Outraged Canadian physicians active in Gaza blame Trudeau’s government for complicity in alleged Israeli genocide, demand action
by Dr. Piyush Mathur
Six medical experts from the left to the right of the viewer: Drs. Yara Abou-Hamde, Dorotea Gucciardo, Mohammad Rizwan Minhas, Yipeng Ge (Centre), Sheikh Noor Ul Amin, & Ben Thompson; to the extreme right is an individual, possibly from the event’s management side, whose name could not be determined (Screen grab, enhanced using SnapEdit, from CPAC’s YouTube video)
A coalition of Canadian physicians and healthcare workers held a press conference on November 26 to demand immediate action from the Canadian government over what they describe as the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The group, many of whom recently served in Gaza, delivered powerful testimonies about the humanitarian crisis and Canada's alleged complicity through inaction and foreign policy decisions.
The event, led by a grassroots organization called Eyewitness Gaza, featured detailed accounts of atrocities, inadequate healthcare access, and systemic destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza. The healthcare workers repeatedly called on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other officials to take definitive steps to halt the violence and ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Calls for accountability
‘Now, for the media here—that has been shy to use this word—you must stop censoring this word. The French press’s use of the word genocide was a critical step in ending the Rwandan genocide. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza: It’s time you started saying that!’
— Dr. Ben Thompson
Dr. Yipeng Ge, a family physician in Ottawa, began by situating the crisis within a global context of colonial violence, from ‘Turtle Island’ (as he put it, using a Native American term for North America) to Palestine. ‘The ongoing Nakba, or catastrophe, that began in 1948 is a structure and process of genocide’, said Dr. Ge, who argued that Canada’s failure to respond appropriately to their prior communications equates to complicity in genocide.
In August, the group had sent a letter signed by 19 healthcare professionals to key members of the Canadian government, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, outlining their observations and recommendations. The letter, Dr. Ge said, has gone unanswered for nearly four months.
In a later part of the video, Dr. Ben Thompson recounted his meeting (along with the national leaders of three other medical charities) on November 30, 2023 with Trudeau’s staff in which evidence regarding Israel’s war crimes (including genocide) was presented to the staff; however, not only was no action taken by the Canadian government against Israel but any subsequent meetings were also denied to Dr. Thompson and his medical allies active in Gaza, he claimed.
Dr. Thompson also shared key details of a letter, which never received a response, that was sent to Trudeau’s office in August 2024. This letter, he claims, had been ‘signed by every single Canadian health worker’ who had been to Gaza ‘during this genocide’—and it carried a warning to ‘the Canadian government of the cost of their inaction’ regarding Israel.
Eyewitness testimonies from Gaza
Dr. Yara Abou-Hamde, another family physician and member of Health Workers Alliance for Palestine, highlighted the escalating attacks on Gaza's healthcare sector. She recounted incidents of hospitals being bombed, healthcare workers targeted and illegally detained (including getting tortured and killed in Israeli prison), and medical resources systematically blocked from entry.
‘As healthcare workers of conscience, as humans of conscience, we refuse to accept this as a new normal.’
— Dr. Yara Abou-Hamde
‘As healthcare workers of conscience, as humans of conscience, we refuse to accept this as a new normal’, said Dr. Abou-Hamde, who noted that, as of September 2024, over 595 healthcare workers had been definitively known to be killed (‘with the actual number…likely to be close to a thousand’) as a result of Israeli attacks since October 2023.
Other speakers shared firsthand accounts of treating patients under harrowing conditions. Dr. Dorotea Gucciardo, Director of Development with Glia—an organization that has been active in Gaza since 2012—described the dire consequences of aid blockades. She detailed how medical delegations were restricted to bringing only personal supplies, leaving critical tools and medications behind.
