Canadian Member of Parliament Melissa Lantsman criticized her prime minister, Mark Carney, for retracting his support for the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Speaking to JNS on Saturday with Gabe Groisman on the StandPoint Podcast, the co-deputy Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada reminded listeners that Iran “killed 55 Canadians in flight PS752,” referencing the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shortly after takeoff from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport in January 2020.
A total of 176 people were killed in the incident, among them 55 Canadian citizens.
“And there are people in our country questioning whether, you know, to line up with the bad guys in history,” Lantsman said.
She said that she was pleasantly surprised by Carney’s original statements that favored toppling the mullah regime in Tehran, but “then quickly, I don’t know, maybe they got some polling, maybe they got some pressure internally from their own cabal of, you know, insane actors that see the world in a very different way than you and I—and he’s decided to move away from that position.”
Lantsman, who represents the Thornhill federal electoral district in Ontario, said that the Conservative Party’s position “hasn’t changed since the first day after Oct. 7, [2023]. … We support our allies in eradicating one of the world’s greatest threats to democracies, to [bring] order in the Middle East …, to stop the building of an arsenal of nuclear weapons.”
She reiterated a remark made by Pierre Poilievre, her party leader, that “If Israel was to destroy the nuclear capacity of Iran, it would be a gift.”
Lantsman added that Canada has “elements within the Liberal Party who are very much in line with the U.S. Democrats, probably in fact, you know, worse on the difference of right and wrong and moral clarity.”
She referred to a recent Canadian protest that mourned the killing of Iran’s dictator, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying that there was not “a single Iranian there—like it is a paid gaggle of protesters.
“And I, you know, I say that without having hard evidence, but clearly it doesn’t come from nowhere. ... And the fact that the left and the fact that the party, the Liberal Party of Canada, one of Canada’s longstanding governing parties, is captured by a small lawless mob of crazies is what is deeply concerning to how that plays out in politics and policy of the government of Canada,” said Lantsman.
Watch the full the interview below:
Meanwhile on Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke over the phone with his Canadian counterpart, Anita Anand, to raise his concerns over a recent series of shooting attacks targeting synagogues in the Greater Toronto area.
“I requested that, alongside efforts to apprehend the shooters, special measures be taken to increase security for the Jewish community and its institutions, as well as for Israeli diplomats serving in Canada,” Sa’ar wrote on X.
“We also discussed developments regarding the war with Iran. I praised Canada’s statement at the beginning of the war, which included an affirmation of Israel’s right to defend itself,” he added.
Spoke with Canadian FM @AnitaAnandMP and raised our concerns regarding a series of shooting attacks targeting synagogues in Toronto in the past few days.
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) March 8, 2026
I requested that, alongside efforts to apprehend the shooters, special measures be taken to increase security for the Jewish… pic.twitter.com/pVrDAUQSkh
