On Thursday, November 7, 2024, the Ontario Court of Appeal will hear arguments in a two-year legal battle centred around allegations involving alleged Israeli military recruitment in Canada.
In September 2022, a Justice of the Peace found that there was sufficient evidence for a criminal charge to be laid against Sar-El Canada for allegedly recruiting or inducing individuals to accept non-combat engagements as volunteers with the Israeli armed forces, contrary to section 11 (1) of the Foreign Enlistment Act.
Section 11 of the Foreign Enlistment Act states that “Any person who, within Canada, recruits or otherwise induces any person or body of persons to enlist or to accept any commission or engagement [combatant or non-combatant] in the armed forces of any foreign state or other armed forces operating in that state is guilty of an offence.
The case, which was commenced by Canadian Rabbi David Mivasair and Palestinian-Canadian artist Dr. Rehab Nazzal as a private prosecution, represented the first ever prosecution related to alleged Israeli military recruitment in Canada. However, the case never made it to trial. In December 2022 the Public Prosecution Service of Canada intervened, took over the case, and terminated the prosecution.
The appeal alleges that the Public Prosecution Service of Canada committed an abuse of process in terminating the prosecution, and that the move was reflective of a larger pattern of Canada refusing to enforce the law where Israel’s armed forces are concerned. The appeal seeks, among other things, an order that the prosecution be allowed to continue. (more...)
Criminal appeal to be heard in case of alleged Israeli military recruitment
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