Defence minister says Khamenei was a 'force for evil,' as divisions emerge among Liberals over backing of U.S. strikes
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Canada’s defence minister says the Liberal party is a “big tent” as divisions emerge over its decision to back the U.S. strikes against Iran, calling its supreme leader who was killed in the assaults a “force for evil.”
David McGuinty travelled to Australia alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney on the second part of a three-part trip to India, Australia and Japan to drum up new investments into Canada. Carney is set over the next few days to meet with Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who also offered his support for the strikes.
The reports of the U.S-Israel strikes against Iran emerged just days into the beginning of Carney’s trip, which the Prime Minister’s Office responded to by releasing a statement saying Canada “supports” the U.S. action, which it said was to “prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security.”
Since then, violence in the region has only widened, with Iran retaliating.
Just landed in Australia.
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) March 3, 2026
Canada has what the world wants. In Sydney, I’ll be meeting with business leaders looking to invest in all we have to offer, and build new opportunities for our nations’ workers — on both sides of the Pacific. pic.twitter.com/qSs3a7iNvc
“The prime minister was very clear in his statement that he supported the incursion led by the United States and Israel,” McGuinty told reporters in downtown Sydney on Tuesday evening local time.
“But I want to make it very clear Canada and Canada’s armed forces were not involved in preparation nor the execution of that particular decision by the Israelis and the Americans to attack Iran.”
Killed in the strikes over the weekend was Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Iranian state media. Israel said other top Iranian officials were also killed and U.S. President Donald Trump has called for regime change.
Asked whether he believed Khamenei’s death was a positive develop for the region, McGuinty repeated the question aloud before answering.
“Ayatollah Khomeini has been for many, many decades, a very, very powerful force for evil in Iran and in the region,” he said, pointing to activities and funding from Iranian-led proxies and its role in organized crime.
“We know what’s been happening, and so at this stage, let’s hope that cooler heads prevail. Let’s hope that things, that things calm down.”
McGuinty, like Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand the day earlier, emphasized Canada’s position that it would like to see the escalating violence in the region resolved through diplomatic means.
He specified Canada wants to see peace and a “ceasefire.”
“We would all rather see peaceful dialogue, but we have a situation now where two countries, two sovereign countries, have decided to prosecute a war. Canada is not involved in that war at this time,” McGuinty said, referring to the U.S. and Israel.
He added the military members in the region were currently unharmed and that Canada would be watching that detail closely.
McGuinty spoke after at least one Liberal MP, Will Greaves who represents the riding of Victoria, took to social media over the weekend to speak out against Canada’s position on the U.S. strikes, saying that it cannot “endorse the unilateral and illegal use of military force, the killing of civilians, or the kidnap and assassination of foreign heads of government.”
Former Liberal cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy, who once served as a foreign affairs minister, penned an opinion piece over the weekend in the Toronto Star criticizing Carney’s embrace of the American strike as a wrong-headed direction, given concerns around the legality of the U.S.’s actions.
“The Liberal Party of Canada is a big tent,” McGuinty said. “There’s room for all kinds of competing views. I think it reflects Canadian society. That’s a good thing. We’re having dialogue, we’re having debate. It’s open, it’s transparent. We’ll find our way forward.”
Carney has yet to take questions from Canadian journalists on his position on Iran. He is scheduled to attend his first news conference on Wednesday, the first in seven days since leaving Canada. His last press conference was Feb. 17, when he announced the Liberal government’s new defence industrial strategy.
His government has named defence as one of the areas it sees room to closer collaborate with Australia, which is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance along with Canada.
A senior government official, who spoke to reporters in a not-for-attribution briefing as reporters arrived in Australia, also named critical minerals as another area both countries can work together.
That official described Carney’s trip to Australia as reinforcing its closeness with a like-minded ally as it tries to diversify its economy by searching for new partners, pointing to how former prime minster Stephen Harper was the last to address its Parliament, which Carney is later set to do.
“It’s never too late,” McGuinty said.
“There’s a new openness here in Australia to work with Canada. I would say that.”
With files from The Canadian Press
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