Mark Carney’s hypocrisy at Davos
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Marion Kawas
- 23 Jan 2026 11:08
- 5 Shares
4 Min Read
Mark Carney’s Davos speech exposes Western hypocrisy and the failures of the so-called rules-based order, while ignoring Canada’s role in global injustices from Gaza to Venezuela.
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Illustration of Mark Carney at Davos with a shadow of the genocide in Gaza. (Illustrated by: Batoul Chamas/Al Mayadeen English)
After seeing the full text of Canadian PM Mark Carney’s hypocritical speech at Davos, one might despair at the lack of understanding in many responses. Carney performed as if he were the next great challenger to US imperialism. If there weren’t so many lives and futures at stake, it would have been laughable.
But first, let's unpack Carney’s statements.
His much-touted Davos speech was newsworthy in only one respect: his admission that the so-called international “rules-based order” is a complete fraud, and that Western powers have knowingly upheld it.
“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically, and we knew that international law applied with varied rigour, depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.”
Although he refers repeatedly to the communal “we”, he did not acknowledge that his own government was one of the most complicit in that, nor did he accept any responsibility for Canada’s role in the genocide in Gaza. So, we take his newfound and convenient commitment to challenge the US-led imperial hegemony with a grain of salt.
“We participated in the rituals, and we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.
This bargain no longer works.”
Well, PM Carney, this bargain never worked for most of the global south; it always only worked for those Western powers eager to prop up US imperialist designs, which is why your pledge towards “acting consistently, applying the same standards to allies and rivals” rings so hollow.
Carney went on to say: “When middle powers criticize economic intimidation from one direction but stay silent when it comes from another, we are keeping the sign in the window.”
Oh really! We are waiting for your revised statements then on Venezuela, Haiti, Iran, Gaza, and others. Acknowledgement without accountability, especially when that acknowledgement is motivated by self-interest, is the height of liberal double-talk and hypocrisy.
But then you’ve done this before. Take a look at how your alleged "recognition of the state of Palestine" quickly degenerated into a demilitarized (if you will) "Zionist Palestinian state" was instructive.
As the Canada Palestine Association noted in August 2025, this would be "the trajectory of how this is supposed to unfold. An entity (we can’t call it a state) that must be demilitarized and is forbidden to decide who can run in its own elections. And, as has been detailed before, all of this is expected to occur with ‘mutual’ recognition of Israel by those Arab states who have not yet done so and the eventual dismantling of UNRWA."
And now let’s move to the social media-induced amnesia and superficiality. Even progressives in Western countries often jump from one issue to the next without questioning their own knowledge, or lack thereof, and the effects of supporting struggles with no commitment to long-term solidarity. The thirst for social media stardom means that many activists are too busy chasing the next “hot topic” to ever have time to delve properly into a fuller understanding of the struggles they claim to be supporting.
Gaza and Venezuela are two examples, but this is not a new phenomenon. However, it has been magnified in recent years by the nature and functioning of the digital and social media environment.
And don’t even get me started on celebrity activism, that would need a whole book to analyze properly. Not that the support of celebrities or others isn’t appreciated, it is. The problem arises when their positions are embraced as the ultimate guide to what’s necessary for principled solidarity. Despite all the chatter about centring Palestinian voices, it rarely happens in any meaningful way.
US imperialism has killed millions of innocent people around the world and destroyed the futures of millions more. From Vietnam to Afghanistan to Iraq to Palestine to Lebanon, to Cuba and Venezuela, the people of the world know who their enemy is and also know who has been aiding and abetting US hegemonic schemes.
Mark Carney and the Canadian government are like rats fleeing a sinking ship; they have blood on their hands that will not easily be forgiven nor forgotten.
