Juno News - Carney ADMITS he was WRONG on Iran

00:00:00.000 Well, Prime Minister Carney admits he was wrong to call on the United States and Israel

00:00:09.440 to de-escalate their attacks on Iran.

00:00:12.400 Yesterday, he issued this statement from Australia.

00:00:15.840 Canada calls for a rapid de-escalation of hostilities and is prepared to assist in achieving this goal.

00:00:21.740 When a reporter asked them about it later, Carney admitted it was the wrong thing to do.

00:00:26.940 But Prime Minister, how can you have it both ways?

00:00:28.820 how can you say you initially I understand your first statement you said was made in hours but

00:00:34.900 you also said there was some predictability you knew this was going to widen so how can you have

00:00:38.460 it both ways and in hindsight should you have called for de-escalation in that first statement

00:00:42.420 no in hindsight to your to that point uh in my judgment uh secondly in terms of uh in terms of

00:00:53.060 war. There are likelihoods, there are possibilities. You have to plan for the worst, but there

00:01:01.780 are no certainties.

00:01:02.780 Well, not only did Carney backpedal on calls for de-escalation, he says Canada could play

00:01:07.920 an active military role in the conflict.

00:01:11.260 One can never categorically rule out participation. We will stand by our allies, but it makes

00:01:17.460 sense. There's a distinction between the offensive actions that were taken and are being taken

00:01:25.560 by the United States and Israel, that were taken by them without consultation with Canada,

00:01:30.620 with other allies, and we're not party to those actions. But we will always defend Canadians.

00:01:38.680 We will always stand by and defend our allies when called upon.

00:01:42.640 Well, since it began, Canada's position on the conflict has been a moving target.

00:01:48.440 Ernie first endorsed the attack on Iran, then called for a diplomatic solution, condemned

00:01:54.580 the attack as a violation of international law, and now it's floating the idea of active

00:01:59.480 involvement in it.

00:02:01.040 Meantime, there are Canadians stranded in Iran.

00:02:04.980 The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Lebanon, and Israel.

00:02:09.000 Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Nand says Canada is helping citizens leave any way they can.

00:02:15.500 This morning, for example, we ensured that 75 people departed from Beirut on a commercial

00:02:23.460 flight with seats that we reserved.

00:02:27.960 Another 200 seats have been reserved over the next three days for people who wish to

00:02:34.780 leave Beirut.

00:02:36.780 As you can see behind me, more than 100,000 people across 15 affected countries have registered

00:02:45.040 with Global Affairs in order to receive the most up-to-date information pertaining to

00:02:51.340 the country they are in.

00:02:55.000 Our guest today is George Ann Burke, political strategist and communications expert.

00:02:59.100 Welcome, George Ann.

00:03:00.460 Thank you, Mark.

00:03:01.460 Well, I mean, from a communications standpoint, well, we've been hearing from the Prime Minister,

00:03:06.100 must be a nightmare. You, as an expert in communications and strategy, must pull your

00:03:11.320 hair out when you see politicians take multiple positions over the course of four or five days.

00:03:17.920 Actually, I'm kind of thinking that maybe his staff feels kind of like these people that keep

00:03:22.440 getting put up to be the next Ayatollah. Although Israel is killing them off, they probably want to 1.00

00:03:28.100 kill themselves off because they never know what this guy is going to say. He's actually held four 0.88

00:03:32.440 positions in six days. And I don't know how that's even possible for anybody who really

00:03:38.520 understands what's going on there. He could not possibly understand what's happening there. If he

00:03:43.200 said, we think it's good, then we think it's bad. They're breaking international law. Then he says,

00:03:49.220 oh no, I shouldn't have said that. Maybe I spoke out of turn. And then he's offering up Canadian 1.00

00:03:54.380 soldiers. I'm like, what? What's next? Really? I mean, you know, you kind of mentioned earlier

00:04:00.260 to me, maybe they're going to say they're fighting for Iran. Who knows? Anything is possible.

00:04:05.600 So, yeah, the thing that scares me even more than his obvious lack of financial expertise,

00:04:13.520 considering the condition the country's in, is he has even less understanding of the international

00:04:18.760 order of things for foreign affairs and fighting wars and military. He has zero understanding of

00:04:25.780 that. And unfortunately, he's with the Liberal Party, which has a long history of zero understanding

00:04:30.560 of that. So he doesn't even have anybody to fall back on. So if I were a person, I'm a Canadian

00:04:39.180 citizen, but if I was living up there now, I'd be super nervous about having that guy in charge of

00:04:44.600 the economy, in charge of our foreign policy, in charge of anything, to be very honest with you.

