We invite leaders, parties, and candidates in the 2025 Ontario provincial election to complete the following questionnaire in regard to their stance on Palestine. We expect that they would answer these important questions to clarify their and their party’s stance on human rights and international law when it comes to Palestine.
As we receive responses from party leaders and candidates we will update this post with them.
#iVotePalestine Questionnaire
For this coming Ontario 2025 Provincial Elections, we at Canadian BDS Coalition and International BDS Allies have put together an election questionnaire for all party leaders and candidates, in regards to their stance on Palestine.
We encourage you to use the questions of the questionnaire to contact candidates by phone, when they or their canvassers come to your door, or at all candidate’s meetings or other venues. If you want to join individuals from across Ontario whom have indicated that they will be in touch with candidates in their Electoral District, then join them and keep up to date HERE.
As we won’t be able to reach all the candidates running, we ask you to join us in getting in touch with all candidates in all 124 Electoral Districts in Ontario. Please let us know about any contact you make and/or responses received HERE.
Contacting Candidates
We have sent the 2025 iVotePalestine Questionnaire to the leaders of the following parties in Ontario. It has also been provided to the individual candidates where information is available.
Doug Ford, Ontario PC
Marit Stiles, Ontario NDP
Bonnie Crombie, Ontario Liberals
Mike Schreiner, Green Party of Ontario
and all registered parties.
Candidates of the big four parties
Find all registered candidates in your Electoral District (ED) by finding your ED and then going to the Your Candidates on left menu: https://voterinformationservice.elections.on.ca/en/election/search
Electoral District Info
Voter Information based on you electoral district
Find Your Electoral District
Find your Electoral District based with your postal code
Registered Parties
List of all the officially registered parties
Ontario Election 2025 Questionnaire
We invite leaders, parties, and candidates in the 2025 Ontario provincial election to complete the following questions in regard to your stance on Palestine. We hope you would answer the following questions in regard to your and your party’s stance on human rights and international law in regard to Palestine. Learn more
Complete form at: https://bit.ly/IVotePalOnt25
or email PDF form to: bdscoalition@gmail.com
Contact: bdscoalition@gmail.com
“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” Nelson Mandela
We stand for freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people, and believe that “our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
We note that successive Canadian governments were responsible for aiding and abetting Israeli ethnic cleansing, war crimes, apartheid and genocide. It is more than time for the Canadian government as well as provincial and municipal governments to stop their blind and unconditional support for Israel, which enables and maintains the ongoing Israeli violations of international law and Palestinian rights.
At the provincial level actions such as legislation, motions, order-in-councils and policy is used to restrict civil liberties and human rights for Palestinians and those who speak up in regard to Palestine.
The International Court of Justice on July 19, 2024, provided the advisory opinion that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is illegal, and in October 2024, the United Nations provided details on ending the occupation including third state responsibilities. This includes ensuring that “business enterprises are not engaging in activities in occupied territory and are not benefiting from the unlawful occupation.”
READ THE QUESTIONS
We ask you to clarify where you and/or your party stand on the following points.
Q1. Do you recognize the fundamental rights of the Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality? Will you if elected take steps to combat anti-Palestinian racism?
- Canada has adopted the Israeli narrative regarding the Palestinian refugees’ right of return; its shameful position was to resettle Palestinian refugees rather than support their internationally recognized right to return.
- Please review the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA) anti-Palestinian racism report. Also, see the ACLA statement regarding anti-Palestinian racism at Queen’s Park including the keffiyeh ban, and read about the anti-Palestinian discrimination by the Ontario Attorney General regarding TMU law students.
Q2. Do you respect, protect and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194?
- While the Canadian Government pays lip service to the establishment of a Palestinian state, it continues to defend the Israeli apartheid opposingUN General Assembly resolutions that call for facilitating such a state.
Q3. Do you support ending Israeli occupation and colonization of all Arab lands that were permitted to stand for almost 58 years, and dismantling the Wall, and support the necessary concrete measures to implement such a commitment?
- On February 22, 2016 the House of Commons passed a resolution that called “upon the government to condemn any and all attempts by Canadian organizations, groups or individuals to promote the BDS movement, both here at home and abroad.” Ontario passed a motion in this regard on December 1, 2016.
Q4. Do you recognize the rights of Ontarians to support the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement as a non-violent strategy to force Israel to abide by UN resolutions and all international humanitarian laws? Would you consider repealing the 2016 anti-Palestinian/anti-BDS motion passed the Ontario legislature?
- Canada, as a high signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention, is required under Article 1 to ensure the convention is upheld in all circumstances. Additionally, under the Special Economics Measures Act, Canadian law requires sanctions on countries that commit “gross and systematic human rights violations”.
