Pro-Palestinian group in Sudbury calls for Canada to prohibit sale of nickel to Israel

A pro-Palestinian group based in Sudbury, Ont., has launched a petition campaign calling on the federal government to ban the sale of nickel to arms manufacturers supplying Israel as the country’s war against Hamas in Gaza continues.

The group behind the No Nickel for Genocide campaign is called Palestine Solidarity Sudbury, which says it hopes to raise the issue to the House of Commons this fall.

Dave Starbuck, a retired Cambrian College mathematics teacher and a peace activist, said the idea for the campaign came out of a need to “do something that was more effective than just doing rallies.” 

Starbuck said nickel has historically been a key ingredient in war machinery, from armour plates on tanks to missiles. But he said it’s been difficult to track down how much of Canada’s nickel is being used by the Israeli army, as there is little publicly available data.

Unclear how much Canadian nickel in Israeli weapons

The war began Oct. 7 after Hamas militants invaded Israeli border communities near Gaza in an unprecedented attack, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping about 250 others. 

More than 37,500 Palestinians have now been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry there, and more than 80,000 have been injured. Of an estimated 120 hostages believed to be still in Gaza, 43 have been confirmed dead, according to Reuters. 

Based on production levels in Canada and population figures in the U.S and Israel, Palestine Solidarity Sudbury believes roughly one per cent of the national supply is being used in the war in Gaza, but Starbuck admits more information is needed to confirm that figure.

The petition, which had about 350 signatures as of late Monday, is being endorsed by Timmins–James Bay MP Charlie Angus. 

It will need at least 500 by Oct. 10 for Angus to be able to read the petition in Parliament and for the federal government to be obliged to issue a formal response. 

“You wake up every day and turn on the TV and you see another atrocity carried out by the Israelis in Palestine, and it’s kind of numbing,” said Starbuck.

“The media is complicit in trying to make this normal, like it’s just another day at the office that 36 people got killed by Israeli bombs for no real reason. Raising this petition is one concrete thing we can do,” said Starbuck.

Sudbury nickel mining companies Vale and Glencore as well as Global Affairs Canada have not yet responded to CBC’s request for comment. 

‘Take this issue seriously’

Muhannad Ayyash, professor of sociology at Mount Royal University, said this campaign is part of a larger movement to put economic pressure on Israel.

“So far, Canada has shown that it is not serious about stopping arms sales to Israel,” he said, citing the non-binding motion based by the Liberals earlier this year.

“My hope lies in people and voters telling their politicians that they will not vote for them unless they take this issue seriously.” 

Ayyash agreed it’s hard to know how much of the Canadian nickel supply is being used in the war in Gaza. 

“You’d need the government to actually tell you … but the onus ends up on the people to go and try to do that research and it’s very difficult to do that with limited resources,” he said.

Spokespeople for both the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries and the Conference of Defence Associations Institute told CBC they did not have qualified experts who could speak about the role of Canadian nickel in Israel’s operation in Gaza.

As for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which represents Jewish Federations across Canada, it has previously stated that attempts to isolate Israel diplomatically or economically are counterproductive, and “often serve as thinly veiled attacks on Israel’s legitimacy.”