00:04:49.440 Yeah, I mean, he may have run into opposition from within his own caucus.

00:04:54.140 Oh, yeah, I think it's possible.

00:04:56.320 Putting out a video saying, this is wrong, we can't trust the Americans.

00:05:00.880 And then you had different positions from his cabinet ministers as well, with one saying, yeah, we support it, but we also support de-escalation.

00:05:10.660 We want a peaceful solution.

00:05:12.260 We want a diplomatic solution.

00:05:14.040 And then you had the calls for a ceasefire.

00:05:16.820 And so you've had a complete mess in terms of the messaging around this key issue.

00:05:23.180 And I know you have to wait for tomorrow to see what he's got, you know, on his plate tomorrow.

00:05:29.260 You just don't know from one day to the next where this guy stands.

00:05:32.220 It just looks bad for the country on the world stage, doesn't it?

00:05:35.240 I agree.

00:05:35.660 It makes Canada look, at best, weak and, at worst, completely clueless.

00:05:42.720 Now, I will tell you this, and I've said it before, and I know that you're very aware of this.

00:05:46.900 The United States government does not think much of him.

00:05:48.900 okay the israeli government i will tell you this i know not just the israeli government but the

00:05:54.100 israeli people who and they keep up on everything they know who their friends are and who they aren't 0.99

00:05:58.500 they despise him so every time he opens his mouth and says something stupid like they're 0.95

00:06:04.380 violating international law um naftali bennett who was a former prime minister of israel and he's a 0.98

00:06:10.640 very well-known um conservative i would say more conservative leaning and religious politician

00:06:17.000 in Israel, but he's like a moderate religious person and a conservative. He heard it and he

00:06:22.540 went, that is just stupid. That's what he said. He said, does he not understand that for 47 years 1.00

00:06:29.240 they've been threatening not only Israel, but they've been killing Americans. They've been 0.56

00:06:34.060 threatening everyone in the region. They have these proxy groups like the Houthis and Hezbollah 0.96

00:06:39.340 and Hamas that they've funded to create havoc, not only in the Middle East, but all over the world. 0.99

00:06:45.360 these are people that need to be taken down like rabid dogs. Really, that's what we're looking at 0.97

00:06:51.180 here. I mean, that's the Israelis feel that way. And when someone like Mark Carney gets up and

00:06:56.380 says, with some authority, as if he knows, they've broken international law, you don't know what

00:07:01.680 you're talking about, and you shouldn't talk about things you don't know. You want to talk about

00:07:05.540 that, you better get yourself a really good legal opinion before you open your trap.

00:07:09.240 Yeah, we played that clip yesterday, and he was not, the former prime minister of Israel was not holding back. 1.00

00:07:18.320 He just described the Cardi position as stupid, just flat out. 0.98

00:07:22.280 Now, one thing that we have heard from the prime minister is that Canada was not consulted. 0.99

00:07:27.360 And I guess the implication there is, you know, it would have been nice if they had let us know.

00:07:31.240 But unfortunately, I think the United States doesn't trust Canada very much anymore.

00:07:35.740 I mean, we're a hot shot of Chinese spying, so why would they trust us with something 1.00

00:07:42.500 like that, you know, sensitive information, like when they're going to attack and that

00:07:47.700 sort of thing?

00:07:48.580 So, and what's interesting about what you're actually saying is gets to the real reason

00:07:54.640 behind all of this.

00:07:56.180 Trump understands that Iran is really a proxy of communist China, okay?

00:08:03.500 He understands that they're, they're like joined at the hip and we have, in order to

00:08:09.120 get control over China, over that relationship, over that power that they're wielding all 0.99

00:08:14.240 over the world.

00:08:15.260 And, and I will tell you, I know factually in Africa, the Somaliland thing that's going 0.94

00:08:21.020 on over there, you know, Israel recognized Somaliland and Trump was very quiet when he

00:08:26.060 said it, he was standing right next to him, which means that he actually agrees with him.

00:08:29.020 Otherwise he would have not let him say it in the white house.

