When Karim Khan, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, announced arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in 2024, Justin Trudeau, then Canada’s prime minister, rushed to declare that his country would honor the court’s decisions, even if that meant arresting the democratically elected leader of Canada’s ally.
Now, with a new Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, in office, there is a clear opportunity—indeed, a moral imperative—for Ottawa to reverse course.
To arrest Netanyahu on Canadian soil would not be an act of justice. It would be an endorsement of a flawed and deeply compromised process, tainted by legal overreach, double standards and deeply troubling misconduct allegations at the highest levels of the ICC.
Two recent bombshell investigations revealed the full extent of the egregious impropriety, obscene politicization of the proceedings and the wanton violation of the rule of law by Khan.
The first, an investigation by The Wall Street Journal revealed explosive allegations of sexual assault by Khan brought by a female ICC staff lawyer. It is suggested that Khan sought to issue the warrants against the Israeli leaders to distract from the very grave allegations against him.
The second, an exclusive from The Jerusalem Post, alleged that Khan’s primary motivation for seeking the warrant for Netanyahu was to make the West “turn against Israel.” More specifically, Khan is alleged to have said to a diplomat: “You just wait and see. If I apply for warrants against Netanyahu, this would give countries like Germany and Canada the excuse they need to turn against the Israeli government.”
If the sexual-assault allegations weren’t alarming enough, Khan’s unconscionable use of his powers to sway the political position of Ottawa breaches not only every conceivable rule of law and grotesque abuse of power, but is a direct affront to Canada, which cannot go unanswered.
Although Khan has now stepped down—albeit temporarily, as a U.N. investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct continues—it is pitifully inadequate and a last-ditch attempt to save the case, which Canada should not fall for. The entire case against Israel is irreparably tainted from the outset, given the inexcusable actions alleged to have been committed by Khan and Canada must lead by example, in calling for his immediate resignation and the dismissal of the politically motivated and legally baseless warrants.
The scandal surrounding Khan is not the only issue; the very foundation of the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant is legally dubious. Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute, and under the court’s principle of complementarity, the ICC has no authority to intervene when a nation’s legal system is willing and able to prosecute alleged crimes.
Israel’s judiciary is not only willing, it has a demonstrated track record of independence and rigorous internal review, even of senior military and political leaders. The idea that the ICC would override such a system, while ignoring the Hamas terror organization that brutally attacked Jewish communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, is both perverse and indefensible.
Khan himself stated, during a visit to Israel after the October massacre, that “Israel has trained lawyers who advise commanders and a robust system intended to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law.” This should have automatically precluded the court from even entertaining the idea of exercising jurisdiction. How quickly Khan must have forgotten his own words!
Moreover, last month, the ICC’s own Appeals Chamber appears to have recognized the fragility of Khan’s legal foundation, ordering the lower court to review the case over “jurisdictional concerns” and a lack of clarity over whether the court even has the authority to proceed. This is not a procedural hiccup; it is a fundamental question of whether the ICC was acting within its legal mandate or far beyond it.
While the ICC stumbles through its credibility crisis, the Trudeau-era promise to enforce the arrest warrant still hangs ominously over the country’s foreign policy. Arresting the sitting leader of a democratic nation based on potentially tainted proceedings could set a dangerous precedent and undermine Canada’s moral authority on the global stage. The new prime minister must now make a defining choice: Will Canada continue to submit blindly to a damaged institution, which Khan tried to subvert to provoke Ottawa, or will it take a principled stand against politicized lawfare?
The path forward is clear. In light of the baseless nature of the warrants against the Israeli leaders, as well as the very grave personal allegations made against Khan, Canada must immediately suspend any cooperation with ICC efforts related to the Israeli warrants.
Canada must make it clear that not only will they refuse to arrest Netanyahu if he visits the country, they will invite him with the full diplomatic respect accorded to the leader of one of Canada’s most steadfast democratic allies that is fighting for its life against a genocidal terrorist regime still holding 59 hostages, including the body of Canadian national Judith Weinstein, captive in Gaza.
To do otherwise would be to set a dangerous precedent. Canada must not turn its back on an ally and be complicit in this deeply politicized process driven by questionable legal foundations and personal scandal. Canada must remain committed to the foundational values of justice that the country holds so dearly.