Trudeau calls for lengthy humanitarian pause, decries hate at home amid Israel-Hamas war

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is calling out the “unacceptable” rise in hate surfacing in Canada amid the Israel-Hamas war, and calling for Canadians to remember “this is not who we are.”

“We’re seeing right now a rise in antisemitism that is terrifying. Molotov cocktails thrown at synagogues, horrific threats of violence, targeting Jewish businesses, targeting Jewish daycares with hate. This needs to stop. This is something that is not acceptable in Canada, period,” Trudeau said on his way in to a Liberal caucus meeting.

“And period, the rise of Islamophobia we’re seeing across this country and around the world, is also unacceptable. The expressions of hate against Muslims, against Palestinians, against anyone waving a Palestinian flag. This is unacceptable. This is not who we are as Canadians.”

The prime minister questioned if Canada can’t “figure this out” what other country in the world could.

“There are people across this country hurting, scared for themselves, scared for their kids here in Canada, scared for their loved ones on the other side of the world, and no sign of it getting better anytime soon,” he said.

Trudeau made these remarks as MPs came to Parliament Hill Wednesday morning expressing concerns about the rising tide of antisemitism and Islamophobia in this country, as the war in the Middle East passes the one-month mark.

“A month ago yesterday, Hamas launched a horrific attack against innocent lives in Israel. And every day since then, we have seen violence and horrific images of families, elderly, mothers, children, killed,” Trudeau said.

“We’re watching it on TV every night, seeing it all over our social media, and Canadians are hurting and crying out that it needs to stop.”

In his remarks, the prime minister also restated the Canadian government’s calls for humanitarian pauses, amid continuing pushes from pro-Palestinian and labour groups, as well as the federal NDP caucus, for Canada to call for an immediate ceasefire.

Wednesday, Trudeau spoke about holding a pause long enough to allow all hostages to be released, and for significant amounts of aid and medical resources to get in, so the work can begin to de-escalate the situation in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon where tensions are spilling over.

“And where we actually start doing the work of the real heavy lifting that’s going to be required to get back on track to a two-state solution, to start imagining what the long-term future of a viable Palestinian state looks like: safe, secure. And, beside a safe, secure, viable and successful Israeli state,” Trudeau said.

“This is what we need to get to, and every day that we continue to see suffering of, of thousands, of millions of people, makes it harder to get to that end state.”

This is a developing story, check back for updates…