00:08:31.720 right um and and there's a lot of move between israel and somaliland they see this as a new

00:08:37.720 frontier against the chinese in in africa so this whole effort is to stop the chinese and 0.95

00:08:45.320 you have to just like we had to knock off the the um the houthis and hezbollah and hamas 1.00

00:08:52.680 who are the proxies for iran you have to knock off the proxies for china iran being a key one

00:08:58.440 So this is really more about China than anything else.

00:09:01.560 They haven't said it as much out loud, although it has been said.

00:09:04.760 There are people who are actually talking about it in the government.

00:09:06.880 They're saying it.

00:09:08.640 And we should not be deceived by the anti-war, either members of Congress, a few of them,

00:09:18.360 or even Republicans that are talking against this, a couple of them.

00:09:23.100 We shouldn't be deceived by the media that doesn't understand this anyway.

00:09:26.360 They need to listen to the people that are actually that understand what's going on.

00:09:29.900 People like Tom Cotton, people like the president himself, Marco Rubio, you know, P. 0.79

00:09:37.220 Hegseth, they are explaining what they're doing.

00:09:40.040 What they did was they destroyed the Iranian Navy.

00:09:42.640 They destroyed the Iranian Air Force.

00:09:44.860 They have taken out a ton of their missile sites.

00:09:48.100 And now what they're doing is they've been watching where they've been shooting missiles

00:09:51.360 from underground and they're dropping 2000 pound bombs on those spots.

00:09:55.960 they're knocking out the underground missile silos so this is a very carefully thought out

00:10:03.160 uh plan the other thing that i found very amusing so of course you know that last year

00:10:09.560 um there was a they got there was a meeting of iranian bigwigs who all got blown up at the same

00:10:15.560 time because mosad knew where they were so now they're going to get a committee together they're

00:10:22.840 they're going to put a team together, which is going to be an anti-Mossad team. They're going

00:10:26.700 to figure out who it is that's telling their secrets. What did they do? The whole team was

00:10:31.540 Mossad. They didn't even know that they were hiring Mossad operatives. And that's because

00:10:37.700 they think the Mossad operatives are coming from Israel. They're not. They're Iranians who are 0.96

00:10:43.400 working with Mossad to overthrow this government because they understand they've got to get rid

00:10:47.100 of them or their country will never be free. It cannot be free. So I was very amused when I heard

00:10:52.620 that, I said, oh, that's just the best story ever. I just love it. It's wonderful. I mean,

00:10:58.460 you speak about China. They have done nothing. They've looked very weak here.

00:11:02.460 Oh, yeah. People think of Iran and China, to your point earlier, as best friends and allies.

00:11:12.020 But while Iran has had the stuffings knocked out of it by Israel and the United States,

00:11:19.200 China has stepped back and said,

00:11:21.380 we want nothing to do with that.

00:11:23.660 Yeah, I'm actually shocked that they've been completely silent.

00:11:26.980 Like, not a word.

00:11:29.000 You know, certainly haven't sent any arms or any planes or any soldiers.

00:11:34.840 Nothing.

00:11:35.080 And as a matter of fact, the other, even Russia, buy it.

00:11:40.080 Nothing.

00:11:41.220 And today, they bombed something in Turkey, the Iranians. 0.98

00:11:46.980 Well, OK, maybe the Turks might have been a little bit more sympathetic to them than most members of NATO because it's a weird situation there with Turkey.

00:11:56.180 Today, I don't think they're so happy with them, just like Bahrain is not happy, just like Abu Dhabi is not happy, just like the UAE is not happy.

00:12:02.360 Jordan and all these other countries, they're picking and shooting bombs into these countries, claiming they're aiming for non-civilian targets and aiming for the Americans. 0.99

00:12:12.240 But they're blowing up civilians there.

00:12:14.880 Yeah, hotels and things like that.

00:12:16.660 Hotels and the girls' school story, of course, was completely made up, as usual.

00:12:21.520 They bombed, I guess there was a misdirected missile that hit the school and killed those girls, which is horrible.

00:12:30.160 But, of course, they said, oh, no, Israel did.

00:12:32.260 Yeah, okay.

00:12:33.200 We don't kill children.

00:12:34.640 We try not to.

00:12:35.920 I guess the question remains, like, what next for Iran?

00:12:40.180 Yeah, I mean, the war is still going on.

00:12:41.980 It appears that America now and Israel have total air supremacy over the skies. 0.96

00:12:48.320 The Navy's gone, to your point earlier.

