Trudeau successor’s views on Israel a mystery, say Canadian Jewish leaders

Carney’s silence “left us with a vacuum,” she said.

Trudeau, who has drawn extensive criticism from the right for not being vocal enough about Jew-hatred but whom supporters say has a strong track record on Jewish issues, stepped down from office on January 6. The next federal election is due no later than October 20, but it could be called earlier. Carney is expected to be sworn into office this week.

Bercovici told JNS that Canadian Jews are relieved that Carney’s chief of staff will be Marco Mendicino, a parliamentarian representing the Jewish-heavy Eglinton-Lawrence district.

Mendicino has spoken out against Jew-hatred and has broken with Trudeau on Canadian policy toward Israel.

“Right now, I think we’re all kind of in a black hole with no clue,” she said, of Carney. “You’ve got a very large Jewish community in Canada, and it does seem that the threats and concerns just aren’t really being taken seriously.”

“The fact that he’s chosen very deliberately to say nothing says a lot,” she said.

Bercovici thinks that there is “no reason to surmise” that Carney will take “a different view of anything” than Trudeau did.

Andria Spindel, executive director of the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, told JNS that the charity “has been disappointed that no Liberal leadership candidate, including the one predicted to win, and now our new prime minister, took a strong stance in defense of Israel, Canada’s best ally and the only democracy in the Middle East.”

“With rising antisemitism, hatred and harassment against Jews on streets and campuses across Canada, where is the new prime minister’s action plan to restrain or remove antisemitic agitators, to improve national and local policing, prohibit threats from arriving in Canada from foreign agitators and to stop funding UNRWA and other terrorist or terror supporting entities?” Spindel said.

She added that Jewish communities contribute positively to Canadian culture and well-being.

“We don’t want to hear ‘Never Again’ we want to hear ‘Now is Never: and here’s the plan,’” she added. “CAEF expects major steps to be taken to renew the Jewish community’s sense of safety.”

Avi Benlolo, founding chair and CEO of the Abraham Global Peace Initiative, told JNS that “the Jewish community is on a wait-and-see mode with Mr. Carney.”

“The Liberals have a long road ahead when it comes to proving they see Israel as an ally and want to defeat antisemitism,” he said. “We encourage Mr. Carney to make this a top priority not just for Canadian Jews, but to save Canada itself.”

Last month, Carney condemned an antisemitic attack on a Montreal synagogue. “This reprehensible vandalism is another reminder that Jewish Canadians have been targeted by a rising wave of antisemitism, particularly since October 7,” he wrote. “It has to stop. As Canadian leaders, we need to say firmly and loudly that the Jewish community has the right to feel safe in Canada.”

“I continue to extend my full support to the Jewish community as we work to combat hate and ensure the perpetrators of these heinous acts are brought to justice,” he wrote.

Warren Kinsella, a Toronto Sun columnist and one of the most prominent, pro-Israel, non-Jewish writers in the country, wrote last month that “it’s no surprise that Carney’s been AWOL on the Israel-Hamas war.”

“Carney has aped his mentor, and observed a total media blackout on—all sides would agree—an issue that has become an important litmus test for one’s morality,” Kinsella wrote. “He has embraced silence when, as the saying goes, silence equals complicity.” 

Jeremy Levi, the Jewish mayor of Hampstead, in the Montreal area, wrote on Jan. 14 that Carney had not mentioned the words “Israel” or “antisemitism” on his X page. (Since Jan. 27, Carney has posted three times about antisemitism, but still hasn’t mentioned Israel.)

“Silence speaks volumes, and his silence is deafening,” Levi wrote on Instagram. “Leadership demands courage, and on this front, he has shown none.”

One of the few times that Carney commented on social media about the Middle East was a post in February, in which he wrote that “President Trump’s proposed forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza is deeply disturbing.”

“It would violate the rights of Palestinians and international law, and it would set back efforts to promote peace and security for all in the region,” he wrote. “I support the hard work of reaching a two-state solution, with a viable and free Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the state of Israel.”

Carney, who turns 60 on March 16, grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, and has made a career out of finance and public service. The Harvard University alumnus earned both a master’s and a doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford. He worked at Goldman Sachs in New York City, London and Tokyo.

In 2003, he moved to the public sector, as deputy governor of the Bank of Canada. He was the Canadian senior associate deputy minister of finance from 2004 to 2007.

In 2007, Carney was appointed governor of the Bank of Canada, a position he held until 2013. During his tenure, he played a role in navigating Canada through the 2008 global financial crisis. (He also visited Israel and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in that capacity in 2012.)

Carney became the first non-British governor of the Bank of England in 2013, leading the institution through Brexit and the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. His tenure at the bank lasted until 2020. He has subsequently taken on other roles, including chair and head of impact investing at Brookfield Asset Management and board chair at Bloomberg. He also served as the United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance from 2020 to 2025.