Carney signs defence and trade deals with Erdogan's Turkey as talks with Washington stay frozen
On the first official Canadian visit to Turkey, the Prime Minister called Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government an exceptional partner, even as Canada's trade talks with the United States, its largest customer by far, remain suspended.
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Article by Rebel News staff.
Tonight on The Ezra Levant Show: Mark Carney accepted a 21-gun salute in Ankara and signed a defence deal with a government that jails its opponents and supplies parts for Russia's war, while Canada has no negotiators at the table with the country that buys most of what it sells.
Carney arrived in Ankara as the first Canadian Prime Minister to make an official visit to Turkey. He signed a strategic partnership with a three-year action plan, a defence-industry agreement and a tie-up between the two countries' export banks, and the two governments agreed to begin free-trade negotiations next month. "In Turkey," Carney said, "we have an exceptional partner."
Freedom House rates Turkey Not Free, with a score of 32 out of 100. In March 2025, Turkish police arrested Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the one challenger polls showed could beat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He went on trial this spring alongside hundreds of co-defendants, and prosecutors are seeking more than 2,000 years.
Human Rights Watch has described the case as "weaponizing the criminal justice system." Eight days before Carney landed, police raided the opposition channel Halk TV, cut its live broadcast and installed a government trustee. The two governments nonetheless released a joint statement affirming a shared commitment to "human rights, individual liberties, democracy and the rule of law."
In May 2021, Erdogan said Israelis "only are satisfied by sucking their blood," a remark the U.S. State Department called "anti-Semitic." Eighteen days after the Oct. 7 attack, he called Hamas "a liberation and mujahideen group." He has also hosted Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul and cut off all trade with Israel.
Wescam, a company based in Burlington, Ont., supplied the cameras and targeting turrets on Turkey's Bayraktar drones. A Global Affairs Canada review found "credible evidence" that the sensors were used in Azerbaijan's 2020 war against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, contrary to Turkey's assurances. Ottawa cancelled the export permits in 2021, then lifted the ban in January 2024, a week after Turkey cleared Sweden's entry to NATO.
Turkey has joined none of the sanctions on Russia and trades more than $50 billion a year with it. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Turkish firm Margiana over hundreds of shipments of parts "of the kind recovered in multiple Russian weapons systems used against Ukraine." Last week, the European Union sanctioned two more Turkish companies for helping Russia evade sanctions.
Last year, Canada sold Turkey $1.1 billion in goods and bought $3.2 billion. Over the same period, it sold the United States $564.6 billion, or 72.5 cents of every export dollar. Canada ships more to the U.S. in 17 hours than it sends to Turkey in a year.
In Hamilton, Stelco is laying off up to 500 workers after its exports of cold-rolled and coated steel to the U.S. fell 58 per cent from the start of the trade war. Its owner's chief executive said that once a trade deal is reached, "we will bring back these people."
Carney suspended trade talks with Washington on Aug. 21, hours before American tariffs took effect. Three days later, President Donald Trump announced 50 per cent tariffs on every Canadian car, truck, auto part and ton of steel, starting Jan. 1.
Dominic LeBlanc has acknowledged there are no formal negotiations, only "conversations." Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford have announced $8.7 billion for the steel and auto sectors. Statistics Canada, meanwhile, estimates that 1.9 million Canadian jobs depend on American purchases of Canadian goods.
COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2026-10-22 20:47:44 -0400 FlagSooner or later, Trump will smack Canada because of Carney. Then what will those steel workers do when they lose their jobs? I hope they converge on Ottawa like the truckers did.
