Canada’s Contributions to International Legal Discourse

Abstract

This chapter critically evaluates Canada’s major points of engagement with international law in the period between 2015 and 2025. In partnership with European and Commonwealth allies, Canada has been an active participant in several contentious cases at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), including against Myanmar, Syria, and Afghanistan. Canada has taken progressive legal positions in this litigation with respect to the interpretation and application of international law as it relates to sexual and gender-based crimes, as well as abuses committed against children. However, the past decade also reveals that Canada’s policy responses to its genocide and other crimes against Indigenous Peoples, including enforced disappearances of Indigenous children, represent an accountability gap with respect to the application of international law and legal principles at home. Further, Canada’s opposition to the ICJ’s advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territory, as well as its reluctance to support South Africa’s genocide case against Israel—when considered in the context of Canada’s ongoing colonial genocide—demonstrate how Canada has, at times, used international law to create an alibi for its own colonial violence and the colonial violence of its allies.