The Minister of International Relations, Martine Biron, believes that she does not have to know whether the Quebec Office in Tel Aviv will support arms companies in their commercial exchanges with Israel.
“I don’t know and it’s not my place to know.” Businesses do business with the Office, and they do their business,” she said on Wednesday.
“Currently, the head of the Office also has contacts in the Palestinian territories, we do different deals of all kinds. [Israël]it is the paradise of start-ups in cybersecurity, in IT, in innovation,” she then listed.
The Minister of the Economy, who attributes the authorship of the Office, then reframed his colleague’s message. “Investissement Québec does not deal with this type of company, so there is no reason for us to do so. Investissement Québec does not invest in arms companies, so, de facto, that will not happen, but probably we should be clearer,” declared Pierre Fitzgibbon.
M’s press secretaryme Biron, Catherine Boucher, then stressed that the Quebec Office in Tel Aviv “does not have a specific mandate to help Quebec military equipment companies.” “It should be noted that the export of military equipment, whether to Israel or to any other state, falls within the scope of the federal government’s jurisdiction and is subject to analysis, on a case-by-case basis, by Affairs Canada,” she added.
The situation of Rafah, “it has nothing to do”
Asked about the invasion announced by Israel of the town of Rafah, where many Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have taken refuge, Ms.me Biron said his decision to open an office in Israel should be observed regardless of the current political situation.
“The decision to open an office in Tel Aviv is not linked to the government that is in place,” she replied. Rafah’s situation “has nothing to do with it. Our role in Quebec is to support companies that want to do business in the region, to give them this support, and that’s what we do,” she added.
Here again, his colleague Fitzgibbon reframed his remarks. “On the economic side, we need this office. We have to open it at the right time and be sensitive to social issues, that’s clear,” he said. The minister, however, stressed that it was up to his colleague from International Relations to “decide when the Office will be open”.
The words of Mme Biron have once again outraged MP Ruba Ghazal, from Québec solidaire. “Mme Biron, a genocide is taking place in Gaza where children are crushed to death under buildings bombed by Israel and you are playing Pontius Pilate. I am so angry !!! Words fail me…” she wrote on the social network The money of Quebecers must not be used to boost the business of companies linked to arms, especially in the context of a plausible risk of genocide. »
Mme Biron had in the past said he wanted to “wait until peace returns” before establishing a diplomatic and economic branch for Quebec in Israel. She reversed her decision at the end of April, emphasizing that “things have settled down” and that “the economy has recovered”, in particular.
On Tuesday, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly reprimanded Israel for its military operation in Rafah, while saying she remained hopeful that ceasefire talks would prevail. “It is absolutely necessary that Israel’s military invasion of Rafah does not take place, because if it did, it would be completely unacceptable,” declared Mr.me Joly. Since January 31, the Quebec government has been calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.”