Tory MP draws fire for Soros comment

OTTAWA— A Conservative MP is denying charges of anti-Semitism after someone yelled “George Soros” as Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Barrie-Innisfill MP John Brassard refused to apologize after the Liberals called him out for allegedly invoking the billionaire philanthropist — who is the subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories — as Freeland was responding to a question from Pierre Poilievre, the Conservatives’ finance critic.

Poilievre was pressing the finance minister on the government’s plans to stimulate the economy after COVID-19 is finally contained when someone was heard to yell “George Soros” amid the noisy jeering that accompanied their exchange.

Soros is a frequent target of anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories that focus on baseless claims of a “new world order” or financiers plotting a power grab. Freeland wrote about Soros during her career as a journalist and has met with him since entering politics.

Following question period, Liberal MP Omar Alghabra said Brassard was the member who had shouted Soros’s name.

“Two or three months ago, when a Conservative member of Parliament on Twitter tweeted about far-right anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about the relationship between George Soros and our deputy prime minister, she apologized and deleted the tweet,” said Alghabra. “So you can understand why I was surprised when I heard a member of Parliament here in the chamber today repeated and peddled the same conspiracy theory again. “So I want to give my honourable colleague the chance to withdraw his comments and apologize for what he said here today.”

“There was nothing in what I said that was in any way anti-Semitic,” Brassard shot back. Brassard did not respond to a request from the Star for clarification on Tuesday afternoon.