Is Mark Carney antisemitic?

The question always comes up: is Mark Carney antisemitic?

For a couple months, I’ve been touring the country to give talks about my new book and documentary.  The book is called The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda; the documentary is called The Campaign: Disinformation In A Time Of War, both of which should give you an idea what I’ve been talking about.

The tour has involved lots of synagogues, community centres, hotel meeting rooms, podcasts - in front of hundreds of people. Jewish, Muslim, Christians, whatever: lots of folks, diverse backgrounds. (No mentions at the CBC or in the pages of the Toronto Star, however.)

Usually, there’s a question and answer part, and I get all kinds of queries about the explosion in antisemitism that has happened globally. I get asked about Canada, too, where the Jew hatred problem is among the worst. And then that one question inevitably comes up:

Is Prime Minister Mark Carney antisemitic?

I usually parry that one. I’ve known a lot of Prime Ministers, I’ll say, and I’ve worked for one. But I don’t really know Carney. He’s a bit of mystery, to me. As someone who has been exposing and opposing antisemitism for 40 years, I’ve paid pretty close attention to what Carney has said and done - and, more importantly, what he hasn’t said and done - and it’s not terribly encouraging. Lately, it’s been alarming.

Let’s look at what Mark Carney has said and done about Jews and the Jewish state in the past year or so.

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