Pierre Poilievre has threatened to deport pro-Palestinian foreigners over ‘hate crimes’ [Getty/file photo]
Conservative Canadian leader Pierre Poilievre on the campaign trail Saturday vowed to “deport foreigners” from the country for criminal hatemongering, accusing pro-Palestinian protestors’ “hate marches” for contributing to a “spike in antisemitism”.
Poilievre was campaigning in an Ottawa electoral district contested by Liberal leader and Prime Minister Mark Carney, who this week drew the ire of his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu over remarks on the war in Gaza, seemingly acknowledging the ongoing genocide in the Palestinian territory.
“We will bring in tougher laws to target vandalism, hate marches that break laws (and) violent attacks based on ethnicity and religion,” Poilievre told reporters.
“Anyone who is here on a visitor visa who carries out law-breaking will be deported from this country,” he added, words echoing messaging from the administration of US President Donald Trump, which has deported pro-Palestinian student protesters.
Poilievre has in the past sought to distance himself from Trump, whose economic attacks and threats to annex the United States’ northern neighbour have outraged the Canadian electorate.
The Canadian conservative decried pro-Palestinian protests, claiming they were contributing to a worsening situation with regard to hate crimes.
Pro-Palestinian encampments at universities and marches that sprung up in response to Israel’s conduct of the deadly war in Gaza have been mostly peaceful but police have in some cases charged protestors.
On Tuesday, Carney was heckled at a rally by a protestor who shouted that Israel was perpetrating a genocide in Gaza.
Carney responded by highlighting Canada’s restrictions on some arms shipments to Israel, to which Netanyahu responded on X: “Instead of supporting Israel, a democracy fighting a just war with just means against the barbarians of Hamas, he attacks the only Jewish state.”
Carney later clarified that he did not hear the word genocide and called for “every effort to establish a ceasefire in Gaza.”
