The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) is a Zionist lobby group that has a stated priority of “strengthening the Canada-Israel Friendship.” It has aimed to do so in several ways, including lobbying MPs and taking them on fully paid trips to Israel.
I’ve published several articles on CIJA’s activities since 2022, including a list of the 10 MPs most lobbied by CIJA and a breakdown of MPs CIJA has taken to Israel.
Davide Mastracci
Davide Mastracci
This article is intended to provide readers with a better understanding of how CIJA has interacted with incumbents running in the ongoing federal election.
In order to do so, I took the following steps:
- I narrowed down ridings to ones where an incumbent is running by using the Canadian Elections Tracker website;
- I searched each of these incumbents’ names in the public Registry of Lobbyists to see how many times CIJA has lobbied them and/or their staff, if at all, since 2008 (which is as far back as you can go in the online registry);
- I searched each of these incumbents’ names in the public registry at the ethics commissioner’s website to see if they had been taken on at least one trip to Israel by CIJA since 2007 (which is as far back as the registry goes online), and if so, what its/their value was;
- I then created the graphs and crunched the numbers that you’ll see below.
I found that 58 per cent (156) of incumbents (269) running in the election have been lobbied or taken on trips to Israel by CIJA.
Taken together, CIJA spent $678,277 on trips for these MPs since 2007, and lobbied them 579 times since 2008.
I also broke down the results by political party and province/territory.
Here is a list of all incumbents running in 2025 that meet the criteria for inclusion in this article. (Click here to view the table in higher resolution, and here to view and search through it on Google Sheets.)
These findings indicate that CIJA has had a significant level of interaction with the majority of incumbents running in this election, which may indicate notable influence on Canada’s political system. These incumbents do, however, hold a range of opinions on Canada’s relationship with Israel.
So, what do CIJA’s Israel trips look like, and what are its political priorities?
Here’s what I wrote in 2022 about CIJA’s trips: “CIJA states that these trips, which they describe as ‘educational missions,’ are ‘the single most important activity CIJA undertakes to educate Canadians about the people of Israel.’ They note that they have specific trips tailored for MPs, which ‘include meetings with Members of the Knesset.’ In general, they write that the trip ‘exposes participants to many important aspects of Israel, including tours of Jerusalem’s Old City, Yad Vashem, the Knesset, the Supreme Court, border positions along the Golan Heights, and more.’ In terms of results from the trip, CIJA writes, ‘CIJA ensures mission participants understand their attendance comes with no strings attached. Our view is that knowledge gained from visiting Israel speaks for itself; mission participants cannot help but return to Canada better informed about Israel and the Middle East. At the same time, missions often provide opportunities for greater cooperation between Canadians and Israelis.’”
CIJA has not taken an MP on an Israel trip since 2023. As I wrote in May 2024: “In May 2023, the Lobbyists’ Code of Conduct was updated, including with a rule preventing lobby groups from taking MPs they lobby or expect to lobby on sponsored travel. At the time, lobbying commissioner Nancy Bélanger wrote in a letter to MPs explaining the changes that the hefty costs for sponsored travel ‘could reasonably be seen to create a sense of obligation on the part of that official.’”
CIJA has, however, continued to lobby MPs. The exact nature of each lobby session varies, but CIJA’s listed priorities on its website(s) can give some indication of what it may be discussing with elected officials.
In April 2024, I summarized what CIJA’s stated priorities were at the time: “One recommendation is for the federal government to ‘publicly recognize that anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism,’ a suggestion that if implemented could contribute to the criminalization of pro-Palestine advocacy in Canada. Another is for the federal government to ‘support the people and land of Israel in the international arena.’ They recommend that Canada should ‘publicly oppose one-sided UN resolutions that unfairly and uniquely single out the world’s only Jewish state’; ‘publicly oppose efforts that deny the Jewish people their right to self-determination in their ancient homeland’; and ‘draw a clear moral distinction between the defensive actions of Israelis and the illegal aggression of banned terrorist groups.’ CIJA also suggests that the government should ‘ensure Canadian foreign aid is aligned with Canadian values & policy.’ The group recently announced it will be launching a lawsuit against the Canadian government’s decision to reinstate UNRWA funding critical to Palestinian survival in Gaza in the midst of what has been deemed an ongoing or imminent famine.”
CIJA has created a website called More Than Just A Vote for the ongoing election that lists “four questions” it has asked to candidates:
- “If elected, what will you do to support our community and to help keep us safe?”
- “If elected, what will you do to hold accountable those who attack and threaten Canadian Jews?”
- “If elected, what will you do to strengthen the trade, diplomatic, and security ties with our ally Israel?”
- “If elected, what will you do to help guarantee our Jewish community has a secure and vibrant future in Canada?”
The Bloc Québécois is the only major party to have released its 2025 platform thus far. As such, it remains to be seen how well-reflected CIJA’s priorities will be in this election.
