The Line Podcast: Canada's Jews are paying the price for our state failures

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on May 23, 2025, Matt and Jen check in on the early turbulence of the Carney era.First up: the new cabinet. There’s a new energy minister visiting Calgary, staffing delays across the board, and yes — god help us — Marco Mendicino is still around. That’s bad news for almost everyone, but possibly justice of a sort for Mendicino himself. They also start to sketch out what could prove to be Carney’s eventual undoing. Along the way, Matt makes a rare — and oddly impassioned — defence of Justin Trudeau: no, he says, Trudeau wasn’t great. But he wasn’t as bad as some Liberals now seem desperate to believe.This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Unsmoke Canada. Canada can be a global leader in reducing the harm caused by smoking, but it requires actionable steps, including giving adult smokers the information they need to choose potentially less harmful alternatives. Learn more at Unsmoke.ca.In the second segment, your hosts look ahead at the storm clouds gathering. A royal visit. A looming postal strike. And Jen has a message for the posties: doing this twice in one year might come back to bite you. Then Matt walks through Trump’s latest missile defence announcement — yes, the so-called “golden dome” — and raises a pointed question: is Canada about to join a multi-hundred-billion-dollar ballistic missile defence system? If so, is this an elbows-up or elbows-down moment? And more importantly: did anyone ask Mike Myers first?This episode of The Line Podcast is also brought to you by Innovative Medicines Canada. With a new government in place, one thing remains clear: Canada must continue to prioritize patients and healthcare innovation. Innovative Medicines Canada is focused on collaborating with all levels of government to improve access to life-saving medicines and develop a healthcare system that prioritizes patients, ignites innovation, and drives economic growth.Canada’s innovative medicines sector plays a critical role—not just in health outcomes, but in keeping us competitive on the global stage. That’s why, even during a moment of political change, Innovative Medicines Canada is staying focused on the issues that matter most to Canadians. And as Canada moves forward with national pharmacare, Innovative Medicines Canada believes it’s possible to expand access without limiting choice—by strengthening what works and fixing what doesn’t.Visit innovativemedicines.ca to learn more.Finally, Matt and Jen turn to a grim and serious story: the brutal murder of two young Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C. They discuss the how it really shouldn’t be this hard to stake out a moral position on this issue, and yet, some people sure did find a way to screw it up. From there, Matt explains how a cascading failure of institutions — police, courts, politics — has created a dangerous void in Canada. And, tragically, the people being failed first and hardest are Canadian Jews.All that, and more, in the latest episode of The Line Podcast. Like and subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca, or find us on your favourite podcast app so you never miss an episode. If you’re enjoying the show, share it with a friend, post about it online, or yell it at the mail carrier before they go on strike. We’ll take it.YouTube:Video goes live in 30 minutes, at 5:30 PM Eastern and 3:30 PM Mountain.Spotify:Apple:And plenty more options here.Please sign up at those options not just for this episode, or future episodes of The Line Podcast, but so that you can also receive our other podcast series, On the Line, which releases new episodes every Tuesday morning. In case you missed it, here is last Tuesday’s episode, where Jen Gerson interviews David Perlich, a CBC producer and Vatican analyst, about his experiences covering papal conclaves. They discuss the intricacies of the conclave process, the role of Cardinals, and the dynamics of voting for a new pope.Thanks for all your support. Watch for the dispatch on this weekend.The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today.The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Follow us on Twitter @the_lineca. Pitch us something: [email protected] Get full access to The Line at www.readtheline.ca/subscribe