Looking weary and distressed, Dr. Mohammad Rizwan Minhas (who works for Humanity Auxilium) cited the key components of the legal definition for genocide, stressing, one after another, that they mapped on clearly to Israel’s actions in Gaza. He also shared a poignant story of a four-year-old patient, Salma— ‘a WCNSF’ or ‘a wounded child with no surviving family’—who succumbed to her injuries due to a lack of essential medications. ‘Doctors cannot stop this genocide, but you can—politicians can’, he said, urging Canada to reconsider its policies.
Dr. Sheikh Noor Ul Amin described the condition of Gaza’s children as wounded, barefooted, wandering through the rubble, collecting dirty water to drink, getting infected. ‘There are about 20,000 new orphans in Gaza’, he noted. Only ‘about 6% of the necessary aid is getting into Gaza’, he added, after recounting some of the horrific conditions under which he and his colleagues had to treat their patients.
Systemic obstacles to aid
‘They say that the murder of thousands of children is because they are human shields when this is shown to be false—and the Israeli occupying forces themselves have been proven to the Palestinians as human shields.’
— Dr. Sheikh Noor Ul Amin
Speakers emphasized the devastating impact of ongoing blockades and military attacks on humanitarian aid distribution. Dr. Gucciardo noted how access through the Rafah border crossing had been severely limited, with only 30 medical aid trucks entering Gaza daily, compared to 500 prior to October 7, 2023. She also criticized the exclusion of aid workers with a Palestinian origin/background from entering Gaza, which she argued deprives the region of culturally competent medical care.
Dr. Amin added that clean water, electricity, and basic nutrition are now inaccessible to most Gazans, rendering survival nearly impossible. He noted the United Nations’ assertion that Israel’s blockade amounts to ‘starvation as a weapon of war’, a clear violation of international humanitarian law.
Demands and allegations
The group called on Canada to take several steps, including an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza; lifting the blockade to ensure humanitarian aid reaches all civilians; compliance with international court rulings condemning Israeli policies; and enacting a two-way arms embargo on Israel.
The physicians criticized the Canadian government for failing to hold Israel accountable for alleged war crimes, including targeting civilian infrastructure, hospitals, and healthcare workers. ‘Canada’s complicity through silence and inaction is evident’, said Dr. Minhas.
Criticism and challenges
The apparent leader of this press conference, Dr. Ge had previously been suspended from his medical residency at the University of Ottawa as a reaction against his pro-Palestinian social media posts. Speaking out at this conference may invite negative attention from some institutional and political forces in the future to all the group’s members.
While the group cited the UN’s definition of genocide, the evidence supporting claims of intent to systematically destroy Palestinians as a group—central to the legal definition of genocide—remains debated within academic and legal circles.
The Canadian government has yet to respond to the renewed calls for action, leaving open questions about how it will navigate the competing pressures of domestic advocacy groups and international diplomacy; Trudeau, however, had announced on November 22, four days before this group’s press conference, that Canada would abide by the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Notably, on September 11, 2024, The Times of Israel had cited Israel—within the context of a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP)—as ‘among the top 10 recipients of Canadian arms exports’. This was right after the Canadian Foreign Minister, Melanie Joly, ‘had ordered a review of all Canadian weapons suppliers’ contracts with Israel and other countries.’
References
Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC), Canada (November 26, 2024) ‘Health workers who have returned from Gaza hold a news conference’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXddaetjBig
Times of Israel (September 11, 2024) ‘Canadian FM says she has recently suspended 30 permits for arm shipments to Israel’
https://www.timesofisrael.com/canadian-fm-says-she-has-recently-suspended-30-permits-for-arm-shipments-to-israel/
White-Crummey, Arthur (Nov 21, 2023) ‘Doctor suspended from U of O residency after pro-Palestinian social media posts’ CBC News https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/university-ottawa-doctor-suspended-palestine-petition-1.7034464
Dr. Piyush Mathur is the author of Technological Forms and Ecological Communication: A Theoretical Heuristic (Lexington Books, 2017). If you have any comments on this article, feel free to post them in the box below.
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