LILLEY: Trudeau’s record of bad judgment shows why he can’t lecture anyone else
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He’s funded racists and anti-Semites and invited a man convicted in a terror attack on a trip
Published Feb 27, 2023 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 3 minute read
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes questions from media, at the SEIU Healthcare union office in Richmond Hill, Ont. February 22, 2023. Photo by Carlos Osorio /REUTERS Article content
Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party really showed how shameless they are this weekend by attacking three Conservative MPs with whom they met.
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The three MPs in question, Dean Allison, Colin Carrie and Leslyn Lewis, all met with Christine Anderson, a German member of the European Parliament, in Toronto last week.
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Trudeau and his MPs spent the weekend hammering the Conservatives on social media — over something they already admitted was wrong and apologized for — while ignoring Trudeau’s own questionable record.
Here’s what happened.
Anderson has been called controversial, racist and bigoted, as has her party. She made a speech last year calling Islam the devil that must be named, her party was ruled by a German court as a threat to democracy, and Israel’s ambassador to Germany has refused to meet with party representatives calling them “highly insulting for Jews, for Israel and for the entire issue of the Holocaust.”
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With reviews like that, the three MPs should have known better and steered clear — interactions like that will hurt them come election time. Most voters don’t like parties meeting with anyone seen as being on the extreme.
Smartly, the three MPs apologized for their error and party leader Pierre Poilievre issued a statement denouncing Anderson.
“Christine Anderson’s views are vile and have no place in our politics.,” Poilievre said. “Frankly, it would be better if Anderson never visited Canada in the first place. She and her racist, hateful views are not welcome here.”
That’s a strong and definitive statement. It’s the kind of statement you don’t see from Trudeau or his government when they mess up.
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Last summer, the Trudeau government was found to have funded a man name Laith Marouf to provide anti-racism training to broadcasters in Canada. Despite the man having made numerous public statements offensive to Jews, French speaking Quebecers, Black Americans and Indigenous people, among others, Trudeau’s government paid him $133,000 to provide this anti-racism training.
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This wasn’t just some bureaucratic decision, the announcement about the funding came with a quote from Ahmed Hussen, Trudeau’s minister in charge of diversity and inclusion.
The government had been warned internally about this problematic situation by their own Liberal MPs weeks, if not months, earlier and they did nothing until it became a media story. At first, after the story broke, they refused to act, and then only under pressure ended the contract, but the money appears to be gone.
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In December, Liberal MPs, including Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra, attended an event on Parliament Hill that included Nazih Khatatba, the publisher of the al-Meshwar newspaper which has referred to the Holocaust as the “Holohoax.” It’s not the first, and likely won’t be the last, interaction between Khatatba and the Trudeau Liberal government given their track record.
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Who can forget Trudeau inviting Jaspal Atwal to official events in India. Atwal is a man who was convicted of the attempted murder of an India politician on Canadian soil. The attack was in support of a separate Sikh homeland in India and Atwal served five years in jail for his participation.
Despite this, Atwal was cleared by Trudeau’s PMO to join the Canadian delegation at official events during the disastrous trip to India in February 2018. Trudeau’s team still blames others for Atwal being on the trip and causing them problems with the Indian government even though his name was submitted to the PMO by a Liberal MP and vetted by Trudeau’s staff.
A longer list of reasons Trudeau can’t chastise anyone would include him wearing blackface more times than he can recall, allegedly groping a female reporter, and flying to Tofino for a surfing vacation on the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Trudeau loves to get preachy at moments like this — he really shouldn’t.
blilley@postmedia.com
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