Canadian Labour Congress Votes to Refuse Handling Military Cargo Bound for Israel

The Canadian Labour Congress, representing roughly 3 million workers, voted Thursday to refuse to handle weapons and military equipment destined for Israel.

The resolution passed at the CLC's convention and was framed by the federation as an act of solidarity.

"In solidarity with Palestinian workers and their families, and with all those calling for peace, justice and respect for international law," the CLC said in its statement announcing the vote.

The union called on the federal government to go further, demanding Ottawa "end all direct and indirect transfers of arms and military equipment to Israel."

The vote lands against a documented backdrop of friction between Canada's stated policy and its actual trade. Global Affairs Canada has confirmed to Middle East Eye that the country exported more than $44 million in "military goods" to Israel between 2023 and 2025.

Last year, Middle East Eye reported that the government misled the public when it announced it was pausing new weapons export permits to Israel. Commercially available shipment data, compiled by an all-volunteer research team from the Palestinian Youth Movement, World Beyond War and Arms Embargo Now, indicated shipments continued and were in some cases fast-tracked, including through indirect routes via the United States. That 58-page document, titled "Exposing Canadian Military Exports to Israel," lists more than 390 shipments from 21 Canadian manufacturers across six cities, including over 420,000 bullets, 735 cartridge parts, and F-35 jet components such as navigation sensors, radar systems and dual-use GPS antennas. The advocacy groups argue the government's public pause was designed to placate an electorate frustrated with the Liberal Party's handling of the Gaza war without changing underlying policy. The government's framing of its export record remains contested.

The CLC's move builds on an earlier break with Israeli labour. The federation held decades-long ties to the Israeli trade union Histadrut, ties that began fraying after the First Intifada, according to a 2014 study in the Journal of Labor and Society. In May, the CLC voted to formally cut relations with Histadrut, though a broader resolution to designate all Israeli goods, services and institutional relationships "Hot Cargo" was blocked from debate.

Labour for Palestine - Canada, which pushed for Thursday's resolution, pointed to the labour movement's history of boycott action, citing its role opposing apartheid in South Africa and the Iraq war. The group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East called the vote a way for workers to "prevent Canadian weapons from facilitating genocide." Independent Jewish Voices said the vote sends a message that "Canadian labourers refuse to be complicit in Israel's genocide in Gaza and the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank," a characterization that remains a disputed legal and political claim.

The CLC statement also addressed discrimination directly, saying the federation "reject[s] all forms of hatred and discrimination, including antisemitism, anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia."