The Globe and Mail Editorial Board attack on Carney's June 4th speech on antisemitism
Sid Shniad
Subject: The Globe and Mail Editorial Board attack on Carney's June 4th speech on antisemitism
To: <let...@globeandmail.com>
Globe and Mail Editorial Board
Dear sir/madam,
I am pleased to submit my comment on your June 4th editorial.
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Globe and Mail goes "full Zionist" in its attack on Carney's speech
On Tuesday, June 4th, the Globe and Mail editorial board took direct aim at Prime Minister Carney for what it thought were “The missing words” in his careful speech at a Toronto Synagogue. (See text of G&M editorial below)
Carney’s speech at the synagogue tackled antisemitism – arguing that it was not consistent with what he called the “Canadian covenant”, which includes tolerance and respect for religious, ethnic and other minorities. He denounced it and announced some measures to deal with it.
But the Globe editorial board wanted Carney to go much further. It said there were “missing words” in his speech. It wanted him to utter two phrases: “I stand with Israel”. And “I am a Zionist.”
Carney spoke about Canada, Canadian values and the “Canadian covenant”, which are of course among his most important priorities as Prime Minister. But he did not mention either Israel or Zionism.
This alleged ‘lapsus” was immediately picked up by those who argue that fighting antisemitism requires defending Israel and its Zionist ideology. Some even claim that those who protest Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide – and Canada’s failure to sanction it – are doing so because of antisemitism. This is a frequent allegation by the lobby although there is very little evidence to support it. The G&M editorial could well have been written by Israel lobby staffers, repeating their standard talking points.
The Ottawa Forum on Israel Palestine (OFIP) has a different view. We think that some important words were missing from the G&M editorial itself.
These include:
· Israel is a foreign country plausibly accused of committing egregious crimes.
· Zionism is Israel’s official ideology, used to justify Israel’s domination over the Palestinians.
· A majority of Canadians feel that Israel’s actions in Gaza are “morally outrageous”
· Anyone of whatever faith who “Stands with Israel,” should expect to face the disapprobation of a majority of Canadians.
In this context it would be most surprising (and most disappointing) if the Prime Minister of Canada were to say either “I stand with Israel”, or “I am a Zionist”. The Ottawa Forum on Israel Palestine says, along with most Canadians, “we stand for international law” and “we believe in equality and democracy for all”.
We hope the Prime Minister agrees.
Peter Larson, Chair
Ottawa Forum on Israel/Palestine (OFIP)
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opinion
The missing words in Mark Carney’s antisemitism speech
The Editorial Board
Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke to invited Jewish leaders at a Toronto
synagogue on Monday and did not meet the moment, the editorial board
writes. Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney knows how to give a speech. He can diagnose a problem, as he showed at Davos in January. He can cut through great complexity to essential truths, even when doing so means accepting a degree of political risk.
He did none of that in his professorial address on antisemitism at a Toronto synagogue on Monday. He did not diagnose the problem. He offered sympathy, but no answers, apart from creating an advisory council that he first announced four months ago. Some urgency. The council’s first assignment is to look for the “drivers” of antisemitism – as if they are not in plain sight. He was anything but courageous.
What should he have said? That the problem is antizionism, a complete, anything-goes rejection of, and demonizing of, Israel’s existence. And that antizionism is manifesting itself on Canada’s streets and university campuses, in a complete, anything-goes rejection, and demonizing of, Jews.
This is where the Prime Minister’s courage failed him. Taking on the antizionists – the core of the problem – was not something this Liberal prime minister was prepared to do. He went into a synagogue before an invitation-only audience of 170 Jewish leaders and did not meet the moment. He didn’t mention Israel, despite his prepared remarks doing so – once. He was unable or unwilling to articulate what is behind the “scourge of antisemitism” that he rightly condemned.
A strong approach would have been to call out the protests of which nearly 1,000 have occurred in Toronto alone in the past 30 months taking over streets, sidewalks, highway overpasses, the train station, shopping malls and even leaching into Jewish neighbourhoods.
Justin Trudeau, Mr. Carney’s predecessor, did so in a speech in March, 2025. “Antisemites singing the praises of Hamas and Hezbollah while waving their flags on the streets of our cities is not normal.” Mr. Trudeau was on his way out of office, but he still put his finger on the problem.
Of course people have the right to protest, within the bounds of the Criminal Code and local bylaws. But a prime minister has the right and obligation to criticize when those protests – including calls to “globalize the intifada” – are laying down the tinder for hatred and ostracism and outright violence. He should have spoken forcefully on this subject long ago, on the floor of the House of Commons. And taken on the so-called progressives who deploy the language of human rights while turning a blind eye to the hostile environment they are helping create for Jews in Canada.
Again, Mr. Trudeau in his speech last year called out the “deafening indifference toward or even rationalization of antisemitism in everyday life.” Mr. Carney made only the most oblique of references.
The truth that Carney avoided saying: Israel has become the International Jew
A strong approach from Mr. Carney would have been to say: “I stand with Israel as a Jewish homeland, even as I reserve the right to criticize its government.” Mr. Trudeau, though hardly bursting with action on antisemitism, did make this important statement: “The term Zionist increasingly being tossed around as a pejorative, in spite of the fact that it simply means believing in the right of the Jewish people, like all people, to determine their own future, is not normal. No one should ever be afraid to call themselves a Zionist,” he said, adding with emphasis: "I am a Zionist.”
For an international leader of stature who has uttered similar words, Mr. Carney could have looked to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said his country “suffers damage to its own soul” when criticism of Israel “becomes a pretext for hatred of Jews.”
Why does Mr. Carney’s failure to speak such words matter? Because the problem, to repeat, is that those who treat Israel as a pariah state by extension treat Jewish-Canadians as pariahs, unless they renounce Zionism. The price of freedom of conscience and safety for Jews, in other words, is set by their enemies. It’s intolerable and shameful, and the Prime Minister should have stood up to it by saying, as his predecessor did, “I am a Zionist.”
It was good that Mr. Carney went to a synagogue and addressed antisemitism. Importantly, he said Canada’s “civic compact” was failing Jews. But he did not articulate, never mind confront, the nature of that failure. He should have said: “If you oppose Israel’s existence, if you demonize Jewish-Canadians, you are wrong, you are hateful and I stand against you.“
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