EDITORIAL: PM’s selective morality is based on trade

Feds hard on Israel but not Saudi Arabia, China, or India

Published Jul 09, 2026  •  Last updated 2 hours ago  •  2 minute read

This handout picture released by the Saudi Ministry of Media shows Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) walking with Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney during his official visit at Al-Salam Royal Palace in Jeddah on July 9, 2026. Photo by Saudi Ministry of Media, handout /Getty Images

If publicly calling out countries on human rights abuses from afar is “satisfying” but “ineffective,” as Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday, why does he do it to Israel but not Saudi Arabia, China, India and other notorious human rights abusers?

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Asked Thursday in Jeddah to respond to critics who say he is “so focused on business and jobs and money” that he’s giving a pass to countries with dismal records on human rights, Carney responded: “I do see that lecturing countries from afar is an ineffective strategy. It’s satisfying but it’s ineffective.”

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Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Thursday during Carney’s trade mission to Saudi Arabia that she raised concerns about its human rights violations, including cases involving Canadian citizens, during her meeting with Saudi’s foreign minister.

But such quiet diplomacy is a far cry from the Carney government’s many full-throated denunciations of Israel because of its actions in Gaza and Lebanon following Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, including jailing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) if he steps foot in Canada.

By contrast, in countries where Carney wants to increase trade his approach is to speak softly in the face of Saudi Arabia executing at least 356 people last year — a new record — along with sweeping crackdowns on free speech and political dissent.

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The world’s longest continuing occupation is by China in Tibet and its treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province was condemned as a genocide by our House of Commons in pre-Carney times.

But when it came to the use of forced labour in China, the Carney government whispered its objections in generalized terms, and a Liberal MP who initially mocked the allegation remains in Carney’s caucus.

A senior government official told Canadian reporters prior to Carney’s trade mission to India in February that the government no longer believes India engages in foreign interference and transnational repression.

Odd, because on Tuesday the RCMP announced a joint investigation with the FBI resulted in arrests and charges against the leaders of three global Indian crime networks engaged in extortion, drug trafficking, kidnapping and violence, including murder, in Canada and the U.S.

In Carney’s Canada, it appears, silence gives consent.

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