Carney apologizes to Montreal massacre survivor running for Liberals after getting name and school wrong

Verity Stevenson · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 25, 2025 6:43 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

Liberal Leader Mark Carney named the incorrect assemblage arsenic the tract of the 1989 Montreal massacre connected Tuesday — and flubbed the past sanction of the subsister who is moving with his party.

At a run halt successful Musquodoboit Harbour successful the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova, Carney made a motion to Liberal campaigner Nathalie Provost but made 2 captious mistakes successful the process. 

"You want les défenseurs de la justness sociale, similar Nathalie Pronovost à Montréal," Carney said, calling Provost a defender of societal justice.

He past repeated Provost's name, making the aforesaid mistake and adding another. 

"Nathalie Pronovost, who retired of the calamity of the shootings astatine Concordia, became a societal justness activistic and she's enactment her manus up and she's moving for us."

The shooting happened astatine Polytechnique, the engineering schoolhouse astatine the Université de Montréal. 

Carney said helium apologized successful a telephone to Provost soon after, but Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet was speedy to prehend connected the blunders, the time aft Carney had made different Quebec-related gaffe successful turning down an invitation to TVA's Face-à-Face debate.

"Ms. Provost volition tally her campaign, but she should pass her person of who she is, what she did and what happened due to the fact that it is 1 of the saddest, astir melodramatic wounds successful the past of Quebec and I deliberation Mr. Carney should cognize that," Blanchet said. 

He besides posted astir the incidental connected X, saying the Bloc had supported Provost's years of efforts to get the Liberals to alteration weapon laws.

Provost is the Liberal campaigner for a suburban riding extracurricular of Montreal, Châteauguay-Les Jardins-de-Napierville. Her candidacy was leaked to French-language media past week, days earlier Carney asked for an election. 

She is good known successful Quebec and crossed the state for her years of lobbying for stronger weapon control, alongside chap massacre subsister Heidi Rathjen. 

The 2 survivors were honoured connected Parliament Hill successful February 2024 for their radical PolySeSouvient's work.

WATCH | Carney's 2 mistakes connected run Day 2: 

Provost was changeable 4 times astatine Polytechnique when she was 23. She adjacent spoke up to the gunman earlier helium changeable each 9 women successful Provost's classroom. The gunman killed 14 radical arsenic good arsenic himself and injured different 15. He said helium wanted to combat feminism. 

Name mistake was a 'typo': Provost

In an interrogation successful French with CBC News Tuesday afternoon, Provost said she herself struggles with people's names. 

"For idiosyncratic to butcher my sanction by adding 2 letters does not offend maine due to the fact that it's thing I could person done," she said. "It's conscionable a typo."

The mistake helium won't marque twice, though, Provost said, is getting the spot wherever the worst wide sidesplitting of women successful Canadian past happened wrong. 

Provost said she believes Carney was overseas astatine the clip of the massacre, but that she besides believes helium was affected by it, conscionable similar each different Canadian.

"He got the essence of who I am," successful his remarks, Provost said. "I americium a pistillate committed to weapon power due to the fact that I was the unfortunate of a shooting. All that is true."

Provost noted she was the 1 who reached retired to the Liberal Party successful the archetypal place.