Federal leaders are preparing for a second week of campaigning and Canadians have heard virtually nothing from where Liberal Leader Mark Carney stands on public safety.
As Carney hopes to clutch a fourth term for the Liberals, he’s been silent on the bail and justice reforms of his predecessor former prime minister Justin Trudeau despite it being a top concern for voters.
Carney’s only attempt to broach the subject of crime while on the campaign trail turned into a fumble of confused facts for the Liberal leader.
On Tuesday, Carney named the wrong university as the site of the 1989 Montreal mass shooting massacre during a campaign event — and then flubbed the last name of the survivor who is running with his party, twice.
The event, held in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova, attempted to highlight Liberal candidate Nathalie Provost. However, Carney stumbled multiple times on key details related to her surviving the notorious Polytechnique shooting at the Université de Montréal’s engineering school.
“You want les défenseurs de la justice sociale, like Nathalie Pronovost (sic) à Montréal,” Carney said in a mix of French and English, mistakenly referring to Provost by the wrong last name.
He then repeated the error, compounding it with a factual inaccuracy.
“Nathalie Pronovost (sic), who out of the tragedy of the shootings at Concordia, became a social justice activist and she’s put her hand up and she’s running for us.”
In reality, the massacre occurred at École Polytechnique— not Concordia University.
Provost was among the survivors of the mass shooting, in which 14 women were murdered. She has since become a prominent advocate for gun control.
Carney’s stance on crime-related issues remains unclear. Some may also recall his demand to receive taxpayer funded RCMP protection during his leadership campaign.
Notably, he has remained silent on high-profile incidents in his own backyard such as the March 2024 Barrhaven massacre, where six people, including two children, were killed. The massacre took place in the Ottawa riding of Nepean, where Carney is running as a candidate.
In March 2024, the Barrhaven neighbourhood in Carney’s Nepean riding experienced its worst mass murder in distant memory when a Sri Lankan immigrant murdered six of his neighbours, including two children.
Last week, the lone survivor of that attack held a one-year remembrance ceremony in Ottawa.
Among those who attended Saturday’s gathering was Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, who was asked to speak as the lone survivor of the attack said “he’s been a shoulder to lean on since day one.” Notably absent was Mark Carney.
Despite living in Ottawa at the time, Carney did not publicly acknowledge the tragedy, and he was notably absent from the one-year remembrance ceremony in Ottawa.
While Pierre Poilievre wasn’t in attendance at the memorial service either, he had taken to X in the immediate aftermath of the massacre saying that he was “heartbroken” to hear the “horrific news” out of Barrhaven.
“My thoughts are with the loved ones of the victims and the entire community grieving this tragic loss,” Poilievre said.
As Carney faces off against Conservative candidate Barbara Bal in Nepean, a riding with a growing and diverse population, the issue of crime is expected to be central to the campaign. Bal, a retired police officer and former Canadian Armed Forces reservist is running on a tough-on-crime platform, highlighting the need for more focused action.
However, a quick search on his X account shows that his account hasn’t used the word “crime” even once.
The Nepean riding where Carney and Bal are expected to go head-to-head has become something of a nerve centre for the upcoming Canadian federal election on April 28, reinforcing the need for Carney to disclose his positions on the topic.
Once a predominantly Anglo-Canadian, middle-class suburb, Nepean has seen significant demographic diversification over the past two decades.