BREAKING: Mark Carney to officially recognize Palestinian state
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After meeting with his cabinet Wednesday, Carney told reporters that hoping for a two-state solution negotiated between the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, and Israel was 'no longer tenable' because of the war in Gaza.
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'The deepening suffering of civilians leaves no room for delay in co-ordinated international action to support peace, security, and the dignity of all human life,' Carney said.
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'The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable and is rapidly deteriorating,' he added.
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Carney's announcement was immediately condemned by the Israeli embassy, which said it rewards the 2023 terrorist attacks against Israel that started the war in Gaza.
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'Let us be clear: Israel will not bow to the distorted campaign of international pressure against it. We will not sacrifice our very existence by permitting the imposition of a jihadist state on our ancestral homeland that seeks our annihilation,' said Ambassador Iddo Moed.
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'Recognizing a Palestinian state in the absence of accountable government, functioning institutions, or benevolent leadership, rewards and legitimizes the monstrous barbarity of Hamas on October 7, 2023 (the Hamas terrorist attack). It punishes Israeli and Palestinian victims of Hamas, vindicates Hamas' Western sympathizers fuelling antisemitism, and hardens Hamas' position at the negotiation table at a most critical time.'
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Carney said the recognition would go to the Palestinian Authority and that Hamas is not welcome 'in any shape or form' in the process. He said he spoke earlier Wednesday to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who reiterated a commitment to fundamentally reform the Authority's governance, demilitarize the Palestinian state and hold general elections in 2026 that exclude Hamas.
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On Wednesday, the 22-member Arab League signed a declaration with the European Union and 17 other countries calling on the terrorist group Hamas to disarm and relinquish power in the Gaza Strip.
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It is the first time that the league, which comprises Arab and Muslim states including Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, condemned Hamas since its 2023 attack on Israel.
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The declaration that was signed at a UN conference hosted by Saudi Arabia and France on 'the peaceful settlement' of the Palestinian issue and the implementation of a two-state solution.
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Toronto Sun
22 minutes ago
- Toronto Sun
KINSELLA: Mark Carney's words can have real-life impacts for Jews
And sometimes pronouncements from world leaders, such as Canada's Prime Minister, can have deadly consequences Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (R), flanked by Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, speaks during a press conference after a Cabinet meeting to discuss both trade negotiations with the US and the situation in the Middle East, at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on July 30, 2025. Photo by DAVE CHAN / AFP via Getty Images Canada, France and the United Kingdom recognize a 'state' run by terrorists. Canada's Prime Minister accuses Israel of violating international law. The International Criminal Court issues warrants for the arrest of Israel's Prime Minister. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Sometimes, such pronouncements made by governments seem completely detached from reality. None of those countries have yet set up an embassy in Gaza City, for example. Nor has Canada commenced a court action against Israel. No country, as far as we know, has attempted to place Benjamin Netanyahu under arrest. But it would be a mistake to shrug about the pronouncements of world leaders, or to dismiss their words as meaningless symbols. For Jews, these dark days, words can have real-life impacts. Sometimes, the consequences can be deadly. CyberWell is an Internet watchdog that closely tracks antisemitism on social media. When the Israel-based non-profit finds hate online, it notifies the social media platforms, and urges them to take it down. And two recent reports by CyberWell show that the words and actions of governments can, and do, result in shocking eruptions in cyber-hate. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. A recent example: the twelve-day war between Israel, the United States and Iran took place in June 2025. That conflict saw Israel launch hundreds of airstrikes against the Islamic republic – and Iran firing thousands of ballistic missiles and suicide drones at Israeli military and civilian targets. Israel was largely seen as the victor. Read More Online, the abbreviated Iran-Israel war had a very different outcome. Online, Iran was the hands-down victor. During and after the conflict, CyberWell found, and 'across platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and X, users once again used digital spaces to post antisemitic rhetoric, incitement to violence, and coded hate speech – at times under the guise of political commentary or religious solidarity.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It's not a new phenomenon, CyberWell notes, and it's getting worse all the time: 'Each new flashpoint acts as a trigger for dangerous digital discourse that can quickly spill into real-world harm.' For example: during the Iran-Israel war, the words 'Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews' were all over social media, in the Farsi and Arabic languages. The phrase refers to a long-ago battle in Khaybar, which was a Jewish town in what is now Saudi Arabia – and where Muslim forces massacred the Jewish population. The 'Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews' slogan has been used, for centuries, to call for pogroms against Jews. On X, as the war commenced, that hateful phrase grew by more than 3,000% over the previous months. Midway through the conflict, it increased by nearly 7,000% over before. By the end of the war, those words had reached three million individual accounts. The Farsi version of the chant far outpaced the Arabic one, too. