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TOP STORY
As Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly faces Conservative charges of “pandering to Hamas supporters,” she was cited in a comment this week in which she appeared to say that her anti-Israel foreign policy is motivated by the “demographics” of her Montreal riding.
The comment appeared in a Tuesday column for CTV written by former NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair.
Mulcair mentioned an exchange with Joly regarding her position on the Israel-Hamas war, which he described in the column as “utterly incomprehensible.”
“Thomas, have you seen the demographics of my riding?” the foreign minister is supposed to have replied.
Wrote Mulcair: “I was astonished to hear such a candid admission that very local politics were playing such a role in shaping Canada’s foreign policy on this highly complex and sensitive issue.”
The column dropped amid Conservative charges that the Trudeau government was actively excusing pro-Hamas rallies.
In the House of Commons on Monday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was barred from speaking for the rest of the day after he said Joly “continues to pander to Hamas supporters.”
The spur for the comment was a question period exchange in which Poilievre noted the celebratory rallies taking place in Canadian cities to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7 massacres in Israel.
“Will the government clearly and unequivocally condemn these genocidal chants from hateful mobs on our streets?” he concluded.
In response, Joly listed the eight Canadians killed in the attacks, saying that “Canadians will honour their memories.” “We stand with Jewish people. We will not relent until the last hostage returns home,” she added.
After the “panders to Hamas supporters” line, Joly accused Poilievre of playing politics and said, “We all in this House, I hope, are against any form of antisemitism or any form of discrimination.”
Among G7 nations, at least, Joly has certainly spearheaded a conspicuously anti-Israel foreign policy in the year following the October 7 attacks.
Joly is repeatedly on record condemning Hamas and saying that Israel has a right to defend itself. Nevertheless, she has also condemned virtually every aspect of the Israeli response against Hamas, and has long advocated for a unilateral ceasefire that would have the effect of leaving Hamas in control of Gaza.
At times, this has even verged into the surreal. Only one month after the attacks, Joly was calling for negotiations between Israel and Hamas’s terrorist commanders. “I hope, even more negotiations at a negotiating table where there are Israelis, Hamas and Qatar, which is present … as moderator,” Joly said on Nov. 10.
Joly’s stances have often put her directly at odds with Defence Minister Bill Blair, who has backed the Israeli goal of destroying Hamas as a condition of peace in Gaza. “Quite frankly, Hamas has to be eliminated as a threat not just to Israel but to the world. They are a terrorist organization,” he said on Oct. 24.
He added that calls for a ceasefire were pointless, since Hamas wouldn’t listen to them.
In terms of official Government of Canada policy as regards to Israel, however, Joly’s view has consistently won out.
Just before Christmas, her department was thanked by Hamas leadership for backing a UN vote calling for a unilateral Israeli ceasefire in Gaza. In a video, Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad specifically cited Canada’s vote before saying, “We welcome these developments and consider them in the right direction toward isolating the fascist Israeli government globally.”
Joly also helped champion a Canadian embargo on military exports to Israel. Although Canada has never provided military aid to Israel, the Jewish state was one of 60 countries that purchased military goods from Canadian suppliers, mostly in the form of parts for the F-35 fighter jet.
That ended in March, with Joly defending the policy as recently as last month. “Our policy is clear: We will not have any form of arms or parts of arms be sent to Gaza. Period,” she said at a caucus retreat in Nanaimo.
Joly represents the Montreal riding of Ahuntsic-Cartierville, which does feature a proportionally large Arab and Muslim population — although not by much.
In the 2016 census, the riding of 114,410 people had just 7,130 residents who spoke Arabic as a first language. The vast majority — 65,130 — were native French speakers.
Nevertheless, the riding has been home to controversy. In 2016, the borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville voted “no” on a referendum to allow a local Muslim cultural centre to become a place of worship; it was located in a building zoned for commercial purposes in which prayer services were not allowed.
More recently, the community reacted negatively to public Eid celebrations which saw mass Islamic prayers conducted in Parc des Hirondelles in June. At the time, borough Mayor Émilie Thuillier said she would consider enacting a blanket ban on public religious events.
IN OTHER NEWS
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Ottawa’s leading killjoy, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux, has once again published figures showing that the carbon tax is a net drain on the average Canadian’s take-home pay. This is very awkward for the Trudeau government, whose leading pitch for the unpopular tax is that – for now, at least – the average Canadian receives more in rebates than they pay in tax. Giroux said this is generally true, but that the tax handicaps GDP just enough so that everyone’s net income is ultimately worse off.
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