John Ivison: Mark Carney’s principled stand appears to be only on one leg

Thanksgiving comes at a consequential moment, Mark Carney said in his annual statement. “Meeting the challenges takes a strong country,” he said.

Yet, developments over the weekend provided few grounds for pride in Canada’s principled leadership.

First came the news that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is postponing legislative and presidential elections from next month until next September.

Readers will remember that Canada blindly followed France and Britain in recognizing Palestinian statehood at the United Nations in 2025, after Abbas had promised governance reforms, elections in 2026 (with no role for Hamas) and demilitarization.

Those who have watched Abbas renege on promises for more than two decades — abolishing “pay-for-slay” programs, ending incitement, moving towards deradicalization — predicted the pledge to hold elections for the first time since 2005/06 would go the same way.

And so it has proved.

He blamed Israel and the security situation in the Palestinian territories. But apparently the move came after representatives of his Fatah party met their counterparts from Hamas and agreed on the postponement.

Both parties have seen their support slide among Palestinians, who are almost unanimous that they want Abbas to step down (a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in August said up to 89 per cent of those surveyed endorsed the president’s departure and 83 per cent think the PA is corrupt).

Who would bet against elections being kicked down the road again come next September?

And what does Canada have to show for its abandonment of the principle that statehood recognition should come as part of a negotiated solution, except the thanks of Hamas leaders like the still thriving Ghazi Hamad, who called it “the fruits of October 7th”?

The second discomforting development of the weekend was the exchange between the prime minister and President Donald Trump around the latter’s claim that a ceasefire had been struck between Ukraine and Russia to stop them attacking each other’s energy infrastructure.

That alleged deal followed the president’s agreement with Vladimir Putin to buy nearly two million tonnes of diesel, despite a U.S. ban on the importation of Russian oil.

Reports have since emerged that U.S. officials were calling European capitals last week, threatening to stop Ukraine’s allies from buying U.S. weapons if Kyiv didn’t stop bombing Russian refineries.

Carney spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the weekend and issued a release on Sunday afternoon that states clearly that Trump’s deal with Putin is “in direct opposition” to efforts to bring peace and stability to Europe.

“It will provide additional revenue for Russia to help finance its illegal, unjustifiable war,” Carney said.

However, in a second news release about a conversation with Trump, Carney did not mention the Russian diesel deal. The prime minister thanked the president for his leadership on the energy ceasefire and expressed Canada’s support for it.

This morning I spoke with Presidents Trump and Zelenskyy. In both conversations, we focused on the rapidly evolving situation around energy and the war in Ukraine.

The new energy ceasefire being brokered by President Trump between Russia and Ukraine has the potential to…

— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) October 11, 2026

The statement reiterated Ottawa’s continued support for the defence of Ukraine and the intention to maximize Canada’s exports of oil and diesel to the U.S. But there was not a word of condemnation on Trump’s pivot to back the Russian war effort.

This is problematic on two levels: firstly, that there does not appear to be an energy ceasefire. Trump said both parties had agreed to a deal but Zelenskyy said he first heard about it through the media and Russia continued to bomb power stations in Kyiv and Kharkiv on Sunday evening.

The second point is that the president’s mask has slipped; he is now openly funding Russia, in contravention of U.S. law. (Lindsey O. Graham’s Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, targeting Russian energy revenues, was signed into law by the president just last month).

Trump had already ended most direct military and economic assistance to Ukraine, while still allowing Canada and the Europeans to buy weapons on Kyiv’s behalf.

Now he is threatening to end those provisions and, worse, to provide Putin with billions of dollars to continue a war that has caused the deaths of 100 Ukrainian civilians this month alone.

Mindaugas Sinkevicius, the president of Lithuania, called it “a shameful and disgraceful act.” Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said anyone who undermines Ukraine’s defences “for reasons of betrayal, stupidity or money” is acting against the security of their own nation.

Even Fox News host Brian Kilmeade called Trump’s diesel deal “the biggest mistake of his Administration… working with the modern Hitler of our generation.”

Did Carney criticize the deal privately in his phone call with Trump? I have asked that question of people who might know and not received an answer.

But there’s no doubt the read-out should have at least contained the same substance as the one with Zelenskyy, instead of praising the U.S. president for a non-existent ceasefire.

Yes, we have to reach an agreement with Trump on trade. But as the prime minister’s Thanksgiving statement pointed out, “our values serve as an unshakeable foundation.”

Doing a deal with the devil has condemned Trump’s reputation to the lowest depths of hell. But, as Dante pointed out, the vestibule is filled with those who remained neutral in times of moral crisis.

Canada should make it clear at all times, in all places, that any commercial deals with Putin go against not only our scruples but also our security interests.

jivison@criffel.ca
Twitter.com/IvisonJ