My Concerns About What Mark Carney Heard or Didn't Hear About Gaza

When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke at a Liberal Party rally in Calgary on Tuesday, he was interrupted by an anti-Israel heckler who shouted, “Mr. Carney, there’s a genocide in Palestine”.

To which Carney replied, "I'm aware. That’s why we have an arms embargo.”

This raised the ire of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who stated:

Canada has always sided with civilization. So should Mr. Carney. But instead of supporting Israel, a democracy that is fighting a just war with just means against the barbarians of Hamas, he attacks the one and only Jewish state. Mr. Carney, backtrack your irresponsible statement!

For his part, Carney claims he didn't hear the word "genocide":

I didn't hear that word. It's noisy. If you're up there you hear snippets of what people say and I heard Gaza, and my point was I'm aware of the situation in Gaza.

So, Carney is telling us he heard Gaza, but not genocide. 

I have a hard time believing him. 

If he didn't hear everything or had a hard time hearing, Carney either shouldn't have responded or indicated that he was speaking while not addressing the substance of the heckler's remarks.

I mean it's not like Carney is the first politician to be heckled in this manner. Indeed, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris was heckled multiple times by anti-Israel protesters all of whom used the term genocide. Frankly, I didn't care for Harris' equivocation. But for a myriad of other reasons, I voted for her. 

Full disclosure. I have applied for a mail in ballot and intend to vote Liberal for the first time in my life.

Nevertheless, I am concerned by Carney's response and equally concerned he didn't reject the heckler's characterization of genocide even if he genuinely didn't hear it at the time.

With that said, I also question Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre's support for Israel while personally praising white supremacist groups. 

You can support one or the other. You cannot support both.

For his part, Poilievre has not chimed in on Carney's heckler incident. Perhaps he is waiting for the French or English language leaders' debates next week to raise the issue.

Back in February, during the Liberal Party leadership debate, Carney stated he was in agreement with Hamas only for his opponent Chrystia Freeland to intervene allowing Carney to correct himself. 

Should such a mishap occur again, Poilievre will not be so friendly.

If Poilievre does raise the issue, it will be interesting to see how Carney responds.

Should Carney need to respond, hopefully he will have heard everything beforehand.