Justin Trudeau,in his capacity as leader of this country ,has waited far too long to speak out against these pro-Hamas terrorist protests. They began almost immediately as the October 7 butchery was going on in Israel. All this sympathy for Hamas is misplaced. Back in 2005, Israel withdrew its settlements from the Gaza Strip — giving land back to the Palestinians in return for peace. Yes, the Palestinians got the land back but instead of peace, Israel got daily rocket attacks, suicide bombers and other acts of terrorism. These protests — which obviously have money behind them — are terrorizing Canadian citizens, and not just Jews. A week ago I did not feel safe when I went to downtown Ottawa to see my tax accountant who is Jewish, dodged a protest blocking a main downtown artery, and found the entry door to my accountant’s office securely locked and once Inside I found the two women who worked there afraid the Hamas protesters a block away would break in and attack them. People should not have to live in such fear in Canada. This occurred just five blocks from Parliament Hill, in the shadow of the Peace Tower. I have concluded that there are three categories of people who participate in these demonstrations: true believers in terrorism, fifth columnists and useful idiots. The megaphone-wielding man at the Ottawa protest last Sunday falls into the first category, and these are the ones who are becoming increasingly bolder in their anti-Semitic speech as they promulgate their message of hate.
This is a govt of words, words piled on top of piles of words. Words that mean nothing, and for certain you will not find any hint of an honest position on any issue in those piles of words.
So why is Freeland pretending that she is unaware of the racist hateful language and signs at the Ottawa protest ?
Because the PMO has calculated that the votes they will lose by " sort off " siding with Hamas supporters will be much less than those they will gain from other communities.
So there you have it.
A sad excuse for a government with the worst leader in 157 years.
I was following a vehicle yesterday in downtown traffic that had “free Palestine” flags and decals on its back window. I still am not sure what to think of my reaction, but I found myself assuming the owner of the vehicle was a radical anti-semetic hateful person. Rationally I knew this was an unfair assumption - it is possible to condemn Hamas and believe that Palestine should be freed from Hamas. But I’m pretty sure most of the people putting those decals on their vehicles aren’t wanting Hamas to get bent but are instead targeting Israel. And for that reason I felt a simmering level of rage towards the vehicle as we drove along. Wondering if they were someone who attacked innocent people or spoke hateful words. I’m honestly not proud of this - but I’m also not sure this was an unreasonable assumption. And that really bothers me. Curious if you’d have thoughts to share about how you view this kinds of passive expressions - am I an oddity in my reaction or do others feel this way too?
In fact, I'm not even sure what it means anymore...what do we actually stand on guard for? True patriot love...of what, exactly?
I'd love The Line to do a column, or even a series of them, outlining what being Canadian could mean - something beyond universal health care or simply not being American.
Waiting out our current 'leadership' is exhausting and demoralizing.
Again, thanks Matt for articulating your frustration with a politician who should know better, but perhaps is so warped by the PMO staff and her boss that she can't see reality.
I’ve really had issues with the way liberals respond to comments in the House of Commons for years. It’s like the biggest word salad non answer on every single topic. Someone asks a real question about a real concern and the liberal party ignores the question almost entirely and uses it as an opportunity to lecture Canadians about why the liberal perspective on a semi-related topic can’t be beat. I know that part of that is politics - but it seems like deliberate obfuscation and refusal to provide clarity to the public. Just answer a question because if they’re avoiding it, in going to assume the worst.
Nailed it. This government just uses boilerplate non-sequiturs as a reflex at this point.
Reporter: Prime Minister, springtime is finally here. Are you enjoying the warmer weather we've had this week?
Trudeau: Well, uh...I wasn't able to experience it myself, but we recognize the importance of weather to the lives of Canadians, especially those who weren't able to participate it, which is why this government is meeting with Canadians to hear their perspectives on how it impacts their lives, so that we can bring forward policy to benefit those already participating in the weather, and those working hard to join it.
It's a shame that politicians have devolved to answer questions in the same form as athletes who don't want to give the opposition bulletin board material. The people we elect are supposed to be marginally intelligent on their feet. I agree that Trudeau is better at it, but that stupid smirk he gives after every non-answer has grown old...like the non-answers themselves. This one was a no-brainer. Some answers demand emotion; not robotic PMO directed nonsense.
I believe that “stupid smirk” Trudeau displays could be accurately classified as “duping delight”. So pleased is he with his deceit, he flashes his self-congratulation.
Excellent analysis of the politician’s non-answer. I’ll watch for the four-step process from now on. Freeland embarrassed herself and our country. Anti-semitism is running rampant in Canada right now and it is incumbent on our leaders to confront it directly.
