New Democrat MP Heather McPherson (Edmonton Strathcona) is facing backlash after comments made during a recent podcast appearance, in which she likened Israel’s military actions in Gaza to the mass killings of civilians during the Second World War.Blacklock's Reporter says McPherson made the remarks while appearing on a show hosted by Ottawa-based podcaster Rachel Gilmore.“What is happening is a genocide,” said McPherson, referring to the Israeli response to the October 7 Hamas attacks, in which over 1,200 Israelis — including eight Canadians — were killed or abducted. McPherson claimed the world was “19 months into this genocide,” a term she used to describe the conflict.Gilmore criticized statements distancing the conflict from Holocaust comparisons, calling it “ridiculous.” McPherson did not push back on the remark, nor did she address follow-up questions from Blacklock’s Reporter.McPherson framed her advocacy as a moral imperative. “We always talk about World War II and how it was allowed to happen,” she said. “I don’t want to look in the mirror one day and think I didn’t try to use my voice to protect innocent people. I have to feel in my heart that I’ve done what I can for my own soul.”She described the current situation as a defining issue for Canada. “It’s a moment for us to show bravery,” McPherson said, “to demonstrate that human rights apply to everyone — that international law is not meaningless, and that innocent lives, whether they are brown or white, matter equally.”McPherson claimed that her office had been inundated with messages from constituents and other Canadians. “Millions of Canadians have written to me,” she said. “I’m not the minister — imagine what the minister is receiving. And these are not just Palestinian Canadian or Jewish Canadian or Arab Canadian voices. These are Canadians who are watching and saying, stop it.”Long an advocate for Palestinian statehood, McPherson previously stirred debate in the House of Commons by comparing the wearing of a Palestinian solidarity pin to donning a Remembrance Day poppy.“I stand here proudly wearing the pin that stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” she said during a speech on November 18. “People within this place wear pins for a various number of reasons. People wear poppies in this House.”
