“You’re not going to win with the master of distraction.”
– Derek Burney
The one thing that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has excelled at is apologizing for all of the indignities imposed on various minorities over the past century.
Recently he apologized to the Inuit people for the "colonial" and "misguided" treatment of their people in the tuberculosis epidemic in the 1940s.
In 2017, Trudeau was full of himself, with a host of tearful apologies, saying sorry to the Inuit people of Labrador who had been forced to attend residential schools, to the LGBT community for what he called “state sponsored systemic oppression and rejection,” and saying “we stand with you” to the Muslim community after the deadly attack on the Montreal mosque. Perhaps the most controversial was the apology to convicted terrorist Omar Khadr which came along with a $10-million price tag.
Shortly after his election in 2016, Trudeau issued a formal apology to the Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus who were denied entry to Canada in 1914 when their ship, the Komagata Maru was turned away after sitting in Vancouver's Coal Harbour for two months and forced to return to India where many passengers were killed or imprisoned.
But where was our illustrious prime minister on May 14 of this year when Conservative deputy leader Lisa Raitt stood up in Parliament and proposed a motion to recognize the services of Vice-Admiral Mark Norman who has been faced with personal and professional hardships over the past two years as a result of his dismissal over the alleged leaks of confidential information. The motion was passed unanimously in the House but where was Justin Trudeau? He, along with the defense minister, snuck out just before the vote was taken.
And why has there been no apology to former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould when he and members of the PMO defied the rule of law and applied pressure on her to grant SNC Lavalin a deferred prosecution agreement, or to former Treasury Board president Jane Philpott, who along with Wilson-Raybould was ousted from the Liberal caucus, or Celina Caesar-Chavannes, an Independent MP for Whitby, Ont. who left the Liberals in March? Trudeau's claim to be a feminist and defender of aboriginal rights is like his apologies – merely political posturing.
It is somewhat ironic that his father, Pierre, as prime minister from 1968 to 79 and 1980 to 84, refused to apologize, stating “I do not think the purpose of a government is to right the past,” and “It cannot rewrite history. It is our purpose to be just in our time.”
Justin Trudeau is a great apologist when it comes to saying sorry for historic mistakes that cannot be tied to his leadership but when it comes to saying he’s sorry for the injustices for which he is accountable, he is noticeably dumb.
Ken Allred is a former St. Albert alderman and MLA
