LILLEY: If Justin Trudeau wants Canadians to show each other respect, he should lead by example
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He pits region against region and various groups against each other for political gain
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends an event to announce federal funding for LGBTQ communities in Ottawa on Sunday, August 28, 2022. Photo by Patrick Doyle /THE CANADIAN PRESS Article content
When Justin Trudeau stood on an Ottawa stage Sunday and called for respect, it was unfortunately laughable. Trudeau was condemning the harassment of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland last week, which was the right thing to do but his words showed a lack of self-awareness for his own actions.
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Denouncing the threatening treatment Freeland received was the right thing to do but, as usual, Trudeau has to grandstand and take a step further.
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Saying that Canadians deserve respect no matter who you are likely rings hollow to the millions he has denigrated over the past several years. He has called Canadians who disagree with him racist and misogynist many times and long before the trucker protest.
In Trudeau’s view of the world, he can smear entire groups of people – folks he’s never met and doesn’t know – in the most vile terms but insulting words hurled at his minister is undermining democracy.
“Threats, violence, intimidation of any kind, are always unacceptable and this kind of cowardly behaviour threatens and undermines our democracy and our values and openness and respect upon which Canada was built,” Trudeau said.
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Article content Trudeau’s track record is lacking
For Trudeau, respect is only for those who he agrees with, those he sees as on his side.
He makes grand pronouncements of standing up for women and racialized women in particular, something he included in his speech Sunday. When women stand up to Trudeau, though, he’s dismissive of them, or fires them.
When Jody Wilson-Raybould was Trudeau’s attorney general and refused to break the law and interfere in a criminal investigation, he fired her. When Celina Caesar-Chavannes, who has accused Trudeau of engaging in tokenism with racialized women, told him she was leaving his government, he yelled at her.
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Earlier this year, when Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman, a Jewish woman, asked Trudeau a question about invoking the Emergencies Act for the first time in our history, he accused her of standing with people who wave swastika flags.
Is that the respect he was talking about on Sunday?
Trudeau began calling people who didn’t want to be vaccinated against COVID-19 racist and misogynist during the last election when he used that sensitive issue for political gain. Black communities in Canada were among the most vaccine hesitant in the country, something Trudeau knew, but when he switched from defending Charter rights on this issue to attempting to force vaccinations for political gain during an election, he smeared all opposed to him as racist.
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Article content Calls other racists while hiring a racist
Speaking of racists, has anyone heard Trudeau apologize for calling Canadians he disagrees with racist while his government hired someone with racist views to teach anti-racism?
Laith Marouf, the man behind the Community Media Advocacy Centre, regularly refers to Jews as “Jewish White Supremacists” and has called for them to be driven out of Israel as well as shot. He has made horrific comments against Francophones, Indigenous Canadians and Black Americans.
This man and his group were approved for a $133,000 grant. Four different Trudeau cabinet ministers touched the file and not one of them properly vetted this grant. The government also knew of the issue for a month before cancelling the contract which only happened after public outcry.
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When a respected academic and grandson of Holocaust survivors publicly asked a question about this grant, he was smeared as a racist by a Liberal MP. Chris Bittle later apologized but only after a public outcry. He, as other Liberal MPs, take their cues from the guy at the top and it isn’t good.
As prime minister, Trudeau should be concerned about national unity and bringing the country together. Instead, he pits region against region and various groups against each other for political gain and the results are proving disastrous.
Chrystia Freeland didn’t deserve what happened on Friday, no public figure does. If Trudeau really wants to live up to his own words on this issue, though, he’ll take a look in the mirror, consider his own rhetoric and stop trying to divide Canadians.
blilley@postmedia.com
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