00:12:51.100 And what I understand is Iran won't have any missiles to shoot within a few days.

00:12:58.840 So they're almost out of ammo.

00:13:01.440 And so what next, I guess, in terms of the leadership?

00:13:05.200 Some of the people that the United States would have preferred to have seen taken over that country

00:13:11.200 are dead as well. They were killed during the raids, initial raid, and then the raid that

00:13:17.800 followed it. And so there's a lot of questions around what next. I mean, it's one thing for

00:13:24.180 Trump to call for the Iranian people to take over their government. I think we'd all love to see 1.00

00:13:29.040 that and institute a government that is accountable and responsible to the people. But it's hard to

00:13:35.860 actually do that thing. And in the fog of war and all this confusion, I mean, there are questions

00:13:40.500 around who's going to take over that country.

00:13:43.180 What do you think about?

00:13:44.220 Yeah, I think it's very interesting because I've been paying very close attention to people

00:13:48.540 that I know from the Iranian community that are kind of very knowledgeable people who

00:13:52.720 came from Iran or whose families, immediate parents, maybe they were born in Canada, but

00:13:57.580 their immediate parents came from Iran and they've lived with this all their lives, this 1.00

00:14:01.920 horrible period of 47 years when their country was lost to them.

00:14:07.600 What's interesting is a couple of things.

00:14:09.200 One, they're trying to create some kind of a division between the Kurds and the Persians and the Iranians.

00:14:18.640 And the Kurds do want independence, but this is not the time to be talking about that.

00:14:23.180 And I think that reasonable people understand that.

00:14:26.120 But there are people that are trying to stir that up because they want to create havoc after this is over.

00:14:31.360 Also, there are political parties there that are completely unacceptable.

00:14:34.960 If you hear that the MEK is getting any kind of traction, you should get scared. 0.92

00:14:40.280 These are Islamo-fascist commies.

00:14:43.800 OK, and I'm putting that is like being kind to them. 0.99

00:14:46.660 They are not good.

00:14:47.640 I've known about the MEK for over 20 years and not just, by the way, in Iran.

00:14:52.900 They're also in Pakistan.

00:14:55.080 So they are a very dangerous group of people.

00:14:57.620 But they're out there talking like they're moderates. 1.00

00:15:00.920 That stupid Matt Gaetz. 1.00

00:15:02.540 and I mean, I'm really disgusted with him, interviewed the head of MEK and treated him 1.00

00:15:08.460 as if he's like an important piece to the future of Iran. In fact, most Iranians don't want MEK 0.99

00:15:14.420 in charge. The question will be this. The military may pick a side. And, you know, these are,

00:15:21.720 they did have a very good military in terms of trained people. They're not all dead. They're

00:15:25.360 there. They may have arms. So the question is going to be, where are they going to be? Are

00:15:29.300 Are they going to be with a secular, multicultural Iran, which is what it used to be?

00:15:34.740 And that's really what most Iranians want.

00:15:36.680 They want it to be non-religious, no religion, just secular, but allowing all people to practice

00:15:42.940 their religions, allowing all their different cultures to flourish, but in a non-confrontational

00:15:49.020 way.

00:15:49.820 OK, that's what they really want.

00:15:51.020 So the question is, are they going to get the kind of support they need to be able to

00:15:53.760 do that within their own country?

00:15:55.640 From outside, you can't do that.

00:15:57.740 That's got to be done from inside.

00:15:58.720 I mean, the outside could be Iranians who've been living out of the country coming back and supporting change in their country.

00:16:07.440 That I do think is going to happen.

00:16:09.420 I'm feeling pretty sure that they're going to go back to Iran. 0.99

00:16:15.360 That's what I've heard from people.

00:16:16.440 They very much want to do that.

00:16:17.680 Actually, one of my friends is very distraught.

00:16:20.320 Her father passed away four weeks ago.

00:16:22.740 They escaped from Iran.

00:16:23.980 She was put as a teenager, 16, in Evin Prison for several years.

00:16:31.120 She got out, and the family escaped and came to Canada.

00:16:34.960 Her father was praying for the day that he would go back to Iran,

00:16:38.160 and he unfortunately passed away four or five weeks, I think five weeks ago.

00:16:43.060 And she's just so distraught, and her family's distraught,

00:16:46.420 and she knows that his greatest wish was to be able to go back.

