Liberal Leader Mark Carney said he would continue funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees if elected prime minister. He made the comments during Wednesday’s federal leadership debate in Montreal.
When asked about international aid, Carney was questioned specifically on whether he would maintain taxpayer funding for UNRWA—a controversial agency with ties to Hamas and the Chinese state-run Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
“Yes,” replied Carney. “We are in a situation where we need to have an immediate ceasefire. We need to have all the hostages returned and we need to return humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
“At this time, we have $100 million from the Government of Canada that is ready to be provided in humanitarian aid to Gaza with organizations that are working there and that’s key.”
Carney went on to say that he “agreed” with NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in his support for UNRWA funding.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has pledged to defund the organization and reallocate its funds to boost domestic military spending.
According to Poilievre, the reallocated funds would be used to hire 2,000 new Canadian Rangers, build four heavy icebreakers, and establish Canada’s first Arctic military base since the Cold War in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly “reaffirmed” Canada’s commitment to funding the UNRWA last fall, despite the organization revealing that it employed a chief Hamas official who was subsequently killed by Israeli forces.
Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, identified by the Israel Defence Forces as the head of Hamas’ Lebanon branch, was allegedly responsible for recruiting and acquiring weapons for Hamas operations in Lebanon.
He was also the chair of UNRWA’s teachers’ union and principal of Deir Yassin Secondary School, which is run by UNRWA in El-Buss, Lebanon, according to the agency.
However, the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, has denied knowing that its employee was a Hamas commander. UNRWA has also said that Abu el-Amin was suspended pending an investigation into his “political activities.”
“The specific allegation at the time was that he was part of the local leadership… I never heard the word commander before,” Lazzarini said in Geneva at the time.
UNRWA has been in the public eye for its connections to terrorism before.
Last August, the United Nations fired nine UNRWA employees allegedly connected to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
In January 2024, ten others were fired for their alleged connection to the Hamas-led attack as well.