OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand raised her discontent with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday after the Trump administration sanctioned a Canadian judge on the International Criminal Court.
Rubio announced the sanctions Wednesday, adding Judge Kimberly Proust to a growing list of people at the International Criminal Court (ICC) who the United States has hit with economic sanctions.
Rubio said the court had unfairly targeted the U.S. and Israel with investigations. Proust authorized the ICC’s prosecutor to pursue an investigation into the conduct of American forces in Afghanistan, along with the actions of the Afghan army and the Taliban. The ICC has also investigated Israel’s actions in Gaza and has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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“The United States has been clear and steadfast in our opposition to the ICC’s politicization, abuse of power, disregard for our national sovereignty, and illegitimate judicial overreach,” Rubio said in a statement.
Canada is a member of the ICC, but neither Israel nor America signed the treaty that created the court, which Rubio said he views as a “national security threat.”
The U.S. sanctions prohibit Proust from entering the U.S. and could also lead to seizures of any assets she has in that country and prevent U.S. banks firms from doing business with her. Earlier this year, the U.S. sanctioned four other ICC judges and the court’s chief prosecutor.
At a meeting with Rubio in Washington on Thursday, Anand raised her concerns about the sanctions, according to a senior government official who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Anand has not spoken publicly about the issue and Global Affairs Canada did not respond to questions on Thursday afternoon.
A statement from Rubio’s office following the meeting did not mention the ICC issue. It said the pair discussed Haiti, the situation in Gaza, China’s activity in North America and the war in Ukraine.
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Bob Rae, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, condemned the sanctions in a social media post, which he later deleted.
“This U.S. attack on the International Criminal Court and its judges is disgraceful,” Rae wrote. “Attacks on them by Russia, Israel and the U.S. are intended to weaken and intimidate the international legal system. They must not succeed.”
Rae did not respond when the Star reached out about his comments.
The ICC issued a statement saying it would defend its judges.
“These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution,” the statement said. “The ICC will continue fulfilling its mandate, undeterred, in strict accordance with its legal framework as adopted by the States Parties and without regard to any restriction, pressure or threat.”
Errol Mendes, a professor at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of law, said the ICC has faced resistance since its founding but has the support of 125 countries, some of which denounced the U.S. sanctions.
“There will be key countries who will say, ‘Regardless of what the U.S. does, we will keep on supporting the court,’ as France has done, as most of the European countries will do,” he said.
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