Q5. Are you prepared to support government sanctions in this regard for Israel’s human rights violations against the people of Palestine?
- Despite irrefutable evidence by respectable human rights organizations, the Canadian government continues to deny that Israel is an apartheid state. Further, although Canada sanctions 24 countries, many without due justification, Canada adamantly refuses to sanction Israel. Meanwhile, Canada has been quick to institute sanctions against Russia including sanctions at provincial level such as removing Russian alcohol from the LCBO.
Would you support sanctions against Israel wine sold in Ontario?
Would you support sanctions of goods from illegally occupied Palestine?
Do you support a two way arms embargo to stop arms trade with Israel?
Q6. Do you support the Canadian government instituting a bilateral military embargo, until Israel complies with international humanitarian law, the Fourth Geneva Convention and dismantles its apartheid regime?
- Canada opposed the International Criminal Court investigation into Israeli war crimes. This is another example of Canada’s singling out Israel and shielding Israel from punishment for its war crimes and the crime of apartheid. While Canada condemns Hamas and the events of October 7th repeatedly, they have failed to take action against Israel’s terrorism against Palestinians.
Q7. Do you support justice for the Palestinian people by holding Israel accountable for its ethnic cleansing, war crimes, apartheid and genocide?
- In January 2024, the International Court of Justice found Israel to “plausibly” committing genocide. Over the following 12 months, scholars and international human rights organizations have similarly named the assault on Gaza genocide. This is in addition to the atrocities, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and apartheid Israel carried out prior to October 2023.
Q8. Do you oppose the anti-Palestinian, anti-democratic and politically charged IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, and do you pledge to reverse this racist Ontario government position?
- The Canadian government adopted the racist anti-Palestinian IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. The IHRA definition lists 7 out of 11 examples that “conflate antisemitism with criticism of Israel and Zionism.” In this regard, in Ontario under the Ford government , Bill 168 was introduced going to second reading and referred to committee., and without consultation Order in Council 1450/2020 declared on October 26, 2020.
- In February 2021, a pro-Israel lobby group tried to push the Canadian government to follow Israel’s lead and label a Palestinian prisoner support group as “terrorist”, thereby criminalizing Palestinian advocacy work in Canada. In October 2024, the Canadian government named this group to the terrorist list. In 2003, the Canadian government added major Palestinian resistance organizations to its terrorist list, again in part due to pressure from Canadian Zionist organizations.
Q9. Do you oppose foreign countries influencing Canadian domestic policy, and would you work to reverse the listing of the Palestinian resistance organizations on the terrorist list? Do you feel Canada’s policies on these important issues should be decided by what the Israeli government dictates?
- The Canadian Foreign Enlistment Act states, “Any person who, within Canada, recruits or otherwise induces any person or body of persons to enlist or to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state or other armed forces operating in that state is guilty of an offence.” A legal complaint was submitted to the Canadian Justice Minister who has indicated the RCMP is investigating. When York Students protested Israeli military being on campus in 2019, Premier Doug Ford condemned the Palestinians and others who were peacefully protesting the Israeli military being on campus.
- Resistance against an occupier is a legally protected international humanitarian law under the Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
Q 9. Do you support the enforcement of the Canadian Foreign Enlistment Act? Would you ensure the police under provincial oversight would investigate if called upon in this regard?
- While there are no definitive statistics, there is evidence Canadian citizens have joined the Israeli military since October 2023. In an October 2024 ICC complaint, the Hind Rajab Foundation, identified four Canadian IDF soldiers. They accuse soldiers of destruction of civilian infrastructure, illegal occupation and looting, participation in the Gaza blockade, targeting civilians, and inhuman warfare tactics.
Q 11 Will you hold the police accountable for any infringements / attempts to silence civil liberties? Do you support investigations into potential hate crimes against Palestinian solidarity activists exercising their civil liberties?
- In December 2024, a Palestine solidarity protestor – Adam Melanson – was arrested for assault and obstructing a police officer at a protest in December 2023. Melanson said the police used excessive force when detaining him, despite the fact that he did not resist. Charges against Melanson were withdrawn in December 2024.
- An investigation also found that the Hate Crimes Unit targeted pro-Palestine activists in Toronto with surveillance, night raids, and “trumped up charges.”
Q11. Do you condemn Israel’s killing, injuring, and detaining of children, and the trauma that is being inflicted on children through the military occupation and genocide?
- Protecting Palestinian Children is based on Canada needing to take immediate and urgent steps to insist Israel comply with its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the recent ICJ Advisory Opinion.
Thank you.
The Canadian BDS Coalition and International BDS Allies
The Ontario Palestinian Rights Association
Just Peace Advocates
Complete form at: https://bit.ly/IVotePalOnt25
or email PDF form to: bdscoalition@gmail.com
Contact: bdscoalition@gmail.com