Good piece, but I do have to comment on the "hell of a dinner party companion." I don't think I could handle being talked down to like that for an entire meal. She'd be a marginally better dinner party companion than JT, but I would frankly not bother going to any event that they were at.
During the freedom convoy, which was led by BJ Dichter (an observant Jew), I was told that because *one guy* showed up with a swastika *one time* that "If a nazi feels comfortable at your protest, it's a nazi protest". Now that we have 6 months of "exterminate the zionists" many swastikas, promotion of islamism, "death to the yahood", "death to issra-eel", synagogues and hebrew schools firebombed, glorification of ethnosupremacist atrocities... and all we get is mealy mouthed equivocations and non-answers.
I agree very much with the last paragraph. I believe that when these current Liberal MPs are gone from government far far too many of them will regret their conduct over the last few years. They have NOT reflected their constituents. They have NOT been honest and truthful. They have NOT been transparent. They have NOT governed well at all.
And that all falls back on one person. The cult of Justin Trudeau. The worst prime minister in all of Canadian history. They should be ashamed. Some day they will be. But it will be too late for our country.
The NDP has to take some of the blame as well. I mean, I totally understand if they openly supported the Liberal policies. I would still think they're nuts, but I would respect that decision. But they are out on Twitter and TikTok daily, criticizing the Liberals, all while agreeing and supporting everything the Liberals put forth in the House of Commons.
Trudeau does run the Liberal Party in a personality-cult like manner, but let us not exaggerate here. Simply by virtue of the fact that Nathaniel Erskine-Smith has voted against his party even 3% of the time, the Liberal government has been more tolerant of dissent in its ranks than the Harper government was, when even Michael Chong barely voted against his party even 1% of the time.
I would argue that Harper was the worst ever Prime Minister, even though in the long run he was not a particularly consequential one. The Harper government was criticized constantly by media and by civil society and perpetually escalated tensions and had meltdowns in response to such criticisms. The results would have been awful, had Harper not done such an excellent job of setting the stage for most of his legislation to be repealed by the subsequent government. The Trudeau government, by comparison, has not been particularly radical or ambitious with its legislative agenda, let alone put forth much of a divisive agenda. Trudeau is arguably not going to be much of a consequential Prime Minister either.
Something is off with Crystia Freeland. I went back and watched some videos of her from years ago (2014) when she appeared on different talk shows etc. and her whole speech mannerisms, vocal tone and body language has degraded significantly. Sh didn’t have the the strange high pitched vocal tone and her facial expressions were also much more restrained, although she let the odd one through even then. She actually used to give coherent answers, in a non-condescending tone and without the strange hair flicks or bizarre facial expressions. Her answers were much more direct and the level of word salad was also much lower. I went back and watch the video live of this answer and it is very strange to see how tight and just plain weird her body language gets as she is asked various questions and how she fumbles her way through an answer that is convoluted and lengthy and doesn’t really say anything. Again, she used to be not bad at giving an answer.
It's the media training. It ruined her ability to communicate, at least in public, political settings. We'll see if she can snap back to her old normal after she's out of politics.
If one watched Chystia Freeland on Bill Maher'e HBO show back in 2014 (it's on YouTube) no one would be surprised at all at how she is doing right now communicating on TV. It was a total train wreck.
That said, not that you'd get the most critical coverage of Trudeau and the Liberals in the Canadian media. One has to go to the foreign prestige press to get full coverage of this government. In most other free countries, it's the domestic press that is hardest on their politicians, the foreign press throw the soft balls.
Just goes to show what a state supported media will buy nowadays. That's Canada in 2024.
This is why I only support media in Canada that refuses subsidy. He who pays the piper calls the tune after all.
The first time I came across Freeland's name was in very well written book by Bill Browder. If I recall correctly, the title of the book was the Red Line. Freeland's name was mentioned in positive terms at least 3 times. Apparently at that time, Freeland was a journalist working in the European Union and getting her work published in North American news papers. I was so impressed by the book Bill Browder has written I automatically assumed that Freeland was a very solid individual and a Canadian to boot. Now time for my confession. In 2015 Freeland ran for the Liberal party and for the first time I voted Liberal . I am now going to take a 20 minute break for my daily( Liberal dose) of self flagellation.-----------------------------------. Freeland's initial term in office was decent. This last term has been an unmitigated disaster. Just thinking about how bad she and the Liberal Party has been has me reaching for my whip. Just give me a moment--------------------------------------------------------. Ahh, I feel much better now, sore but better. Its the bloody arrogance of Trudeau and of Freeland and the Liberal caucus that just pisses people off . If you get the chance to watch the different committees at work especially the times that Freeland is being questioned , her arrogance is constantly on display. I cannot take another self flagellation, so I am going to change the subject. How about those Leaf's??
