The Canadian election results angered the right people. But for Palestine the Liberal win represents at best harm reduction.
“I’m deeply disappointed by the election results”, declared Aviva Klompas, a former speechwriter for the Israeli mission to the United Nations and Toronto native. For her part, Zionist influencer Dahlia Kurtz said she was moving to Florida because the country was now “The Islamic Republic of Canada.”
In response professor Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui wrote about the German concept of schadenfreude, experiencing pleasure in response to another’s misfortune. “Canadian Zionists are so unhappy today that they’re telling each other to leave Canada”, Siddiqui posted. “And that’s all you need to know about the election results. The fight for Palestine justice continues. But for now, let’s just schadenfreude Israel’s defeat in Canada.”
But what does Mark Carney’s victory mean for those opposed to genocide and apartheid? In theory a Liberal minority government with the NDP holding the balance of power was the best realistic election outcome for Palestine and other matters. But the NDP did poorly even if they won enough seats to give Liberals the votes to pass legislation.
In a sense Canada’s election dynamic on Palestine is analogous to when ‘Genocide Joe’ stepped aside for his vice president to run against the even more anti-Palestinian Donald Trump.
Justin Trudeau assisted Israeli crimes in innumerable ways and in his final hours in office declared “I am a Zionist”. The outgoing Liberal prime minister made the statement 18 months into a genocide and on the same day as Israeli minister Eli Cohen said he would stop all electricity from entering Gaza (Trudeau may have coordinated that statement with Carney to give the incoming prime minister space to move away from an ever more unpopular Israel).
Carney doesn’t seem as committed to Zionism as Trudeau. He won the Liberal leadership race — and to a lesser extent the election — based on his resume as governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England while simultaneously avoiding pronouncing himself on too many issues.
In September I saw Carney outside an event in Montréal and asked his opinion of Israel’s holocaust in Gaza. He said he wouldn’t answer the “complex question” and shooed me away while getting on his phone.
When a heckler shouted “Mr. Carney, there’s a genocide in Palestine!” two weeks into the election campaign the Liberal leader replied from the podium, “I’m aware. That’s why we have an arms embargo.” Subsequently, Carney partially walked back his statement telling reporters “I didn’t hear that word [genocide].”
Benjamin Netanyahu used this “gaffe” as a pretext to interfere on behalf of Pierre Poilievre. The Conservative Party leader echoed Donald Trump’s authoritarian Zionism, pledged to cut funding to UNRWA and move Canada’s embassy to Jerusalem.
A week after Carney’s genocide “gaffe” the leader of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh, pressed Carney on his refusal to label the situation in Gaza “genocide.” During the French debate Singh stated, “Why don’t you call things as they are? This is a genocide.” Carney responded pathetically that the term “politicizes the situation.” During the English language debate the next night Carney’s response to Singh’s prodding was even worse. The prime minister pivoted to criticizing Iran.
But, as some Zionists bemoaned, Carney didn’t explicitly contradict the genocide claim.
In another indication of his Israel policy, Carney appointed Marco Mendocino his interim chief of staff after winning the Liberal leadership race in March. Mendocino is an aggressive Zionist and leading proponent of bubble zones restricting the right to assembly enshrined in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. “We will make it a criminal offence to intentionally and willfully obstruct access to any place of worship, school, or community centre,” Carney declared two weeks before the election. The push for “bubble zones” was prompted by protests in front of Jewish community centres and synagogues hosting Israeli soldiers and property sales.
Anti-genocide forces inserted themselves into the election. Carney and Poilievre were heckled and protested on multiple occasions. In Montreal we occupied foreign minister Melanie Joly and culture minister Steven Guilbeault’s election campaign offices.
The most significant activist push in the election came via the Vote Palestine pledge, which called for a two-way arms embargo, ending support for settlements, combating anti-Palestinian racism, protecting pro-Palestine speech, recognizing Palestine and funding UNRWA. It received a not insignificant amount of coverage in the dominant media and 26 candidates, mostly Liberals, who signed the pledge won their seats.
Maybe the most significant potential for trouble for Israel is the impact with Donald Trump. A week into the campaign Carney responded to a Radio Canada question about Trump’s position towards Gaza and Ukraine by stating that it needed to be seen in the context of international law and the US president’s threats to annex Canada. Framing the annexation of Gaza through a Canadian nationalist lens is troubling for the Zionist movement.
More broadly, Carney’s win is a repudiation of Trump. Four months ago, Poilievre was up by 25 points in the polls and the Liberals looked set to be wiped out.
The Labour Party in Australia won a large majority government Saturday in part due to anti-Trump sentiment and Labour in the UK has received a boost in support due to the US president. For Israel that represents a potential danger. While Trump may give it largely what it wants, he’s engendering growing international hostility in countries that have traditionally promoted Zionism. It could be dangerous to be so associated with what is likely to be an ever more toxic brand.
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