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Earlier this week in Davos, Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered what many rightly described as a serious and bracing speech. He spoke of a world in rupture, of the end of comforting fictions, and of the need for middle powers like Canada to confront reality honestly. Drawing on Václav Havel’s famous essay The Power of the Powerless, he warned against “living within a lie” – the quiet accommodation and moral performance that allow dangerous systems to persist. “It is time,” he said, “for companies and countries to take their signs down.”
He was explicit about what this requires: honesty, the willingness to name reality, and consistency in the standards we apply. “The power of the less powerful begins with honesty,” he said. “Apply the same standards to allies and rivals.” And he cautioned against “going along to get along,” warning that this is not sovereignty but “the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination.”
The question now is whether Canada is prepared to practice what the prime minister preached in how it governs itself at home and in the partners it chooses abroad.
Canada is now experiencing the most sustained wave of antisemitism in modern memory. Jewish schools require security. Synagogues are targeted. Jewish Canadians are routinely harassed and intimidated in public spaces. This is no longer episodic hatred, but a normalized climate.
Yet much of the national response has taken the very form the prime minister warned against: declaratory concern paired with institutional caution. Statements are issued. Parliamentary studies are announced. But enforcement remains inconsistent.........