Justin Trudeau said that, back in July, when he was asked about his government paying $10 million to Omar Khadr.  It’s a quote: “The Charter protects all Canadians, everyone of us, even when it is uncomfortable.”

And here’s what Justin Trudeau said three months later, when the Quebec Legislature passed a racist law, a “law” that everyone agrees targets Muslim women: “It’s not up to the federal government to challenge this.”  That’s a quote, too.

Stirring words about the Charter back then, mealy-mouth cowardice now.  What’s changed?

Well, time has gone by.  To be sure.  In that time, the planet’s leading Islamophobe, Donald Trump, has made serial attempts to pass similarly anti-Muslim laws.  During that time, however, Justin Trudeau has made clear he disagrees with Trump. “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada,” he tweeted, the first time Trump tried to bar refugees from Muslim countries.

In recent months, too, expressions of hatred targeting Muslims (and Jews, and others) has surged in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.  Right around the time Trudeau was giving everyone a civics lesson about the Constitution, in fact, Statistics Canada revealed that hate crimes against Muslims had exploded by 60 per cent, when compared to previous years.  The problem has gotten worse, not better.

So, Trudeau’s whiplash-inducing reversal on the applicability of the Charter to difficult cases isn’t because of (a) the passage of time, or (b) because things have gotten any easier for Muslims.  No, it has to be something else.

All it can be, of course, is this: seats.  Quebec has 78, and Justin Trudeau won 40 of them in 2015.  He thinks that, if his government challenges the National Assembly’s indisputably racist law, he’ll lose some or all of those seats.  That’s the only reason he isn’t matching his previously-inspiring words with action.

Talk minus action equals zero, one of my Canadian punk rock friends like to say, and that is what Justin Trudeau and his government presently amount to: zero.

Either you believe in the Constitution, or you don’t.  Either you believe people have an inalienable right to peacefully express their deepest religious views, or you don’t.  Either you are against hatred, or you aren’t.

You know what makes me want to puke about all this?  It’s that, in the months he has been in power, not even a racist like Donald Trump has dared to pass a law telling women what they can wear.  Not even him.

I am so disgusted by the federal Liberal Party – by its gutlessness, by its venality, by its dishonesty – that words (almost) fail me.

Oh, and for you Liberals who are moved to write in, and defend what Justin Trudeau has done because of politics: don’t bother.  Because, when a veil-wearing Muslim Mom with two little kids is kicked off a Quebec City bus in January, when it is forty below, your fucking bullshit about “politics” isn’t going to keep her and her kids very warm, is it?  No, it isn’t.

Somewhere, this morning, Donald Trump is reading his clippings, and nodding.

“Attaboy, Justin,” he’s saying.  “Attaboy.”

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Was just at Dundurn Press (and I’m now at the Patrician Grill to celebrate, where else) and they gave me a pile of copies of my new book, Recipe For Hate – and the good folks there told me that they’ve received a historically-huge order of the book from the US!

Off to the Windsor Bookfest tomorrow, and also to teach a creative writing class at Windsor’s Walkerville Collegiate! Hope to see you there. 

Here we go!

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It’s been several hours, and I still think this is the stupidest political move I’ve seen in months – and that’s saying something. Why, you ask?

This isn’t a decision. It’s a suicide note. #cdnpoli https://t.co/ahrI7jT2bO

— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) October 18, 2017

• The Conservatives are tying themselves to every crazy/offensive thing Rebel does between now and the election. And, believe me: there’ll be plenty.
• The Conservatives are fulfilling a Liberal prophecy about them: namely, that their new leader really is a nutty SoCon who is beholden to the alt-Right.
• The Conservatives have taken, and will take, a massive hit for a “strategist” who could only eke out a razor-thin win for Scheer, after 13 ballots, no less. What has he ever done, in effect, beside creating a platform for the racist alt-Right in Canada?

Hear that sound? That’s the sound of Messrs. Trudeau and Singh dancing a jig, still astonished by their continuing good luck.

Blandy Scheer: still making Joe Clark look good.

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SFH, meanwhile, offer this to our fellow punk rocker. Gabba gabba hey, punk grrrl!

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Seriously.  He did.  Here’s the Globe:

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer abruptly ended a news conference and stopped taking questions from reporters on Monday when asked whether he was aware his campaign manager had worked out of the Rebel office during his leadership run.