"But the actual question being asked — whether those bad comments qualified as legally actionable hate speech — and it was kind of an important question, goes unanswered. And that kind of silence is deafening."
Is it churlish to note that this question is DOUBLY important right now, and particularly with regards to THIS government, who are poised to greatly expand upon Canada's existing hate speech laws...?
You have nailed exactly the point. They are aiming to define it while unable to say when they see it, but just wait for them to use it against any of us who don’t align with their world view. More likely, as Matt & Jen have discussed in their podcasts, they’re looking to enable their progressive allies to use charges of “hate” against non-believers — “the process is the punishment.”
The Liberals are in the same position with the Gaza protests that the Conservatives were with the Freedom Convoy. There's a divide on the protests that runs right through their caucus, and a difficult political cost/benefit analysis on taking a side at both the level of their base and the general electorate. In both cases, it's complicated by the fact there's not really a moderate position to take.
The Freedom Convoy was ostensibly about vaccine mandates, but just about all of the participants were there because of a broader anti-vaccine set of beliefs rather than a nuanced point on Constitutional rights. The Gaza protests are explained as protests against Israeli military action in Gaza, but there's an underlying current that Israel is an illegitimate state with some notable antisemitism as well.
Still, if the Conservatives are an example, Erin O'Toole is no longer their party leader despite his attempt at a nuanced position. Pierre Poilievre's embrace of the convoy let him seize the job and definitely doesn't seem to have hurt him in national polls. I wouldn't be surprised if Trudeau eventually decisively takes the side of the Gaza protesters, deciding to toss his lot in with the people who care most about an issue that Canada has little ability to influence anyway.
Justin Trudeau,in his capacity as leader of this country ,has waited far too long to speak out against these pro-Hamas terrorist protests. They began almost immediately as the October 7 butchery was going on in Israel. All this sympathy for Hamas is misplaced. Back in 2005, Israel withdrew its settlements from the Gaza Strip — giving land back to the Palestinians in return for peace. Yes, the Palestinians got the land back but instead of peace, Israel got daily rocket attacks, suicide bombers and other acts of terrorism. These protests — which obviously have money behind them — are terrorizing Canadian citizens, and not just Jews. A week ago I did not feel safe when I went to downtown Ottawa to see my tax accountant who is Jewish, dodged a protest blocking a main downtown artery, and found the entry door to my accountant’s office securely locked and once Inside I found the two women who worked there afraid the Hamas protesters a block away would break in and attack them. People should not have to live in such fear in Canada. This occurred just five blocks from Parliament Hill, in the shadow of the Peace Tower. I have concluded that there are three categories of people who participate in these demonstrations: true believers in terrorism, fifth columnists and useful idiots. The megaphone-wielding man at the Ottawa protest last Sunday falls into the first category, and these are the ones who are becoming increasingly bolder in their anti-Semitic speech as they promulgate their message of hate.
This is a govt of words, words piled on top of piles of words. Words that mean nothing, and for certain you will not find any hint of an honest position on any issue in those piles of words.
So why is Freeland pretending that she is unaware of the racist hateful language and signs at the Ottawa protest ?
Because the PMO has calculated that the votes they will lose by " sort off " siding with Hamas supporters will be much less than those they will gain from other communities.
So there you have it.
A sad excuse for a government with the worst leader in 157 years.
I was following a vehicle yesterday in downtown traffic that had “free Palestine” flags and decals on its back window. I still am not sure what to think of my reaction, but I found myself assuming the owner of the vehicle was a radical anti-semetic hateful person. Rationally I knew this was an unfair assumption - it is possible to condemn Hamas and believe that Palestine should be freed from Hamas. But I’m pretty sure most of the people putting those decals on their vehicles aren’t wanting Hamas to get bent but are instead targeting Israel. And for that reason I felt a simmering level of rage towards the vehicle as we drove along. Wondering if they were someone who attacked innocent people or spoke hateful words. I’m honestly not proud of this - but I’m also not sure this was an unreasonable assumption. And that really bothers me. Curious if you’d have thoughts to share about how you view this kinds of passive expressions - am I an oddity in my reaction or do others feel this way too?
Thank you for writing this.
I've never been so embarrassed to be Canadian.
In fact, I'm not even sure what it means anymore...what do we actually stand on guard for? True patriot love...of what, exactly?
I'd love The Line to do a column, or even a series of them, outlining what being Canadian could mean - something beyond universal health care or simply not being American.
Waiting out our current 'leadership' is exhausting and demoralizing.
