Sunday afternoon, at the St. Alban’s Boys and Girl’s Club in Toronto, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland officially announced her bid to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party. To call the event tense would be an understatement.
What was quickly made clear is that Freeland is woefully unprepared for the Canada that lies ahead of her — a Canada with an increasingly extremist anti-Israel/pro-Hamas segment who, even with a prisoner-hostage exchange occurring in Gaza as she announced her bid, were still unsatisfied with her party. A party that, frankly, did everything it could to not help Israel and appease the protesters. And now it’s clear where that’s gotten them.
The small gymnasium of the children’s community centre was divided into three groups, the total of which could not have been much more than 100, if that. Attendees included Freeland and her supporters, made up of MPs, her family, and a few friends who were situated near her podium, the media, who held up the back wall, not getting a chance to have all their questions answered, and, interspersed throughout the crowd, seemingly timed to go off at alternating intervals, anti-Israel hecklers, who were dragged out of the room after banging on the gym walls to interrupt her speech and shouting phrases such as, “genocide supporter,” “fascist,” and “free Palestine.” Freeland’s supporters attempted to drown out the protesters each time by clapping and shouting loudly, “Freeland, Freeland,” plugging their ears to the rising tide of political extremism in this country.
I kept scanning the room, looking for who might sound off next, and tried to keep my distance from anyone dressed like they might be a protester, worried for everyone in the room that this might escalate further. There must’ve have been close to 20 interruptions. I tried to record all of them, posting many to X, but I couldn’t keep up and lost count. It’s hard to tell from the recording of the event, but it was pure chaos.
During the repeated attempts to interrupt Freeland, she kept smiling and relied on her supporters’ applause and chants to drown them out, thanking them more than once for their efforts.
Freeland responded each time in her characteristically patronizing tone. In response to one protester banging she said: “Let’s be respectful of democracy,” and, “This is not okay,” as if these were merely mild disturbances by unruly students in grade school, and not a symptom of a bigger problem that her government continues to play a part in exacerbating — the importation of the Palestinian cause into Canada.
If Freeland thinks talking down to these activists like she does to Canadians about their Disney Plus subscriptions is going to make them stop, she’s in for a rude awakening.
And the divide on this issue isn’t just on the level of annoying protesters. It haunts the party as well. In August, the Liberals suffered the crushing blow of losing a riding in Montreal to the Bloc Québécois. Not only did Liberal MP hopeful Laura Palestini lose, but she faced an internal revolt from 52 Liberal staffers of Arab and Muslim origin over the Israel-Palestinian conflict. I guess Palestini wasn’t Palestinian enough.
One thing is for sure, whoever the Liberal leader ends up being, they need to solve their extremist problem.
In the moments when she did get to speak, Freeland painted herself as a fighter of Putin and the KGB and of Donald Trump. She attacked Poilievre, calling him “mean” and “weak.”
And she made the following promise about her ability to bring Canadians together: “I will unite every province and territory; business leaders and working people; and Canadians from every walk of life and of every political conviction.” Clearly, her hecklers do not agree.
At one point, Freeland told the crowd of these disturbances: “Protest is important. We are a free country, and one of the great things about our country is that people are free to express dissenting points of view. But what is not okay … is to get in the way of others, expressing their point of view and putting forward their position.”
Unless, of course, you’re a Freedom Convoy supporter, I guess. Or, a member of the press wanting to ask a tough question.
In the media room, we were informed we’d only get six or seven questions … maybe … Why? We were told Freeland had to rush off and see her supporters. It left myself and a member of The Logic standing at the mic unable to ask our questions.
Here’s what I was going to ask Liberal Party leadership hopeful Chrystia Freeland: “You blew past the promised deficit cap by $20 million. Then, you didn’t show up to answer questions and take responsibility for your role in that. Was your anger at Justin Trudeau more important than your responsibility to show up and deliver the Fall Economic Statement and answer questions about your performance on that file?”
I guess I’ll never know what her answer would’ve been, but Canadians certainly deserve to hear it.