Prime Minister Mark Carney told a Bloomberg podcast that Benjamin Netanyahu would be arrested if he set foot in Canada, a statement his political aides and the Department of Foreign Affairs have declined to clarify.Blacklock's Reporter says Carney made the remarks on October 16 during The Mishal Husain Show, responding to a question about Canada’s recognition of a Palestinian state. When asked whether he would honour International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Carney said simply, “Yes.”The Prime Minister’s Office refused to answer follow-up questions. The Department of Foreign Affairs, as recently as October 8, called the matter “a matter for the courts” and expressed no interest in commenting.“The Prime Minister gave not only the morally correct answer but the only appropriate answer under international law,” said the National Council of Canadian Muslims, praising Carney’s statement..The comments stand in contrast to the position of previous governments. Justin Trudeau never threatened arrest and told reporters last November that Canada “respected international law” while repeatedly denying any intention to prosecute Israeli leaders in Commons debates. Former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland similarly distinguished between accountability for terrorist groups and Israel.Department officials, including Stefanie McCollum, director general of the Middle East Bureau, told the Senate foreign affairs committee in October that prosecuting foreign leaders is “a matter for the courts to decide.”Netanyahu has visited Canada before, most recently in 2012 as a guest of then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and successive Israeli leaders have made similar trips dating back to 1961 under David Ben-Gurion.
