Freddie Ponton21st Century Wire

For years, “foreign interference” has been the scarecrow Ottawa drags out whenever Beijing or Moscow are on the menu. Beijing, Moscow, Tehran… the enemy list is familiar, rehearsed, and politically safe. However, a new report fromCanadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East(CJPME) blows straight through that narrative at the moment when politicians act outraged about Chinese influence, a close military partner has been running its own operations on Canadian soil and getting away with it.The document isn’t written in the soft language of a funding appeal; on the page, it reads like a case file that follows how Israeli diplomats, ministries and cut-outs bankroll opinion polls, undermine consumer labelling rules, organise propaganda junkets, pump out racist disinformation and ship spyware into Canada’s policing ecosystem.

The report also makes a broader point that shouldn’t be missed. These episodes are not random. To the contrary, they sit inside a much larger state effort to shape opinion abroad. CJPME notes that Israel’s 2026 budget reserved about$730 million for overseas image management, or hasbara, suggesting that what has surfaced in Canada is likely only a fraction of the full operation.

REPORT: Israeli Foreign Influence, Interference, and Transnational Repression in Canada, May 2026 (Source:CJPME)EN_-_Israeli_Influence_Interference_and_Transnational_Repression_-_2026_FinalWhat’s in the investigative report has nothing to do with some fuzzy “diaspora” culture war; it shows Israel moving pieces inside Canada through Canadian firms, front groups and parts of the security apparatus to protect its image after the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the assault on Lebanon, while exposing how this foreign state goes after people who refuse to look away.

In 2023, the Toronto Star reported, as cited by CJPME, that Canadian security agencies had flagged Israel as one of six states “potentially engaging in influence activities” in Canada, alongside China, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Not long after, “The Breach Investigation” cited in the report found that the Israeli consulate in Toronto had secretly commissioned a poll throughAurora Strategies Globalto inflate apparentCanadian support for the war in Gaza.

The mechanics matter. Israeli officials used a Canadian firm to place polling in the public sphere, dressed up as neutral research while hiding the real client. Liberal insiders in the “Lib Friends of Israel” WhatsApp group were reportedly told the poll had been done on behalf of the consulate and discussed getting it in front of the Prime Minister’s Office before release. Calling this “debate” is a stretch; what you see here is perception management bankrolled from abroad.

The same pattern shows up in trade and regulation. After a federal court ruled that “Product of Israel” labels on West Bank settlement wines were misleading, Israel’s Ministry of Justice secretly hiredTorys LLP,a Torontolaw firm, to intervenewhile staying out of public view. The firm was retained to advise on food regulations, prepare talking points for discussions with Canadian authorities, and attend court hearings on Israel’s behalf while its role remained concealed. Canada ultimately appealed the ruling, siding with settlement wineries.

What’s at stake here is whether Canadians are allowed to know if they’re buying goods from occupied territory. If a Chinese state-owned company pulled the same stunt on labelling goods from Xinjiang, you can bet half the cabinet would be lining up at the microphones by morning. When the state playing those games is Israel, the file sinks into the grey zone and appears to stay there.

The report also splits the junket story in two, and that distinction is useful. One stream is covert with Canadian intermediaries such as the Ontario-basedExigent Foundationorganising trips for right-wing journalists and personalities, with at least two late-2025 trips quietly funded by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the tune of almost $175,000 CAD, according to“Press Progress” reporting cited in the report. The other stream is official, and involves the Israeli consulate in Toronto directly sponsoring a week-long “Canadian political leadership mission” in late 2025 for municipal politicians and media figures, covering travel inside Israel, accommodation, meals and program costs.

That second category may not always meet the strictest definition of covert interference, because the Israeli state is not necessarily hiding its role. But the ethical problem is obvious enough. The entire purpose of these trips is to cultivate a carefully selected layer of Canadian public figures, build support for Israel, and send them home with a guided political narrative. The lack of proper disclosure only deepens the problem. A similar play had already surfaced in June 2024, south of the border, where Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs secretly financed a bot‑driven influence campaign aimed at US progressives and lawmakers, fronted by a Tel Aviv marketing firm and only exposed whenHaaretzand theNew York Timespulled the threads.

Source: 21st Century Wire