Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow Recognized Genocide in Gaza​

Her statement was delivered before community leaders and human rights advocates, and marked an important example for municipal leadership action concerning global ongoing atrocities.

A joint letter issued by Justice For All Canada days before the announcement, and endorsed by Toronto-based community groups and national civil society organizations, called for acknowledgment of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Mayor Chow’s subsequent recognition also reinforces Justice For All Canada’s longtime Call it Genocide campaign, which urges Prime Minister Mark Carney and the government to formally recognize Israel’s genocide in Gaza at the federal level.

This acknowledgment adds to a growing movement across Canada to recognize and respond to Israeli rights violations in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Political recognition carries symbolic weight under the principles of the Genocide Convention, where the duty to prevent and punish genocide arises when states and public officials become aware of a serious risk that such crimes may occur.

As seen in the mayor’s act, municipal recognition helps to affirm Canada’s commitments under international law and its domestic moral responsibility. It also signals that prevention and accountability begins at every level of government. Canada’s Parliament has previously recognized multiple genocides, from Rwanda to the Rohingya. Local leadership adds public visibility to those precedents and promotes civic awareness of the universal obligation to prevent and punish genocide.

Justice For All Canada calls upon other mayors and municipal councils to follow this example by recognizing the atrocities in Gaza as genocide and by encouraging Canada’s federal leadership to uphold its obligations under international law. We also encourage Canadians to thank Mayor Chow for her courageous actions.

Justice For All Canada is a human rights organization accredited by the United Nations, focused on Muslim minority issues and anti-genocide advocacy.

Watch Mayor Chow's statement on Facebook below