It’s simple. Racism exists. Everywhere. And it kills. Everywhere.
Systematic racism as well as blatantly obvious racism.
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He’s always had problems with the definition of racism. 2014:
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Canadian politicians were and generally still are much more accessible to the people. Over the years I have crossed paths with three former prime ministers walking the streets of Montreal, alone, without security, minding their own business: PET, Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney. Nobody can say that about any former president.
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More evidence for my theory that Ontario and Quebec are each other’s evil twin. Our premier said something similar a few days ago. Sadly, far too many people actually believe it. The delusion is strong.
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Because he was limiting his comments to what the chief of Health advised. When he starts ad libbing, it’s a (predictable) gong show.
Ontario’s response to Covid has not been good and that is at least in part due to his leadership. Sure, it could have been worse (and everyone feared it would be) but it’s not good.
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High time indeed. There were eerily similar ‘diplomatic’ hesitations during the rise of fascism in Europe. More perplexing and frustrating for me has been the near silence of former American leaders, Bush II only speaking out recently but not naming Trump for instance. He needs to be called out by name damnit! You could see Trudeau biting his lip wanting to say what is in his head and heart, but the politician got the better of him; perhaps the calculus for him and other world leaders is would it do any good, or only exacerbate matters? From this Canadian’s perspective, the average American is much more nationalistic. People generally get their backs up when foreigners criticize their government. So I’m not sure Trudeau condemning Trump would have a positive impact come November. Perhaps the opposite.
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Also, most of the PPE and drugs required to treat Covid are made in the States. If Trudeau openly criticized Trump, you can bet all that stuff will stop coming into Canada, and we’d be hosed. Not like we could turn to China for help with that…
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Meh, f that. Let him take a stand and censure the US. Trump standing alone with only Russia willing to work with him will show the world what he’s wrought.
The US will suffer for not having other partners to negotiate and that may be the best thing for it.
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Language changes, usage evolves, people use a hard “G” in gif…
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Yep, police in Canada are for the most part very, very similar to police in the US. They use provocateurs at demos, they bring out the riot squad at the drop of a hat, they swing batons and shoot tear gas with gleeful abandon. They stop people for driving while black, they kill a disproportionate number of POC, and in some bitterly cold places (Saskatchewan) they had the incredibly cruel and shameful practice of the so-called “starlight ride” in which they would abandon Indigenous people on the edge of town, in winter, in the middle of the night. These “suspects” were usually under arrest for the horrific crimes of public intoxication or disorderly conduct. And the list goes on.
Canada is more peaceful and progressive than the USA in some ways, but it is also chillingly similar in others.
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There is absolutely no comparison between Trudeau and Trump past the first three letters of their last names. And bad as parts of Canada’s past and present are - I even studied them in high school in Canada - it isn’t even in the same galaxy as the self-destruction of the US
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IMO there’s one important parallel: before entering politics, Trudeau was a minor celebrity solely because of who his father was, and that and a handsome face won him a seat in Parliament and then the Liberal leadership.
So: a man lacking qualifications for the job, elected largely on the strength of personal appeal and voter disenchantment with a decade of Harper. And re-elected because Andrew Scheer is a complete shitshow and utterly unfit to govern. (Last election was easily within Con reach.)
And that’s where the similarities end. I see him as largely a puppet of his party, not an autocrat trying to gather all the power for himself. He’s an able puppet, seems to be a decent human being overall (but oof, those blackface incidents), he’s more of a unifying force than a divisive one, and the people pulling his strings are seasoned politicians and party operatives who are not interested in burning down the status quo to establish a dictatorship.
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I walked past John Turner on Edmonton city hall steps when he was still PM…no obvious security. He had a very well tailored suit. One of my math teachers was married to a Prime Minister ( OK, not while she was PM ).
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Now that’s a rare sighting, considering that Turner was PM for about 3 months.
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I totally agree that Trump is far worse than Trudeau in many ways! My intention isn’t to flatten out the important differences between the two. I do think, however, that the US and Canada share a history of systematic police violence towards Black and Indigenous people in particular. Trudeau and Trump are both just a small part of that history, but I think it’s important to hold our government here to account-- especially considering the role of the RCMP in the ongoing genocide of Indigenous women!
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While agreeing on almost everything I would have to repeat that the US has been not just quantitatively but qualitatively more horrible. Racism against Black people is one of our foundational principles. The genocides against Native people similarly amplified and more calculated to the present day.
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Not that it’s a competition, but I’d say Canada has been just as thorough and calculated. With kind words and smiles in many cases, but most Canadian governments and institutions have done little of substance in the last ~50 years to improve relations between settler society and Indigenous peoples, or to improve everyday life for Indigenous communities.
It’s still a relationship riddled with paternalism, broken promises and, when it comes to institutions like the RCMP and some local police forces, naked racism and brutality.
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Quite a sweeping generalization and you would be wrong. That doesn’t diminish the treatment First Nations people were submitted to by the Canadian government via the Indian Act, yet false equivalency of the kind you present doesn’t serve history or the present justly. There were good reasons for instance that the Nez Perce and Dakota Sioux, among other tribes, referred to the Canadian Border as the ‘medicine line’ during the late 19th century. During the ‘Trail of Tears’ Chief Joseph was taking his people to Canada. Unfortunately they never made it. Driven from their ancestral lands, Sioux refugees crossed into Canada following the Battle of Little Bighorn and were granted safe haven by the NWMP (RCMP today). The Sioux reservation in S. Saskatchewan today is evidence of just such a history. There are many such historic examples over the centuries that illustrate the difference between British and Canadian treatment of indigenous people and that of the United States. Painting that history with such a broad brush without an understanding of salient policies and facts diminishes our historical understanding thus diminishing our ability to write past wrongs effectively as well.
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