Months after they were promised, Ottawa still hasn't imposed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers

The Government of Canada has announced multiple rounds of sanctions against various parties in the Middle East since October 7. On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced sanctions against Iran's minister of defence and its general staff.

On February 3, she announced that Canada would impose sanctions on both leaders of Hamas involved in the October 7 massacre and extremist Israeli settlers involved in violent attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

But there's an important difference between the sanctions announced against Palestinians and Iranians and the ones announced against Israelis — the ones against Israelis have not been gazetted and therefore never took effect.

Joly was asked Friday afternoon why Global Affairs only proceeded with the sanctions against Palestinians.

"We will be imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers," she replied. "We've said it and we'll do it."

Asked for a timeline, she said only that "it will be coming."

At the time the sanctions against extremist settlers were announced, Joly said her officials were "actively working on it."

"Settler violence in the West Bank is absolutely unacceptable and puts at risk peace [and] stability in the region, and the path toward the two-state solution that is absolutely essential," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the time.

"We will be sanctioning extremist settlers and we will also bring new sanctions on Hamas leaders," Joly told CBC's Rosemary Barton Live. "I look forward to doing announcements soon."

The sanctions against 11 Palestinians had been gazetted the day before and had already taken effect, but the sanctions against Israelis were not and never moved past the announcement stage.

Canada was already playing catch-up with allies when it announced the sanctions. The Biden administration had already imposed a visa ban on some violent settlers two months earlier, as had the U.K.

The Trudeau government did not follow suit, despite a written request from the NDP to do so.

On February 1, the U.S. followed up with its first financial sanctions on settlers "directing or participating in acts or threats of violence against civilians, intimidation of civilians to cause them to leave their homes, destruction or seizure of property, or terrorist activity in the West Bank."

"Israel must do more to stop violence against civilians in the West Bank and hold accountable those responsible for it," the U.S. State Department warned.