00:16:49.720 But their family would go.

00:16:51.480 I don't know that they'd completely relocate there, but they would go back to try to help the country, you know, get back on its feet.

00:16:59.860 So it is, that is the big danger.

00:17:03.000 That is, you know, the big concern.

00:17:05.960 Trump is right to say, we don't want to do nation building.

00:17:10.980 I think it would be a mistake.

00:17:13.040 It's been a mistake every time we've tried it.

00:17:14.740 It has never worked.

00:17:15.880 They have to build their own nation.

00:17:17.260 So the question is, are there ways we can support that, be helpful, without interfering?

00:17:24.420 Regarding Canada's, just getting back to that one about not being consulted,

00:17:31.240 because I think that's probably a bit of a sore point.

00:17:34.720 I'm wondering if Canada's, specifically Mark Carney's cozy relationship with the Chinese,

00:17:40.880 and you mentioned that a lot of what's going on in Iran is really about China.

00:17:44.100 And now, of course, here we are about to receive, you know, Chinese made EVs, which represents a security risk.

00:17:53.280 I'm wondering if I wouldn't buy one undermine our relationship with the Trump administration going into our negotiations, our CUSMA negotiations in a few months time.

00:18:04.880 Yeah, I agree with you. I think this is. So first of all, he's not so crazy about Carney anyway.

00:18:10.400 as you know there have been um some issues but this goes back before carney it goes back to the

00:18:16.640 time when trudeau was in charge the five eyes stopped being the five eyes it kind of became

00:18:21.200 the four eyes because they don't really trust canada and you think they're going to tell them

00:18:25.840 any you're going to consult them or give them any advance notice of anything they don't trust them 0.99

00:18:29.440 to keep their mouth shut they don't trust them because they are they're like sucking up to china 1.00

00:18:35.040 you think that somebody wouldn't run to china and say oh i got some inside info for you 0.95

00:18:39.680 huh no they're not going to do it uh that's like the same thing as the reaction to congress saying

00:18:44.720 they didn't consult us well if we could trust you maybe we would consult you we told the gang of eight

00:18:49.840 which is what they were obligated to do and the gang of eight is under such strict things if

00:18:54.000 anything came out they would know where it came from right but that's all that's the only people

00:18:59.040 they told and it was actually after the fact okay so they're being very careful and i do not blame

00:19:05.040 them, and Canada can blame itself for the lack of trust, which goes back, as I said

00:19:10.460 before, Kearney, and Kearney has done nothing to fix that.

00:19:14.140 Yeah, I mean, you'd think that the Democrats were cheering for more casualties just so

00:19:19.980 that Trump doesn't get a boost out of all this, a political boost heading into the midterms.

00:19:25.040 There's that whole thing around the political impact.

00:19:28.660 Now, of course, you've got the Democrats arguing against Trump's right even to launch this

00:19:35.040 uh action against iran it's just such a confusing confusing thing for americans and the world but i

00:19:42.000 i think trump is going to move forward continue moving forward on this yeah and so far it's but

00:19:47.600 it's been a success last word to you yeah so the democrats and the you know couple of crazy

00:19:55.280 republicans lost the vote in the senate i think they'll lose the vote in the house too um god

00:20:00.000 God bless John Fetterman. He replaced crazy Rand Paul, and that's why they were able to do it.

00:20:06.660 I think there will be Democrats that will support the war on the House side.

00:20:11.940 There are a few that understand why this is being done, and they're not opposed to it.

00:20:18.260 It doesn't mean that they love Donald Trump. They don't have to pledge their love and support for him.

00:20:23.060 But they do have to say, we understand this is good for America. This is good for the world.

00:20:26.620 This will remove a source of pain, suffering, and hatred from the world if we get rid of this horrible regime.

00:20:36.620 And then the Iranian people will be free to hopefully create a new and better life for themselves, which they richly deserve.

00:20:45.180 They really do deserve that.

00:20:47.140 Georgianne, thank you so much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it.

00:20:49.780 My pleasure. Great to see you, Merck.

00:20:51.480 Georgianne, Merck.

00:20:52.360 Well, if you enjoyed this show, well, you can support it.

00:20:57.360 In fact, you can support all sorts of independent journalism by becoming a premier member of

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Juno News - March 06, 2026

Carney ADMITS he was WRONG on Iran

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