US President Donald Trump proposed this week to seize control of Gaza and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population, in a move that would amount to one of the most horrific war crimes since World War II.

In response, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly posted a perfunctory four sentence statement on X, which reiterated Canada’s official support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While she found space in her 51-word statement to condemn Hamas, she did not even mention the fascistic President or the fact that his proposal is a gross violation of international law. 

“Canada’s longstanding position on Gaza has not changed,” Joly declared. “We are committed to achieving a two-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians can live securely within internationally recognised borders. There is no role for Hamas in the governance of Gaza. We support Palestinians’ right to self-determination, including from being forcibly displaced from Gaza.”

Trump made his proposal this week while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. The President called for the resettlement of the Palestinians to other countries and the transfer of control over the Gaza strip to the US so that it could be rebuilt into a “Riviera on the Mediterranean.” Netanyahu, who is being sought by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, and his fascist government responded enthusiastically, with the Prime Minister praising Trump for his ability to “cut to the chase.” Defence Minister Israel Katz directed the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) to prepare plans for the “voluntary” relocation of all 1.8 million residents of Gaza mentioned by Trump, a figure several hundred thousand less than the 2.3 million residents who lived there prior to the launching of Israel’s genocidal assault on the enclave. 

The US and international media have feigned shock at Trump’s endorsement of ethnic cleansing, and European governments expressed criticism of his readiness to violate international law. This is all so much hypocrisy. American imperialism, and its Canadian and European imperialist allies, have backed Israel to the hilt since October 2023 as it has carried out a genocide against Gaza’s residents.

Trump’s pledge to forcibly resettle the Palestinians expressed explicitly the plan for annihilating and driving the Palestinians from Gaza that Netanyahu’s far-right government has been carrying out since October 2023, with weapons supplied by and the political support of the imperialist powers. The IDF has forcibly displaced the entire population, flattening nearly all of the territory’s built infrastructure and killing at least 47,583 people, mostly women and children. As a result, life expectancy in Gaza has been slashed nearly in half, according to a recent report in The Lancet. 

While the government of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterates its support for a two-state solution and claims to oppose the forcible displacement of the Palestinians from Gaza, Ottawa has been among the leading backers of the genocide. At home, the Trudeau government has spearheaded a crackdown on demonstrations against the genocide and for a ceasefire. This has included backing the breakup of peaceful student encampments on university campuses by the police, and smearing anti-genocide protesters, many of whom are Jewish, as “antisemites.”

Joly’s mealy-mouthed statement is aimed at covering up the significance of Trump’s proposal and turning attention away from the real intentions of Israel, the US and its imperialist partners for Gaza and their pursuit of a “final solution” to the Palestinian question. The Foreign Minister will not state the obvious: that what has been carried out by Israel over the last 16 months is a genocide, and that plans are under discussion the like of which have not been heard since the Nazis rampaged across Europe during the Second World War. 

Some members of Parliament have been somewhat more forthright in their condemnation of Trump’s Gaza proposal, but only to cover their own tracks and put some distance between the genocide they have been supporting and Trump’s naked statement of intent. International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen and Justice Minister Arif Virani joined a letter signed by other Liberal MPs describing Trump’s plan as “preposterous and a complete violation of international law.” It “amounts to ethnic cleansing.” 

New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh declared Trump’s proposal “utter madness” and warned that it would “Destabilize the region. Threaten the ceasefire.” NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Heather McPherson went further, writing on X, “New Democrats condemn in the strongest possible terms the suggestion by US President Donald Trump that Gaza should be ethnically cleansed. This is a war crime. Gaza belongs to the people of Gaza, Palestinian people. Gaza does not belong to a convicted abuser and felon. The Canadian government must state firmly: Donald Trump has no authority on the future of Gaza and Canada will always uphold international law.” She called on the Liberal government to officially recognize the State of Palestine. 

While the NDP cries crocodile tears over Trump’s pledge to ethnically cleanse Gaza, the party propped up Trudeau’s minority Liberal government as it backed the genocide. The NDP signed a “confidence-and-supply” agreement with the Liberals in 2022 to ensure “political stability,” in Singh’s own words, as the Liberals played a major role in the bloody US/NATO war on Russia in Ukraine. Last March, the NDP rewrote a “ceasefire” resolution in coordination with the Liberals so that it ultimately made clear Ottawa’s continued support for the genocide. Even after Singh formally “ripped up” the confidence-and-supply agreement last September, his party continued to back the Trudeau government as a “progressive” ally against the far-right Tory leader Pierre Poilievre as it repeatedly illegalized worker job action and broke strikes.

The Canadian ruling class has long presented itself as a forthright defender of international law. This has now been exposed for the utter fraud it has always been.

Its political representatives are desperate to reach an agreement with Trump that preserves the interests of Canadian imperialism as part of the fascist president’s “Fortress North America.” To uphold Canadian imperialism’s eight-decade-long military-strategic and economic partnership with Washington, the Trudeau government is at pains not to ruffle Trump’s feathers, and so pointedly avoided criticizing Trump’s criminal statements calling for ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

Trump has repeatedly derided Trudeau as “governor” and made clear his intention to annex Canada as the “51st state.” To avoid the threat of punishing tariffs on all Canadian exports to the US, Ottawa is quite happy to go along with the US President as he runs roughshod over democratic rights at home and outlines a program of world conquest, ethnic cleansing and colonial annexation, just so long as Ottawa’s own predatory interests are respected. Critical to these are securing a recognized place in Trump’s “Fortress North America” as Washington’s junior partner, with guaranteed access to the lucrative US market.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford—who warmly welcomed Trump’s November 2024 election victory, only, in his words, to have “the guy pull out the knife”—has made this clearer than most with his public campaign for the White House to adopt a program of “Fortress Am-Can.” As spelled out by Ford, this would include further integration of the US and Canadian economies, already each other’s largest trading partners, joint economic warfare against China, and a massive military buildup at the expense of public services and social protections. 

The response of the Liberals, NDP, Conservatives and the trade union bureaucracy to Trump’s reelection and tariff threats has been to pump out the poison of Canadian nationalism and call for unity around “Team Canada,” i.e., the interests of corporate Canada, for whom these very same parties and unions have implemented ruthless austerity on workers for decades. 

The working class in Canada must oppose all factions of the ruling class in order to develop a mass movement in unity with workers in the United States and Mexico against war and in defense of the jobs and social and democratic rights of all workers. The defense of the rights of the Palestinian people, as well as immigrants who are being scapegoated for the crisis of capitalism by the US and Canadian ruling elites, is only possible through the independent mobilization of the working class on the basis of a socialist program.