Canada's Evasive Response on UNRWA

"We have instituted a pause pending the results of an investigation, and the pause was based on preventing any additional funding to UNRWA."

"The money for Gaza has been dispersed to UNRWA, and they've used it to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid, education and other duties that UNRWA has on the ground."

"They've done good work over the years."

Canada's International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen

International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen, pictured speaking with reporters in a file photo, said Tuesday that short-term funding for Gaza will not be impacted by funding pause announced on Friday. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick /The Canadian Press

 

"What funding does it impact on and when? It is clear to the rest of the funding nations that all is not well at UNRWA and they want answers, so do Canadian taxpayers."

"The Government of Canada is playing a little too fast and loose with this very serious matter."

Toronto Member of Parliament Kevin Vuong

"It's a big mess."

"We're going to press the government for some really granular responses in terms of the management of the funds, the scope of the funds, the targets of the funds, and the purposes."

"Canada should be providing humanitarian support. Palestinians are suffering; we may differ about what the source of that suffering is, but for somebody who needs medicine and is not getting it ... it doesn't mater to them who's responsible, they're still not getting it."

Shimon Koffler Fogel, president/CEO, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Canada's widely publicized 'pause' in the government's funding of the contentious United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees has had some questions being asked as to when the pause took effect; before or following a promised payment to UNRWA...the answer to which is being clearly evaded. Evidently the federal government had made the first of four promised $25 million payments to UNRWA, irrespective of the announcement that funding would be paused.

Evidence presented that agency employees had taken part in the October 7 terror attacks in Israel -- raping, marauding, slaughtering, taking Israeli hostages back to Gaza, had shocked Western nations known for financial support for the UN agency. The response was swift; one by one, fifteen of those nations suspended their funding to UNRWA. It had been widely known for years that UNRWA had full knowledge of Hamas using their school as weapons storage and even assault sites, along with hospitals. And that UNRWA school curricula was rife with antisemitism and anti-Israel propaganda.

 

Canada and the U.S. are among the countries that have paused funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) after Israeli authorities claimed several of the agency's staff members were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel. UN officials now have work to do to restore the faith of donors, says Michael Bociurkiw, a Canadian global affairs analyst and former UNICEF spokesperson for the West Bank and Gaza. Still from video

 

Along with the announcement of Canada's decision to pause funding for UNRWA, its Department of Foreign Affairs announced an additional $40 million in Gaza funding -- the bulk of it to go to the UN's World Food Program, while UNICEF, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization and the International Red Cross would all be beneficiaries, along with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs -- to benefit Gaza.

Hamas, ruling Gaza as a despotic, militant Islamist group, has long been known to advantage themselves by taking possession of this international generosity supporting Gaza, seeing very little of it trickle down in actual support of Palestinians or in the construction of civil infrastructure, or manufacturing of anything but rockets and other weaponry alongside the building of a vast network of tunnels used for smuggling, weapons storage, and terrorist activities in general.

Minister Hussen steadfastly refused to respond to questions whether the $40 million earmarked for UNRWA had been sent prior to the pause. Asked when the first payment for the promised $100 million was due, he simply walked away. Fully 17 nations have now declared their intention to pause the funding of the UN agency once the United States led the way following Israel's evidence released showing that a number of agency employees had directly taken part in the October 7 bloodbath in Israel.

It has long been observed that UNRWA has been accused of ties with Palestinian terror groups. Alongside claims that money and resources donated to UNRWA routinely is intercepted by Hamas. Reports published in the Wall Street Journal suggest that ten percent of the 12,000 Gaza employees of UNRWA have ties to terrorist groups. 

Multiple countries, including the U.S. and Canada, have indefinitely paused their aid funding to UNRWA amid evidence from Israel that 12 of the relief agency's staff were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel. CBC News