Trudeau doubles down on Netanyahu arrest comments, Poilievre disagrees

Article content

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended his assertion that he would support the arrest in Canada of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on an International Criminal Court warrant, after a Liberal MP said it “discredits†the court. The Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre called the prime ministerâ€s comments “ridiculous.â€

“Canada supports international law,†Trudeau told Toronto radio host John Moore Friday morning. “We have to trust that the institutions weâ€ve built to protect international law are actually going to do their job.â€

Article content

“It just shows once again how extreme Justin Trudeau has become,†Poilievre told AM640â€s Greg Brady.

In a separate interview, he added, “The prime minister of Israel is a democratically elected leader whose country is responding to an unprovoked invasion, by thousands of well-armed Iranian funded terrorists who … carried out mass rape and other atrocities deliberately targeted at civilians.â€

He said the prime minister should instead be calling for the arrest of the leaders of Iran, who fund and promote terrorism, including the Hamas attacks.

“But instead, heâ€s calling for the arrest of the country that has been the victim of all of these attacks,†he said.

Israel never signed on to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC in 1998, and has repeatedly maintained that the court has no jurisdiction over its affairs.

National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com

Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at whatâ€s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers.ÂÂSign up here.