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Some of the posters were very specific. After activist Eyal Yakoby simply posted a photo of an Israeli apartment building destroyed by an Iranian missile, '@pratynachiyar' wrote: 'Kill everyone from Israel, Iran, good job buddy…let these Jew f**kers leave Earth permanently.' A June 14, 2025, post by activist Eyal Yakoby on X that included a photo of an Israeli apartment building destroyed by an Iranian missile led to a hateful post against Jews by @pratynachiyar. Photo by Posted on X And, tragically, killings were indeed happening. As the Jew hatred was growing dramatically online – as more and more governments were showing a willingness to isolate and attack the Jewish state – actual murders happened. So, just days before the war started, two young Israeli embassy staffers were assassinated outside the Capital Jewish Museum – and the alleged shooter yelled 'Free Palestine' as he was arrested by police. Days later, an elderly Jewish woman died after being set ablaze in Boulder, Colorado – again, by an alleged killer who reportedly yelled 'Free Palestine' – a phrase that was, and is, ubiquitous online. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. As CyberWell puts it: 'These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a dangerous, recurring cycle that CyberWell has repeatedly warned about: inflammatory content spreads online, fuelling real-world hate and violence. Each act of violence or hate speech online reinforces the next, creating a self-perpetuating loop.' The 'loop,' as CyberWell puts it, has recently gone like this: witless Western governments demonize Israel, which leads to antisemitic propagandists doing likewise online, which then legitimizes – and leads to – actual antisemitic crime and violence. It needs to stop. Police and prosecutors need to get better at fighting antisemitic crime. Social media platforms need to do a better job of moderating what's being posted online. And governments, like Canada's, need to recognize that what they say can sometimes result in real-life harm. Sometimes, in fact, it can result in death. Toronto Blue Jays Columnists Canada Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Canada Post is a case study in Canadian dysfunctionality
Les Viner was managing partner at Torys LLP for 22 years and was seconded to Canada Post as interim general counsel from October, 2022, to June, 2023. He is a senior fellow with the C.D. Howe Institute. Canada Post, which predates Confederation, is a vital national institution, playing a particularly important role in serving rural, Northern and Indigenous communities across our vast country. But today, Canada Post is effectively insolvent. Indeed, it would have run out of cash had the government not recently extended a billion-dollar lifeline. This situation is no surprise, and it has been developing for a long time. Canada Post has been impeded from adapting to modern business realities because of long-standing labour inflexibility as well as oscillation by prior governments between political indifference and political interference. However Canada Post and its main union, CUPW, resolve their current impasse, a much bigger problem looms for the Crown corporation and the federal government. Explainer: What you need to know about the Canada Post contract dispute William Kaplan, a highly respected mediator and arbitrator, recently examined this stalemate as a commissioner appointed under the Canada Labour Code. In his report this month he described Canada Post as facing an 'existential crisis.' He recommended drastic changes to its operations. And these changes must be made. Our new government said that it will do things differently, promising to act decisively and urgently in charting a new path for our country. It now has a golden opportunity to meet the moment by accepting all of Mr. Kaplan's recommendations and if there is any pushback from any of the parties, by appointing him to do it for them. As letter-mail business continues to erode, the future of Canada Post lies in parcel delivery, which is intensely competitive. Customers expect and demand seven-day-a-week service at competitive prices without undue risk of disruption. Paradoxically, the stakeholders who would be expected to have the keenest interest in ensuring the corporation's viability are blocking the company's ability to succeed. CUPW refuses to allow Canada Post to hire a dedicated force of flexible weekend workers. Meanwhile, workers, who get overtime pay for weekend work, earn more – roughly $30 per hour to start – than their counterparts at unionized competitors and vastly more than their counterparts at non-unionized competitors. As the Kaplan report outlined, those workers with tenure have job security for life, a defined-benefit pension plan, and postretirement benefits indexed to inflation, a multitude of generous leave entitlements, and are paid for eight hours of work whether or not it takes eight hours to complete a route. All these factors make seven-day-a-week parcel delivery impossible to achieve at competitive prices, which means that parcel delivery competitors are taking over most of the market share. Indifference of and interference by prior governments have exacerbated the situation. For example, even though 30 per cent of the thousands of corporate postal outlets classified as rural are now urban or suburban, Canada Post is directed not to close or consolidate any of them. Further, although door-to-door delivery costs 75 per cent more than delivery to community mailboxes, Justin Trudeau's incoming government imposed a moratorium on community mailbox conversions in 2015. The Kaplan report threads the needle. His recommendations include ending the moratoriums on rural post office closings and community mailbox conversions, changing collective agreements to allow for the flexible use of well-paid part-time employees, requiring employees to work the hours for which they are paid, and introducing dynamic routing to adapt routes to daily volumes. His well-reasoned report lays out the path for a future that sustainably preserves the institution of Canada Post and respects labour and other key stakeholders in a fair and balanced approach. Absent urgent structural change, the future of Canada Post will be doomed by private competition, unsustainable demands of labour combined, and no clear directional oversight by the sole shareholder as represented by prior governments. As the world evolved from paper to digital, from letter mail to parcels, and from a relatively benign competitive landscape to an intensively competitive one, politicization of key issues impeded necessary reform, perpetuating a cycle of waste, inefficiency and financial recklessness. Canada Post now loses a billion dollars of taxpayer money each year, and the prognosis is materially worse, absent major change. The operational straitjacket imposed by the union, together with past governments' failure to address the underlying structural issues, mean that Canada Post has effectively been disabled from running an operation that is even remotely commercially sensible. The math simply doesn't work.