Again, thanks Matt for articulating your frustration with a politician who should know better, but perhaps is so warped by the PMO staff and her boss that she can't see reality.
Perhaps she never will again.
"Waiting out our current 'leadership' is exhausting and demoralizing."
This is so well said I want it on a T-shirt.
This is the truth on a personal level. The waiting is also ruining our country.
Wait, Canadians still identity universal health care as a Canadian value? You'd think they would be embarrassed by its mediocrity and not bring it up.
I guess we are worse off than I thought
I’ve really had issues with the way liberals respond to comments in the House of Commons for years. It’s like the biggest word salad non answer on every single topic. Someone asks a real question about a real concern and the liberal party ignores the question almost entirely and uses it as an opportunity to lecture Canadians about why the liberal perspective on a semi-related topic can’t be beat. I know that part of that is politics - but it seems like deliberate obfuscation and refusal to provide clarity to the public. Just answer a question because if they’re avoiding it, in going to assume the worst.
Nailed it. This government just uses boilerplate non-sequiturs as a reflex at this point.
Reporter: Prime Minister, springtime is finally here. Are you enjoying the warmer weather we've had this week?
Trudeau: Well, uh...I wasn't able to experience it myself, but we recognize the importance of weather to the lives of Canadians, especially those who weren't able to participate it, which is why this government is meeting with Canadians to hear their perspectives on how it impacts their lives, so that we can bring forward policy to benefit those already participating in the weather, and those working hard to join it.
Excellent! Could use a few more ums and ahs though.
Well put!
It's a shame that politicians have devolved to answer questions in the same form as athletes who don't want to give the opposition bulletin board material. The people we elect are supposed to be marginally intelligent on their feet. I agree that Trudeau is better at it, but that stupid smirk he gives after every non-answer has grown old...like the non-answers themselves. This one was a no-brainer. Some answers demand emotion; not robotic PMO directed nonsense.
I believe that “stupid smirk” Trudeau displays could be accurately classified as “duping delight”. So pleased is he with his deceit, he flashes his self-congratulation.
How can he deceive when he never says anything? :) (sarcasm intended just to make sure we're on the same page)
He believes he deceives.
Excellent analysis of the politician’s non-answer. I’ll watch for the four-step process from now on. Freeland embarrassed herself and our country. Anti-semitism is running rampant in Canada right now and it is incumbent on our leaders to confront it directly.
She embarrassed herself, but not the country. Foreign media are not going to notice this gaffe.
Good piece, but I do have to comment on the "hell of a dinner party companion." I don't think I could handle being talked down to like that for an entire meal. She'd be a marginally better dinner party companion than JT, but I would frankly not bother going to any event that they were at.
During the freedom convoy, which was led by BJ Dichter (an observant Jew), I was told that because *one guy* showed up with a swastika *one time* that "If a nazi feels comfortable at your protest, it's a nazi protest". Now that we have 6 months of "exterminate the zionists" many swastikas, promotion of islamism, "death to the yahood", "death to issra-eel", synagogues and hebrew schools firebombed, glorification of ethnosupremacist atrocities... and all we get is mealy mouthed equivocations and non-answers.
I agree very much with the last paragraph. I believe that when these current Liberal MPs are gone from government far far too many of them will regret their conduct over the last few years. They have NOT reflected their constituents. They have NOT been honest and truthful. They have NOT been transparent. They have NOT governed well at all.
And that all falls back on one person. The cult of Justin Trudeau. The worst prime minister in all of Canadian history. They should be ashamed. Some day they will be. But it will be too late for our country.
I disagree. I believe the bulk of the Liberal caucus is constitutionally incapable of such introspection and honest self-assessment.
The NDP has to take some of the blame as well. I mean, I totally understand if they openly supported the Liberal policies. I would still think they're nuts, but I would respect that decision. But they are out on Twitter and TikTok daily, criticizing the Liberals, all while agreeing and supporting everything the Liberals put forth in the House of Commons.
Agree!
Trudeau does run the Liberal Party in a personality-cult like manner, but let us not exaggerate here. Simply by virtue of the fact that Nathaniel Erskine-Smith has voted against his party even 3% of the time, the Liberal government has been more tolerant of dissent in its ranks than the Harper government was, when even Michael Chong barely voted against his party even 1% of the time.
I would argue that Harper was the worst ever Prime Minister, even though in the long run he was not a particularly consequential one. The Harper government was criticized constantly by media and by civil society and perpetually escalated tensions and had meltdowns in response to such criticisms. The results would have been awful, had Harper not done such an excellent job of setting the stage for most of his legislation to be repealed by the subsequent government. The Trudeau government, by comparison, has not been particularly radical or ambitious with its legislative agenda, let alone put forth much of a divisive agenda. Trudeau is arguably not going to be much of a consequential Prime Minister either.
