Mark Carney stops minister from speaking to media

Carney personally blocked a fellow cabinet minister from speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill Thursday, fueling ongoing concerns that his government is actively stifling media transparency.

Source: X

Prime Minister Mark Carney personally blocked a fellow cabinet minister from speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill Thursday, fueling ongoing concerns that his government is actively stifling media transparency.

CBC journalist Kate McKenna posted a video on X showing Prime Minister Carney stepping in as newly appointed Canadian identity and culture minister Marc Miller was responding to reporters’ questions outside the House of Commons.

Miller had been asked about allegations of wrongdoing involving the head of a national museum when the prime minister approached and ushered him away, effectively ending the scrum.

McKenna noted it was the second consecutive day Carney had stopped one of his MPs from engaging with the press.

The incident came just days after Miller was returned to cabinet following the resignation of Steven Guilbeault. Carney appointed the Montreal MP as minister of Canadian identity and culture in a shuffle last week, restoring him to cabinet after he had been dropped earlier this year when Carney formed the government.

Miller is a longtime ally of former prime minister Justin Trudeau and has previously held senior portfolios including immigration, Crown-Indigenous relations and Indigenous services.

Miller has faced scrutiny for past comments touching on religious expression.

During a justice committee meeting in October, he argued that certain passages of the Bible could be considered hateful and subject to prosecution in discussions around hate crime laws.

Those remarks resurfaced this week as Conservatives criticized the government’s broader approach to speech and the removal of religious exemptions in the government’s Bill C-9.