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Israeli hostage families hold emergency protest after Gaza militants release videos showing emaciated captives
Pictures of Israeli hostages held in Gaza during a demonstration outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, on August 2. (Abir Sultan/EPA/Shutterstock via CNN Newsource) Protestors gathered in Tel Aviv's 'Hostage Square' on Saturday to stage an emergency protest following the release of propaganda videos showing emaciated Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. Videos released by militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad this week showed Israeli hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski in a visibly fragile state. The undated footage of David is juxtaposed with images of starving Palestinian children. They are among fifty hostages that remain in the territory, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive. The militant groups released the videos with ceasefire talks stalled and as Palestinians face a mounting starvation crisis in the enclave. Steve Witkoff, the United States' special envoy to the Middle East, attended the public plaza on Saturday amid the protests, one day after he visited a controversial US-backed aid distribution site in the Gaza Strip. Witkoff later held a 'very emotional meeting' that lasted nearly three hours with around 40 representatives of the hostage families, a source who was in attendance at the meeting told CNN. During the meeting, Witkoff said ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas should be 'all or nothing,' with all 50 hostages in Gaza being returned to Israel in one go, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum cited him as saying. 'The plan is not to expand the war, but to end it. We think the negotiations should be changed to all or nothing. End the war and bring all 50 hostages home at the same time – that's the only way,' Witkoff reportedly said. 'Someone will be to blame' if the remaining living hostages do not return to Israel still alive, Witkoff said, according to the forum. According to the forum, Witkoff said that the U.S. will 'get your children home and hold Hamas responsible for any bad acts on their part' and 'do what's right for the Gazan people.' 'We have a plan to end the war and bring everyone home,' he reportedly added. CNN has reached out to Witkoff's team to confirm if he made these comments. The hostage families – who have frequently said that ongoing fighting in Gaza endangers their loved ones – on Saturday called for an end to the war in the territory and a 'comprehensive deal' that would see the remaining hostages freed. 'Against the backdrop of horrifying footage and harsh reports about the hostages' condition – hostage families will cry out this morning in the heart of Tel Aviv,' a statement from Israel's hostage families said. 'We appeal to the Israeli government and the .U.S administration – look our loved ones – and us – in the eyes.' Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Friday that fighting will continue 'without rest' in Gaza if there is no hostage deal. 'I estimate that in the coming days we will know whether we will succeed in reaching a partial deal for the release of our captives. If not, the fighting will continue without rest,' he said. 'He has simply been forgotten there' On Friday, the armed wing of Hamas released an undated video showing 24-year-old David – who was taken hostage at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023 – being held in a narrow cell. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters initially cautioned against using imagery from the video, but later said that David's family had authorized the publication of a still image. On Saturday, Hamas released a new video featuring David which appears to be a longer version of the video released on Friday. A similar propaganda video was published by Palestinian Islamic Jihad on Thursday showing Braslavski also in a frail state. Islamic Jihad said it was the last video taken of the hostage before the group lost contact in July with the militants holding him. 'People talk a lot about what is happening in Gaza, about hunger, and I want to ask everyone who spoke about hunger: Did you see our Rom? He is not receiving food, he is not receiving medicine. He has simply been forgotten there,' Braslavski's family said in a statement. 'We ask that Witkoff see this video. And we make an urgent plea to President Trump: Bring our son home,' the family said. Earlier this week, a UN-backed food security agency warned that 'the worst case scenario of famine' is unfolding in Gaza, its starkest alert yet as Israel faces growing international pressure to allow more food into the territory. Gaza's health ministry said Saturday that seven people had died from malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including one child, bringing the total death toll from starvation since the conflict began in 2023 to 169. In addition, at least 39 people were killed and more than 800 injured in the same period while waiting for aid in different parts of the territory, the ministry added. By Billy Stockwell, Eugenia Yosef, Ibrahim Dahman, Mitchell McCluskey, Dana Karni, Catherine Nicholls and Lauren Izso, CNN
