Iran’s military attack on Israel has sparked widespread condemnation from Canadian politicians across different levels of government, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Iran launched dozens of drones and missiles from its own territory toward Israel on April 13. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) subsequently issued a statement confirming it carried out the assault aiming to target specific locations in Israel, reported Iran Press in an English-language article.
“Canada unequivocally condemns Iran’s airborne attacks against Israel. We stand with Israel. After supporting Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack, the Iranian regime’s latest actions will further destabilize the region and make lasting peace more difficult,” the Prime Minster’s Office said in a statement on April 13.
“In this difficult time, we stand with Israel, the Israeli people and Jewish communities in Canada and abroad,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly wrote on social media platform X. “These unprecedented attacks from Iran will only serve to further destabilize the region. It must stop.”
Mr. Poilievre expressed the Official Opposition’s similar stance. “I unequivocally condemn the brazen attack launched on Israel by the Iranian regime,” he said in an April 13 statement on X.
He also criticized Iran’s support of Hamas’s attack on Israel last October and its coordination and funding of terror “through its terrorist proxy, the IRGC, which murdered 55 Canadians by shooting down flight PS 752.” Everyone aboard—176 people—was killed when the Ukraine International Airlines jetliner was shot down shortly after taking off from Tehran on Jan. 8, 2020.
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“Canada must stand with Israel, we must work with our allies to hold the Iranian regime accountable and ensure security in the region. The Government of Canada must immediately ban the Tehran-controlled group, IRGC, to protect our people and stop the regime from using our country to raise funds, plan and coordinate,” Mr. Poilievre said.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also issued a statement on April 13, but his avoided directly condemning Iran, instead saying he condemns the “serious escalation represented by Iran’s attack on Israel.” He also called for an “immediate cessation of these hostilities.”
Some 300 Aerial Threats Launched
The IRGC said in its statement that its April 13 attack on Israel was in response to that country’s “crime in attacking the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus.” Iranian officials said Israel carried out an airstrike in the Syrian capital on April 1 that resulted in the deaths of two Iranian generals and five other officials.In a 9:34 a.m. post on X on April 14, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said “Overnight, the IDF, alongside international partners,” had successfully intercepted “99 percent” of the “approximately 300 aerial threats launched from Iran and its proxies.”
The IDF also reported that Iran’s assault involved about 170 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), 120 ballistic missiles, and 30 cruise missiles. None of the UAVs and cruise missiles crossed into Israeli territory, while few of the ballistic missiles entered Israeli territory, said the IDF, which consists of the Israeli army, navy, and air force.
Calls for Action
Several other MP have also taken to social media to condemn Iran’s attack.Liberal MP Anthony Housefather said “Iran is firing in an indiscriminate manner” rather than at military targets. “It is simply aiming to kill and hurt civilians,” he wrote on X on April 13. “This follows missiles sent by its terrorist proxies from Gaza & Lebanon. Since Israel has a right to defend itself any restrictions on military shipments must end.”
Conservative MP Garnett Genuis called on the Liberal government to support his private member’s bill aimed at recognizing the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
“The Iranian regime is the primary source of terror, chaos, and violence, in the Middle East and throughout the world,” he wrote on X on April 13.
“Canada must finally list the IRGC as a terrorist organization and pass my Bill C-350 to hold the regime accountable. This regime is a threat to Israel, to Canada, to its own people, and to all people everywhere.”
Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman, the party’s deputy leader, posted a video on X on April 13, showing a segment during the March 22 question period in Parliament in which she challenged the federal government’s five years of inaction in still not having designated the IRGC as a terrorist group.
“Appeasement emboldens terrorists and terror states,” she wrote in a separate post on X following the attack.
Conservative MP Michael Chong, shadow minister for foreign affairs, also expressed solidarity with Israel. “Conservatives stand by Israel. We unequivocally condemn the Iranian regime’s attack on Israel. The regime is demonstrating once again, as it did with Hamas, that it is the source of regional instability,” he wrote on X on April 13. He also called on the Liberal government to work with allies to ensure Israel’s security and regional stability.
Mayor Steven Del Duca of Vaughan, Ontario, also expressed his support for Israel and the Jewish community in Canada and globally.
“Today’s attacks against Israel by the Iranian regime must be unequivocally condemned in the strongest possible terms,” he wrote on X on April 13. “I stand with the people of Israel and the Jewish community here in Vaughan and around the world during this difficult time.”
Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, referenced the conflict in the region without explicitly mentioning the Iran attack. “In all parts of life, but especially in war, it is crucial to understand the difference between the temptations of impulse and the wisdom of understanding consequences. Second, remember how rare it is to be angry and smart at the same time. Anger drives out both empathy and the ability to listen,” he wrote on X on April 14.
Mr. Rae noted that a United Nations Security Council debate on April 14, focused on the “situation in the Middle East,” will provide a chance for all “to listen, but also engage in the conversations that point to the difference between signals and noise.”
‘World’s Largest State Sponsor of Terrorism’
Protesters in Toronto, waving Palestinian flags and holding up smoke grenades and anti-Israel banners, cheered upon hearing the breaking news of Iran sending attack drones to Israel, shows a widely circulated video posted on X by Toronto lawyer and commentator Caryma Sa'd on April 13.Referring to the video, Independent MP Kevin Vuong stated that those cheering for Iran’s strike were effectively endorsing the regime’s numerous human rights violations and crimes, such as the downing of flight PS752, the murder of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi, and the training and equipping of Hamas for the attack on Israel last October.
“When you cheer for the Islamic regime in Iran, you are cheering for the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism,” Mr. Vuong wrote on X.
Also sharing the video on his social media account, Mayor Jeremy Levi of Hampstead, Quebec, said it offers “compelling evidence indicating that the pro-Palestinian demonstrators are actually pro-Hamas demonstrators: Amid news of Iran’s attack on Israel, the crowd in Toronto erupted in cheers.”
The video has been shared by various other politicians and advocates for Israel as well, including Conservative MPs Melissa Lantsman and Michelle Rempel Garner and Ontario Progressive Conservative MPPs Lisa MacLeod and Goldie Ghamari.
Ms. Ghamari, noting that her family fled the Islamist regime in Iran, wrote on X on April 13: “Why is it always the Non-Iranians who support the terrorist Islamic Regime in Iran? As an Iranian-Canadian, it makes me sick to my stomach to see my fellow Canadians openly supporting a terrorist Islamofascist dictatorship that murders innocent Iranians.”
“This is not the Canada my parents immigrated to in order to escape persecution by the terrorist Islamofascist Ayatollahs,” she added.
