Dear Editor,
[RE: VIDEO – Conservative Leader Poilievre tours Maple Ridge shop, April 10, www.mapleridgenews.com]
Federal Tory leader Pierre Poilievre took advantage of his April 10 visit to Maple Ridge to criticize Prime Minister Mark Carney about the Canadian government’s reaction to the American and Israeli attack on Iran.
Poilievre is quoted in the Maple Ridge News article as saying,”We really don’t know what his (Carney’s) position is a month after the war started.”
Yet the article doesn’t include any evidence that Poilievre made a statement giving his own position on the attack, which many experts consider to be a war crime perpetrated by the U.S. and Israel.
However, we can extrapolate from Poilievre’s stated position on what every major human rights organization described as a genocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.
During last year’s federal leaders’ debate leading up to the election, Poilievre showed his support for Israeli impunity by stating, “We will stay faithful to our allies who combat terrorism.”
Our local Tory MP, Marc Dalton, has gone even further. Just like his Liberal predecessor Dan Ruimy, our current representative joined the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group.
Spokespersons for this group, including Michael Levitt during Ruimy’s time, and Andrew Housefather currently, have acted to downplay or excuse what many human rights organizations described as continued Israeli atrocities and war crimes.
Canadians deserve to hear the opposition leader’s position about the war on Iran, and local voters deserve to hear from their elected representatives to Parliament as to why they chose to support Israeli impunity.
Steve Ranta, Maple Ridge