Melanie Joly has been feigning outrage that she’s been accused of pandering to Hamas supporters within the Liberal caucus. She should really give up on that because it’s an open question in Liberal circles about whether Joly is using the conflict in the Middle East to further her leadership aspirations.
We have comments from Liberals worried this is what Joly is doing, and comments she made to former NDP leader Tom Mulcair to back this up.
On Monday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asked Joly twice to condemn what he rightly called genocidal chants. It should have been easy for Joly to stand up and say that calling out the following in the streets of Canada is wrong: “From Palestine to Lebanon, Israel will soon be gone,” and “There is only one solution: intifada, revolution.”
One chant calls for the elimination of the state of Israel – forget about two states, just get rid of Israel. The other calls for violent acts like suicide bombings, stabbings, shootings — and other hallmarks of the two intifadas — to happen again.
While Joly offered nice words about commemorating the Oct. 7 attacks, she didn’t condemn those chants. To the best of my knowledge, none of the journalists working Parliament Hill have asked her if she will condemn them.
Poilievre put Joly’s silence down to leadership politics.
“I gave the foreign affairs minister two opportunities to condemn the increasingly common and terrifying anti-Semitic chants we hear in the streets, such as ‘Israel will soon be gone’ and ‘There is only one solution! Intifada, revolution!’ Twice she refused to condemn those remarks. She continues to pander to Hamas supporters and the Liberal Party as part of her leadership campaign rather than doing her job,” Poilievre said.
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In response, Joly accused Poilievre of playing politics and called on him to apologize. She then went out to express her outrage to the parliamentary press gallery, who weren’t exactly willing to call her out on her pearl clutching.
Poilievre should not apologize because even Liberals are worried that this is exactly what she is doing. Over the last several months, I’ve had Liberals raise their concerns about Joly with me — on and off the record.
“It’s not good for the country. It’s not good for democracy, and it’s not good for the Liberal Party,” said Andrew Perez when we discussed this issue in an interview several weeks ago.
Perez, who now runs his own firm, Perez Strategies, has worked at Queen’s Park and on Parliament Hill. Unlike some Liberals I know, fellow Toronto Sun columnist Warren Kinsella, he remains committed to the party but is worried about Joly moving the party, and Canadian foreign policy, in a direction we shouldn’t be going, based on changing demographics.
In the wake of Joly announcing an extended arms embargo against Israel, Perez was just one of many Liberals who expressed concern.
“Is this policy announcement going to benefit Ms. Joly in a future leadership race whereby she’s looking to use the Israel-Hamas or as a wedge to gain support among pro-Palestinian Canadians who may never have been involved in the Liberal Party?” he asked, echoing the concerns of many.
Poilievre was banned from speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday for refusing to retract remarks that could easily have been asked by many Liberals.
Then, there is the revelation by former NDP leader Tom Mulcair. In a recent column he wrote for CTV, Mulcair said when he saw Joly and asked her about the Liberal position on South Africa’s claim that Israel was committing genocide, her reaction floored him.
“Thomas, have you seen the demographics of my riding?” Mulcair quoted Joly as saying.
Joly’s riding has a heavy presence of voters whose first language is Arabic, meaning, Canada’s foreign policy isn’t being driven by principles such as standing up for democracy or human rights but rather the re-election fortunes of the MP from Ahuntsic-Cartierville.
She can feign all the outrage she wants at Poilievre’s comments, the voters of Canada, including many Liberals, know that is exactly what is happening.