ATU Canada has signed on to a letter along with almost 50 other Canadian labour unions and union locals including the Ontario Federation of Labour, calling on the federal government to immediately suspend bilateral trade of all arms and related materials with the State of Israel. 

During the period of mid to late May, Israeli military attacks in the Gaza Strip killed over 250 Palestinians (including more than 60 children), wounded 2000 and displaced more than 72,000 people. As the letter notes, many in the Canadian labour movement, including the Canadian Labour Congress, forcefully condemned the attacks as well as the forced displacement of those who had been living in the Palestinian village of Sheikh Jarrah for generations.

This call to action has been championed by those in the labour movement around the world, including in Palestine where on the 18th of May, thousands of workers, and residents from across the political spectrum went on a general strike to protest Israeli state policies which disproportionately negatively affect the millions of Palestinians who live in and outside of Israel’s official borders.

ATU Canada is proud to add its voice to a chorus of those in the Canadian labour movement and call on the Canadian Government and to end our complicity in the ongoing violence. We demand that the Government of Canada immediately suspend bilateral trade of all arms and related materials with the State of Israel until Palestinian human rights are respected, the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted, and Israel ends its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.

John Di Nino

President, ATU Canada