INSIDE POLITICS: Christians Slaughtered, Goofballs or Voters?, Carney’s nothing burger, Syria

This week’s Inside Politics with Kevin Klein was anything but ordinary. The program brought together Winnipeg Sun columnists Geoff Currier and Lawrence Pinsky, KC, along with two powerful voices from the Syrian Druze community, Carlos and Sarah, to tackle issues most Canadian media rarely touch.

Carlos, a new Canadian living in Manitoba, described the violent persecution of Druze and Christian minorities in Syria following the fall of the Assad regime and the takeover of Damascus by HTS, a group with al-Qaeda roots. He recounted villages burned, Druze temples and churches destroyed, and civilians forced to convert or die. Sarah, speaking live from Syria, confirmed those accounts, detailing ethnic executions, mass displacement, and bomb threats in hospitals where she volunteered. Their testimony was a stark reminder of how little attention Canada gives to minority communities facing eradication.

Klein and his panel drew a direct line to other ignored crises. Nigeria, for instance, has become the deadliest place on earth to be a Christian, with hundreds of thousands murdered. The Democratic Republic of Congo has seen millions displaced amid brutal violence. Yet in Canada, political and media attention remains overwhelmingly focused on Gaza. “It’s prejudice, plain and simple,” Pinsky argued, noting the double standard when atrocities elsewhere barely register.

Turning to Manitoba, the spotlight shifted to Premier Wab Kinew’s controversial dismissal of protesters as “goofballs.” The demonstration was tied to calls for the removal of cabinet minister Nahanni Fontaine, who has faced repeated scandals. Currier criticized Kinew for belittling Manitobans who were exercising their democratic rights, while Pinsky said the premier’s language revealed arrogance at the core of the NDP cabinet. Fontaine, he added, has “had more than three strikes” and should be gone.

The show then pivoted to Ottawa, where Prime Minister Mark Carney’s shaky answers about his trade mission raised eyebrows. Despite costly trips abroad, Carney offered little evidence of real results, leaving Canada’s economic future in question. Klein compared him to a baseball rookie who can’t hit at the big-league level, while Pinsky warned that Canadians are being asked to trust rhetoric over results.

From the devastation in Syria to failures in Manitoba and Ottawa, Inside Politics underscored a hard truth: leadership is measured by action, not words. And right now, too many promises—whether from premiers or prime ministers—remain unfulfilled.

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