Carney’s new ‘exceptional partner’ is known for jailing journalists
Ottawa’s joint statement with Turkey praising "human rights, individual liberties, democracy and the rule of law" was typed eight days after police raided an opposition news channel.
They fired 21 guns for him. A military band played O Canada. And Mark Carney stepped up to the honour guard in Ankara and greeted Recep Tayyip Erdogan's soldiers in Turkish.
On Thursday's Ezra Levant Show, Ezra took apart the prime minister's Turkey trip: a strategic partnership, a defence industry agreement, free trade talks starting next month, export financing, and nearly double the weekly flights between the two countries. Carney called Turkey “an exceptional partner.”
Energy Minister Tim Hodgson gave the official justification by saying “We need to engage with the world as it is, not the way we wish it to be.” Ezra took him up on it that point of view, saying, “Fine, let's engage. Let's look at Turkey as it really is.”
Freedom House scores Turkey 32 out of 100, “not free,” citing the imprisonment of opponents, journalists and civil society. Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the one man polls said could beat Erdogan, has been in prison since March 2025 on what Ezra called trumped-up corruption charges, with prosecutors seeking more than 2,000 years.
“It's not ancient history,” Ezra said.
On Oct. 14, police raided opposition channel Halk TV, cut the live broadcast and installed a government trustee. In September, a comedian was convicted of insulting the president, and police in five cities rounded up at least 162 people from gay rights groups. “Mark Carney's cabinet never misses a Pride parade, and Ottawa has not said a word.”
Then the line in the joint statement that got him: Canada and Turkey “share a commitment to human rights, individual liberties, democracy and the rule of law.” “Somebody typed that sentence,” Ezra said, “eight days after the police took a TV station off the air.”
Before meeting Erdogan, Carney laid a wreath at the tomb of Atatürk, the man who made Turkey secular and Western. “Erdogan's whole career has been undoing Atatürk's life work,” Ezra said, pointing to the Hagia Sophia and Chora Church converted back to mosques. “He bowed first to the founder, and then he went down the road and shook hands with the man dismantling him.”
Ezra also read Erdogan's own words on Israelis, that “they are only satisfied by sucking their blood,” his description of Hamas as “a liberation and mujahideen group” 18 days after October 7, and his palace welcome for Ismail Haniyeh. “So that's an exceptional partner.”
But Canada has done this dance before.
The cameras on Turkey's famous Bayraktar drones came from Burlington, Ont., sold on Turkey's promise they'd stay in Turkey. In 2020, they showed up over Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan's war on Christian Armenia. Global Affairs Canada's own review found “credible evidence” the transfer was inconsistent with Turkey's end-use assurances. Trudeau cancelled the permits; Ottawa quietly lifted the ban in 2024, a week before Turkey let Sweden into NATO.
Now a government official says Canada is ready to “resume a more regular export relationship.”
And Ukraine? Turkey never joined a single sanction on Russia. It is Russia's second-largest trading partner, the biggest buyer of its refined oil, and was named by the U.S. Treasury alongside China as a trans-shipment hub for the Western parts inside Putin's missiles.
Last week, the EU sanctioned two more Turkish firms for sanctions-busting. “Erdogan sells to both sides in the war and he sends both a bill,” Ezra said. The Americans threw Turkey out of the F-35 program over it.
“So here's my question for Prime Minister Carney,” Ezra said. “What's the plan to stop Canadian technology taking the same back door to Moscow that it took in the war against the Christian Armenians?”
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Ezra Levant
Rebel Commander
Ezra Levant is the founder and owner of Rebel News and the host of The Ezra Levant Show. He is the author of multiple best-selling books, including Ethical Oil, The Libranos, China Virus, and most recently, Trudeau's Secret Plan.
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