was approved for the U.S. to buy ammunition for Israel from GD-OTS-Canada, according to contract details on USAspending, an official open data source. The site shows that on Sept. 26, 2024 a 2023 contract was modified to increase its upper limit by just over $55 million USD (around $76 million Cdn).
Socialist Action wrote bluntly: “The ruling class in Canada is covered in blood, allowing weapons and technology manufactured here to flow to Israel, investing in Israeli Apartheid, and severely limiting the immigration of Palestinian refugees.” Socialist Action also denounced the mainstream political consensus, calling out federal and provincial NDP leaders for what it described as cowardice and complicity. “Shamefully, Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh equated the waving of a Palestinian flag outside a downtown Toronto hospital with anti-Semitism,” the statement said. “Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles shamefully expelled Sarah Jama from the party’s legislative caucus for demanding a ceasefire without denouncing the Palestinian resistance.”
A Growing Movement for Justice
The April 12 demonstration was not just a response to government policy but a strong call to action. Students have organized encampments across Canadian and U.S. campuses and it will be necessary again to challenge their institutions’ complicity in the genocide. Also needed is Arab and Muslim states to follow the example of the Yemeni Houthis, who have disrupted commerce with Israel and challenged its military capacity.
Socialist Action demands include lifting the siege of Gaza, dismantling the Zionist apartheid state, and opposing the Occupation by rejecting the so-called two-state solution. “Freedom for Palestine is impossible if it is occupied and divided,” the statement declared. It calls for “a democratic and secular Palestine for all its residents—Muslims, Jews, Christians, and atheists.”
The crowd on Parliament Hill echoed that demand, chanting: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Protesters vowed to continue mobilizing until Canada ends its complicity and takes meaningful steps toward justice, accountability, and liberation for the indigenous people of Palestine.