Canada

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A leaked recording of a phone call between a Liberal MP and a constituent suggests the depth of the divisions in the government caucus over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's handling of the war in Gaza, the genocide case against Israel and the decision to defund a UN relief agency in the middle of a famine.

The war in Gaza began after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in Israel by Hamas-led militants in which 1,200 people were killed, including several Canadian citizens, according to Israeli accounts.

Oliphant, who is both a member of Parliament and a minister of the United Church, added that if the government was determined to cut UNRWA off, it should have found ways to redirect the aid flow immediately.

Oliphant also spoke on the call of the need to be sensitive to the feelings of Canada's Jewish population and the "intergenerational trauma" caused by the Holocaust.

"Liberals made the decision to suspend life-saving funding to UNRWA without having seen any evidence of allegations or having waited for the results of the independent investigation," she said in question period.

"UNRWA is the only organization that can reach Palestinians in Gaza who are starving and who are being killed in the tens of thousands, and the government cut life-saving support.

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I dislike this kind of story. It feels like gotcha journalism.

Oliphant will probably receive some kind of rebuke because he didn't tow the party line. That will encourage politicians to keep quiet and stick to talking points, for fear that they'll be outed for having an opinion. Even when talking in private.

That polarizes politics further, and gives party leaders even more power, because they get to decide on the messaging and the punishment for detractors.

There may be public value in showing that there are internal divisions within the Liberal party, but we knew that already.

Having said that, recorded conversations and airing internal grievances is appropriate in situations where there is wrongdoing, or it shows something we don't already know.