Prime Minister Carney's Weak Response to Antisemitism

On the same day Dahlia Kurtz, a Jewish Canadian radio talk show host, journalist, writer, and speaker posted this on Twitter, Prime Minister Carney spoke to the Jewish community about the national crisis of antisemitism.

Dahlia Kurtz is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors and a loud voice in the fight against hate and extremism. Like myself, she is extremely committed but much more visible. I was shocked to learn that she has been forced to go into hiding. As a child of survivors, it is not lost on me the psychological impact of deciding to go into hiding. When I interviewed descendants of survivors after October 7, a number of people mentioned that there were thinking about running away or hiding as hypervigilance among descendants is high. As I have stated in the past, we are experiencing Kristallnacht in slow motion.

I had very low expectations for the address made by the Prime Minister on June 1, and I was still disappointed. He chose to speak at a Liberal synagogue in front of Jewish Liberal donors. No conservative media, no Jewish journalists (certainly not Dahlia Kurtz). The audience and talking points tightly controlled by the Prime Minister’s Office.

I don’t believe the Prime Minister is antisemitic as do some people in the Jewish community. But he has never made antisemitism a priority for this government and his negative views towards Israel may even contribute to antisemitism in Canada.

The Prime Minister acknowledged that antisemitism is rampant and the Canada is failing Jewish Canadians. We already know that. It’s fine to reiterate what the community has been telling the government for months but we need more than an acknowledgement of current environment. We need solutions.

There were none.