On September 25, 2025, the United Nations updated the list of complicit companies in its database.

This included Metrontario Investment Ltd, the first Canadian company added to the United Nations database. It was listed specifically related to the use of natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes. The UN Database was initially released in 2020 (A/HRC/43/71) after a report from the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the oPt, including East Jerusalem. Currently there are a total of 158 companies included on the UN list.

Metrontario has long been identified as complicit in Israel’s occupation by groups such as Who Profits. Metrontario’s subsidiaries have:

• Built a cycling path in the occupied Syrian Golan;

• Stabilized land for the Israeli Ministry of Defence on the wall surrounding Gaza;

• Distributes its seaweed in illegal settlements (Gush Etzion and Ariel);

• Built hundreds of housing units throughout illegal settlements in East Jerusalem (French Hill, Har Homa, Pisgat Ze’ev);

• Built the Samaria District Police Headquarters in the occupied West Bank; and

• Built hundreds of housing units in the Palestinian village Al-Walajah.

But Metrontario has other Canadian connections too. As identified by Howe and Sylvestre in a 2021 article, there is a network of “anchor foundations” that are “tied to the root family fortunes of wealthy Toronto-based real estate corporations.” One of these foundations is the Nathan and Lily Silver Family Foundation (“Silver Foundation”). Howe and Sylvestre identified a connection between Metrontario and the Silver Foundation, namely, a significant overlap in their board of director membership. In their most recent article, “Burner Charities and Big Gifters—Tracking Illicit Activity Within in the Canada to Israel Charity Pipeline,” the connection again was made related to funding of revoked charities through other Canadian charities

This is important and relevant for two reasons.

First, these private “anchor foundations” provide significant funds to “burner charities” -- short-lived entities that appear to simply move as much money out of Canada as possible, resulting in tens of millions of charitable funds “having claimed to have moved into Israel with no discernible purpose or charitable activity attached.” They also support “war crimes conduits” -- a Canadian charity that fundraises for another organization, without direct control over it, resulting in “settlement expansion, Palestinian dispossession ,and financial and material support for the Israeli military.”

Second, private foundations act as tax shelters and how many of these large private foundations participate in the Canada to Israel charity pipeline. While Canadian charitable organizations have to spend the majority of their annual revenue on charitable programs and operations, foundations generally only have to disburse a tiny fraction of theirs — meaning they can tax shelter their funds within private foundations. “The presumption, here, is that the corporate directors at the helm of said philanthropic foundations will be altruistically guided to reinvest such profits into the charitable sector, and not, say, simply maximize profits by any means necessary.” Additionally, the funds that “Zionist-supportive charities” disburse have “been vital to the ongoing colonization of Palestine.” The article made clear that private foundations played a particular role in moving donations through the Canada to Israel charity pipeline – namely playing an “outsized role in financially underwriting the activities of revoked charities.”

Therefore, the Silver Foundation is implicated in several ways:

1. It would seem to be directly connected to Metrontario, which has now been added to the UN Database. Metrontario must be investigated for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

2. It has provided significant support for burner charities and war crimes conduits. It funded 5 of the 7 revoked charities identified by Howe and Sylvestre, for a total of $2,377,040 or 11% of all Silver Foundation funds in the last 11 years.

3. It funds Canadian charities that are directing funds to illegal settlements and the Israeli military. Of the top 20 recipients of Silver Foundation funds between 2013-2024, at least 13 are implicated in the Canada to Israel charity pipeline. This includes the United Jewish Appeal of Greater Toronto ($3,139,900), United Israel Appeal of Canada Inc ($2,854,225), Mizrachi ($1,379,950), and Moral Arc Foundation — previously the Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada — ($797,900). Through its own funds, the Silver Foundation is financing the Canada to Israel charity pipeline, as outlined in CBC The Fifth’s Estate recent episode.

As described by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, in their October 2024 Position Paper, member states have an obligation to remove the ability of corporate and charitable actors – registered within member states – from deriving financial gain from the occupation. There, the UN Commission stated:

With respect to non-profit or non-governmental organizations, States must carefully review any organization that is financially or politically supporting the unlawful occupation. States shall not give support to these organizations, for example through allowing the organization to have tax-exempt status or providing tax deductibility for donations to the organization and must ensure that financial contributions to support the unlawful occupation, including settlements and settlers, cease (paras 30-31).

The CRA needs to take seriously the state responsibility in this regard (as well as under Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention), and ensure, as the regulator, that funds are not being sent that are supporting the illegal occupation, apartheid, or genocide.

These international legal obligations do not simply apply to the State; they also implicate individual charitable organizations and their leadership. Canadian charities are liable under domestic law. For example, international war crimes are indictable offences under the Criminal Code in Canada, based on the interplay of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, the Geneva Conventions Act, and the Interpretation Act.

This is also a prime opportunity for the CRA to take action in line with the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency’s (NSIRA) review of the Review and Analysis Division (RAD) which is tasked with ensuring charities do not fund terrorism. NSIRA found that most charities audited were Muslim or Sikh, and in many cases there was no clear risk of terrorist funding. Their conclusion: RAD’s decisions were potentially “driven by bias and discrimination.” This is not news to us, and of course not to the many Muslim charities that were and are unfairly targeted. The CRA responded by agreeing with 5 of the 6 recommendations from NSIRA. This is an opportunity for the CRA to put their words into action.

Email the CRA today to investigate the Nathan and Lily Silver Family Foundation and demand the end of the Canada to Israel Charity Pipeline.

“...with millions of dollars per year earmarked toward supporting Israel’s illegal occupation and the Israeli military, the Canadian charitable sector has ostensibly given itself over to fulfilling Israeli state policy, while roundly ignoring Canada’s own public policy specifically concerning the illegality of the Israeli settlements and the applicability of customary international law (Global Affairs, 2024). Troublingly, particularly when compared against allegations of over-enforcement against Muslim-identified charities, the Canada Revenue Agency appears disinterested in ensuring that even bare modicums of reporting requirements concerning Israel-bound philanthropy are adhered to.” (Howe and Sylvestre, 2025)