Canadian Jews Deserve Better From Carney

The problem with being good at your job is it’s eminently apparent when you’re phoning it in.

Mark Carney has been very successful at getting things done in his time as Prime Minister. He’s gotten Alberta to agree to a grand bargain on the environment and energy policy, he’s gotten farmers and fishers access to China and other markets, he’s made more decisions about defence procurement than every government’s made combined in my lifetime, and he’s done it all while navigating a lunatic in the White House.

The PM has also been very good at being concerned with appearances. He held a summit with the Premiers in Saskatchewan weeks after winning the 2025 election, the only province he failed to win at least 2 seats in. He’s been to Alberta endlessly, working to stop the perception that he - and more importantly the party he leads - doesn’t care about Alberta and Albertans. When he wants to, he steps up.

Which brings us to last week’s most infuriating news story, which is that the Federal panel assembled in February to fight anti-semitism has met once and has done fuck all. They’re “getting to know each other”, per a former Senator on the panel. Can anybody defend that? No, unless the defence amounts to “they don’t really care about fighting anti-semitism.”

And that’s not good enough.

..

If I wanted to be charitable to Carney, I’d point out that he has shown up at many vigils and celebrated important Jewish holidays with the community. I’d point out that the government passed laws strengthening hate crime laws and making it more obviously illegal to obstruct or intimidate people from places of community - houses of worship of course, but schools and community centres too.

I’d also point out there’s very little Mark Carney, Pierre Poilievre, or whoever else could ever hold the Prime Minister’s office can do if a deranged lunatic wants to shoot a bullet at the door of a Jewish school or throw a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue. Deranged and evil people will do what they do, and they should be charged and jailed accordingly. But even in this defence I’m nibbling at the edges because I don’t think that matters.

Canada is a country which prides itself on the idea it stands up for human rights and a better society. It is a country that cares, or at least claims to care. And what we choose to care about, or at least claim to care about, tells us about the values we hold. That Carney is allowing this to fall through the cracks is not, in all likelihood, the result of latent antisemitic feelings deep in his soul. But it’s hard to escape the feeling that the government doesn’t really care at the end of the day. They’re not wanting famed Jewish businesses to be burned down, obviously, but I just don’t get why they don’t seem to care.

There are a lot of self-appointed defenders of the Jewish people who make their arguments extremely badly, who routinely conflate policy on Israel and the state of Canadian Jews, undoubtedly. Nobody who reads this site will be surprised by the fact that I think Jesse Brown and Warren Kinsella are fucking douchebags who do more harm than good to the cause of fighting anti-semitism. Plainly, however, the fact that Kinsella and Brown are windbags doesn’t change the fact that this must be fought against. Too often we’re focused on who is making the argument and not the argument itself, and in this case it’s blinded me at the very least to the depth of concern. Given the state of the Government’s anti-semitism taskforce, I think it’s safe to say they’re also blind to it.

At some point the government shows it cares about the things it cares about, and Carney isn’t showing he understands the moment we are in. I hope that changes, genuinely, and I hope in months and years this column looks silly and reactionary, because of a strong legacy of crosspartisan and apolitical protection of Jewish Canadians and every other group of Canadians. I want to be wrong when I say I don’t know this government gives a shit at the end of the day. I just don’t think I am, and the government isn’t doing anything to make me reconsider. Every week there is some new horror somewhere in this country, and it feels like they don’t care.

Maybe they do, but the very least the government can do is stop giving Jewish Canadians reasons to fucking doubt they do. This anti-semitism taskforce has to get its shit together immediately, with a clear mandate on a clear timetable to come up with an actionable strategy to achieve outcomes. Carney needs to call Poilievre, Blanchet, and Avi Lewis and hold a fucking rally together in take your pick of Jewish neighbourhood in Montreal to show there is no room for anti-Jewish hatred in any of our four parties. And if any of them don’t show, hold the rally anyways and make them wear the fact they put politics over sending a signal to Jewish Canadians.

Because yes, it is true that there is no silver bullet to stopping anti-semitism. It is the world’s oldest hatred for a reason, and the fact that so many people allegedly trying to fight anti-semitism want to conflate the actions of the Israeli government with anti-semitism doesn’t help anybody. But the government can make sure that nobody is in doubt about their principles, and their commitment to doing what they can to limit the incidents of anti-semitism and to supporting communities suffering the consequences of it. And if they’re not prepared to do so, then Canadians shouldn’t be lied to that they are with fake committees more concerned with getting to know each other instead of doing something.