Pierre Poilievre’s most immediate obstacle to becoming prime minister is the perception he’s a Timbit Trump. Yet the Conservative leader can’t seem to stop mimicking Donald Trump’s authoritarian Zionism.
On Sunday Poilievre was asked about candidate Neil Oberman saying the Conservatives planned to withhold federal funds from universities failing to stamp out opposition to Israel’s genocide. Two weeks ago Oberman told the extremist, Adelson funded, Jewish News Syndicate that universities “will not get a single penny from the federal government until they clean up.”
Instead of tempering his Timbit Trump image, Poilievre doubled down on threatening to defund higher education. As quoted in a front page Montreal Gazette article headlined “Poilievre would withhold funding over antisemitism: Backs university plan put forward by Mount Royal candidate Oberman”, Poilievre told reporters: “We should never give our money to subsidize antisemitism. There will not be a cent from my government to subsidize antisemitism, the extremism we see in the streets, the harassment of Canadian Jews, or the terrorist attacks against synagogues. It’s disgusting.”
Poilievre has previously said his government would deny federal funding to universities that “spread antisemitism or make Jews feel unsafe and uncomfortable on their campuses” or that he would “defund” universities, museums and “all of those with a woke antisemitic agenda.”
But the issue has taken on far greater political import since Trump unleashed a ruthless attack against US universities. Trump has moved aggressively against Columbia, Harvard and other educational institutions in a flagrant assault on academic freedom. The effort to dismantle, or radically reform, higher education is likely to significantly undermine US power over the long term. (more...)
Poilievre’s words about Israel reveal inner Trump
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