Something is off with Crystia Freeland. I went back and watched some videos of her from years ago (2014) when she appeared on different talk shows etc. and her whole speech mannerisms, vocal tone and body language has degraded significantly. Sh didn’t have the the strange high pitched vocal tone and her facial expressions were also much more restrained, although she let the odd one through even then. She actually used to give coherent answers, in a non-condescending tone and without the strange hair flicks or bizarre facial expressions. Her answers were much more direct and the level of word salad was also much lower. I went back and watch the video live of this answer and it is very strange to see how tight and just plain weird her body language gets as she is asked various questions and how she fumbles her way through an answer that is convoluted and lengthy and doesn’t really say anything. Again, she used to be not bad at giving an answer.
It's the media training. It ruined her ability to communicate, at least in public, political settings. We'll see if she can snap back to her old normal after she's out of politics.
interesting hypothesis.
Matt, I know that writing these articles is time-consuming but I wish you could write one every day. Such a joy to read your stuff.
If one watched Chystia Freeland on Bill Maher'e HBO show back in 2014 (it's on YouTube) no one would be surprised at all at how she is doing right now communicating on TV. It was a total train wreck.
That said, not that you'd get the most critical coverage of Trudeau and the Liberals in the Canadian media. One has to go to the foreign prestige press to get full coverage of this government. In most other free countries, it's the domestic press that is hardest on their politicians, the foreign press throw the soft balls.
Just goes to show what a state supported media will buy nowadays. That's Canada in 2024.
This is why I only support media in Canada that refuses subsidy. He who pays the piper calls the tune after all.
The first time I came across Freeland's name was in very well written book by Bill Browder. If I recall correctly, the title of the book was the Red Line. Freeland's name was mentioned in positive terms at least 3 times. Apparently at that time, Freeland was a journalist working in the European Union and getting her work published in North American news papers. I was so impressed by the book Bill Browder has written I automatically assumed that Freeland was a very solid individual and a Canadian to boot. Now time for my confession. In 2015 Freeland ran for the Liberal party and for the first time I voted Liberal . I am now going to take a 20 minute break for my daily( Liberal dose) of self flagellation.-----------------------------------. Freeland's initial term in office was decent. This last term has been an unmitigated disaster. Just thinking about how bad she and the Liberal Party has been has me reaching for my whip. Just give me a moment--------------------------------------------------------. Ahh, I feel much better now, sore but better. Its the bloody arrogance of Trudeau and of Freeland and the Liberal caucus that just pisses people off . If you get the chance to watch the different committees at work especially the times that Freeland is being questioned , her arrogance is constantly on display. I cannot take another self flagellation, so I am going to change the subject. How about those Leaf's??
"But the actual question being asked — whether those bad comments qualified as legally actionable hate speech — and it was kind of an important question, goes unanswered. And that kind of silence is deafening."
Is it churlish to note that this question is DOUBLY important right now, and particularly with regards to THIS government, who are poised to greatly expand upon Canada's existing hate speech laws...?
You have nailed exactly the point. They are aiming to define it while unable to say when they see it, but just wait for them to use it against any of us who don’t align with their world view. More likely, as Matt & Jen have discussed in their podcasts, they’re looking to enable their progressive allies to use charges of “hate” against non-believers — “the process is the punishment.”
" None of Trudeau’s cabinet sound particularly bright or inspiring ".
A very good summary of the Canadian government since 2015.. Although replacing "sound" with
"are" would be more precise.
The Liberals are in the same position with the Gaza protests that the Conservatives were with the Freedom Convoy. There's a divide on the protests that runs right through their caucus, and a difficult political cost/benefit analysis on taking a side at both the level of their base and the general electorate. In both cases, it's complicated by the fact there's not really a moderate position to take.
The Freedom Convoy was ostensibly about vaccine mandates, but just about all of the participants were there because of a broader anti-vaccine set of beliefs rather than a nuanced point on Constitutional rights. The Gaza protests are explained as protests against Israeli military action in Gaza, but there's an underlying current that Israel is an illegitimate state with some notable antisemitism as well.
Still, if the Conservatives are an example, Erin O'Toole is no longer their party leader despite his attempt at a nuanced position. Pierre Poilievre's embrace of the convoy let him seize the job and definitely doesn't seem to have hurt him in national polls. I wouldn't be surprised if Trudeau eventually decisively takes the side of the Gaza protesters, deciding to toss his lot in with the people who care most about an issue that Canada has little ability to influence anyway.