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Or sign-in if you have an account.Mark Carney’s initiative for dealing with antisemitism was the re-announcement of an Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion. But the Jewish community doesn't need another study by a committee. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk/PostmediaPrime Minister Mark Carney has confronted two critical but unrelated challenges with performative techniques that have been greeted with understandable skepticism by the two target audiences. In both cases — the need to build infrastructure to transport oil to tidewater and on to overseas markets and the failure to counter the worst antisemitism since the Second World War — Carney has described the problem but failed to identify the underlying cause or take meaningful corrective action.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorIn both cases, domestic and external realities have forced Carney’s hand. Canadians are reeling from economic difficulties, including United State tariffs, even as European and Asian countries plead for access to our vast oil and gas resources. Canada’s reputation for fairness and safety is being sullied internationally because of hundreds of brutal acts of hostility and violence targeting the Jewish community, its institutions and its businesses.Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of Top Stories will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againTake the two in turn:Soon after his election, in a complete reversal of decades of climate alarmism, Carney spoke about the urgent need to develop our vast resources. More recently, there has been encouraging talk about building an oil pipeline to the West Coast, following a “grand bargain” MOU with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. But regulatory impediments remain, including the “no-pipeline” Impact Assessment Act, the northern B.C. tanker moratorium, the expensive Pathways carbon capture and storage boondoggle, high industrial carbon pricing, and fierce opposition from B.C. Premier David Eby and Nisga’a Lisims First Nation, whom Carney had verbally granted an effective veto. Last week, Ottawa delayed important changes to environmental reviews of major projects. Unless governments significantly de-risk the oil project, no private company will invest capital, given the cost ($30-40 billion or more), political and regulatory complications, and long-term oil-market uncertainty. No wonder many Albertans are skeptical.Not only are GHG emissions from the oilsands too small (roughly 0.15 per cent of global emissions) to have a measurable impact on the global temperature, but science and public opinion about climate change are moving away from the climate hysteria of the past three decades. Canada is increasingly isolated in its obsession. Rather than getting credit for its zeal, it is viewed with frustration by countries that need its oil and bemusement by countries moving heaven and Earth to develop and export their own fossil fuels.As for antisemitism, although it has been escalating since Hamas’s brutal attack on October 7, 2023, Carney only addressed the issue last week, albeit not to Parliament or the nation but to a carefully chosen audience in a traditionally Liberal synagogue, which was given no opportunity to ask questions. And he avoided the elephant in the room by declining either to identify the main sources of antisemitism — radical Islamism and the Decolonial Left — or to acknowledge the failure to vet immigrants for potential hostility to Canadian values.Tellingly, the words “Zionism” and “Israel” did not cross Carney’s lips when speaking to a community whose Book of Psalms expresses thousands of years of longing for its spiritual homeland. Criticism of Israeli policy is entirely legitimate — Israel’s own citizens are some of its fiercest critics — provided it does not impose a higher standard on Israel than on any other country, a lower standard on its enemies, or collective punishment on Canadian Jews, who are not responsible for Israel’s actions. Anti-Zionist calls for eliminating the Israeli state cross a red line, and not only because they are transparently antisemitic.Carney’s record on Israel gives pause about his evident animus. He has said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be arrested if he came to Canada, this based on a transparently biased warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, whose chief prosecutor was just suspended for misconduct. He criticized Israel for expanding the death penalty for terrorism so as to reduce the incentive for hostage-taking, a crime that would also activate the death penalty in many other countries. He summoned the Israeli ambassador over unproven and false allegations, including rape of Palestinian prisoners by dogs. He praised PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for strengthening democratic institutions (!) and halted the supply of weapons and technology to Israel. Instead of expressing hostility to a formerly close ally, Carney should be grateful that Israel, in its existential war against genocidal death cults, is on the front lines of a battle to preserve Western civilization.Carney’s Toronto speech praised diversity and allowing people “to be their whole selves,” which sounds anodyne enough. But when self-fulfillment entails violent intolerance and other forms of behaviour fundamentally incompatible with Judeo-Christian values and Canadian traditions, including pluralism, it is indefensible, as Tasha Kheiriddin pointed out recently on these pages.Carney’s unwillingness to acknowledge that not all cultures are equal if they threaten core Canadian beliefs can do long-term harm to Canada’s identity. In that respect, Jews are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine. Mere days after Carney’s speech, a synagogue in Montreal was firebombed and one in Toronto had a rock thrown through a window. His message clearly did not resonate with the hate-mongers.Carney’s major initiative for dealing with antisemitism was the re-announcement of an Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion. But the Jewish community does not need another study by a committee, especially one with no evident expertise and a vice-chair, Omar Alghabra, who once argued that Hezbollah should be removed from the list of banned terrorist organizations.Real actions are urgently needed. Irwin Cotler, former envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, recommends a comprehensive federal strategy that treats antisemitism as a distinct form of hatred with its own history, manifestations, targeted prevention, and a whole-of-government approach to violations. Ottawa should use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition, which Canada adopted in 2019, as a practical tool for identifying antisemitism and then train police, prosecutors, educators and public servants on its use and apply it when assessing antisemitic incidents.Ottawa should also strengthen hate-law enforcement with more and better training and create specialized hate-crime units in major cities with clearer prosecution guidelines that allay police reluctance to lay charges and keep prosecutors from applying too high a threshold. It should expand security funding for synagogues, Jewish schools, community centres and cultural institutions and create stronger protections against intimidation around places of worship. It should combat online antisemitism and extremism and implement mandatory Holocaust and antisemitism education in schools. Above all, it should not wait for a Bondi Beach massacre before acting.It is unlikely that Albertans will vote to separate, although a referendum is fast approaching, or that most Canadian Jews are about to leave for Miami or Tel Aviv, although some already have and many are talking about Plan B. Canada’s problem is that an unwillingness to take effective action on these critical issues will result in less prosperity and economic resilience and an erosion of the country’s fundamental values.Joe Oliver was minister of natural resources and finance in the Harper government. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.