Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blasted Israel over its proposed judicial reform on Wednesday, though he himself is involved in the appointment of judges, along with other elected officials.
“We deplore what’s going on right now in Israel,” he said, at a press conference at an automobile plant.
Israel’s reforms aim to give elected officials, including the prime minister and the legislature, a greater role in selecting judges. Currently, Israeli judges are chosen from a committee effectively controlled by the judiciary itself, with little legislative input.
The reforms have been met with protests by left-wing Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paused the reforms before the Passover holiday to allow further time for talks between the goverrnment and opposition.
But that did not stop Trudeau from ripping into the Israeli reforms — though he himself already enjoys the power to recommend judges, and other politicians also play a role. As Canada’s judicial website explains:
All federally appointed judges are appointed by the Governor in Council. This consists of the Governor General acting on the advice of the Prime Minister for judges of the Supreme Court of Canada and chief and associate chief justices in the provinces; and on the advice of the Minister of Justice for all other superior court judges.
Trudeau, who made his remarks about Israel at a press conference without actually being asked about the topic, said that an “awful lot of Israelis” share Canada’s concerns about the Netanyahu government’s reforms.
He also criticized the “rhetoric” of the Israeli government, amid clashes near the Al-Aqsa Mosque — clashes that, as in the past, have been fomented by violent Palestinian rioters with the hope of triggering a broader regional confrontation.
Trudeau’s predecessor, Conservative Stephen Harper, was considered one of Israel’s best allies worldwide.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.