Hamish Marshall, Mr. Scheer’s former campaign manager, told The Globe and Mail in response to an inquiry that he shared Toronto office space with the right-wing website during the Tory leadership race, which ended on May 27, when Mr. Scheer won by a razor-thin margin over Conservative MP Maxime Bernier.

Why’d he run?  Here’s why.

For those who are unaware, “Rebel Media” is a Far Right organization that has been, for a long time, the portal to the so-called “alt-Right” in Canada. A sampling of what just one of its stars said on Rebel:

• “God, [Jews are] so obsessed with the Holocaust. […] I don’t know if it’s healthy to dwell.”
• “I felt myself defending the super-far-right Nazis, just because I was sick of so much [Holocaust] brainwashing.”
• “…much less than six million [were murdered in the Holocaust] and they starved to death and they weren’t gassed.”
• “[A man-made famine that killed millions in Soviet Ukraine was caused] by Jews. That was by Marxist, Stalinist, left-wing, commie, socialist Jews.”
• “[WWII caused the Treaty of Versailles, which was caused] disproportionately influenced by Jewish intellectuals.”
• “I’m becoming anti-Semitic.”

And that’s just one of the Rebel luminaries, folks, on one occasion.  On other occasions, their people were involved in founding The Proud Boys, a hate group whose members recently harassed elderly indigenous people in Halifax and gave Nazi salutes afterwards. And: Rebel has published garbage by lunatics who write essays titled “I’m Not a Racist, Sexist, or a Homophobe, You Nigger Slut Faggot”or “Ten Things I Hate About Jews.”

And: One of their hosts – Faith Goldy – was in Charlottesville, cheering on the very neo-Nazi types who murdered a woman.  Later on, Goldy appeared on a Daily Stormer-affiliated web site – a place where genocide is advocated against minorities.

And on and on. After some of their apparent fan base started killing anti-racism protestors, the Rebel folks frantically tried to dial down or disavow their connections to the racist Right.  They even fired Goldy. But it was a case of too little, too late.  In their words and their deeds, we now know who they are.

But not Blandy Scheer, apparently.  Scheer’s campaign manager helped found and fund the Rebel.  When that became known, Scheer hastily declared that he wouldn’t have anything to do with them anymore.

What he didn’t tell us, however, was that his frigging campaign was being run out of the Rebel’s offices.  That little fact seemed to slip his mind – until the Globe challenged him.

Is Andrew Scheer and anti-Semite and a racist?  I don’t think so.

He just seems to be okay with associating with people who are.

UPDATE: They didn’t issue a news release. They issued a suicide note.

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I’m serious.  Check out the reaction of these hundreds of total strangers to the news that Recipe For Hate  – which Publisher’s Weekly called “riveting…Tension starts high and stays there in this unflinching page-turner, which offers a fascinating glimpse into the early punk scene and a moving testament to the power of friendship” – would be hitting bookshelves starting this week:

And see those two people at the end? Those are world-famous politicos, Tim Powers and Kathleen Monk, showing off the book to the grateful multitudes!

I’ll be in Windsor at Bookfest on Friday night, deets here – and also teaching a class about creative writing, which will be interesting.  And, of course, you can get your copies here and here.

Launch party will be in November, and you are all invited! Deets to follow.

 

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How desperate is Justin Trudeau to keep NAFTA?

Ask the Mexicans, now peering out from under the proverbial bus – where, you know, Trudeau pushed them.

Pretty desperate.

As they welcomed the Canadian Prime Minister to Mexico City on Thursday – and as they gamely extracted the Canadian-made stainless steel that had slipped between their shoulder blades – the Mexicans likely marveled about this once or twice. “¡Tan encantador! ¡Muy guapo! ¡Tan despiadado!” they must have said, to themselves. Rough translation: “So charming! So handsome! So ruthless!”

It wasn’t always thus. As recently as June, Trudeau was welcoming Enrique Pena Nieto to Ottawa, even bestowing one of those Trudeauesque both-hands-and-almost-a-full-hug things on the beaming Mexican president. (It almost went as far as those vaguely-unsettling, nose-to-nose eye couplings Trudeau also favours – but those mano-a-mano moments are apparently saved for swearings-in of new cabinet ministers at Rideau Hall.)

Still, it was pretty cuddly, back in June. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland had previously ruled out throwing Mexico under the bus. On the record, no less. Said she: “I’ve always been clear, and the Prime Minister has always been clear, about the importance of our relationship with Mexico.” At the time, that unctuous windbag Brian Mulroney even chimed in, solemnly wheezing: “Throwing friends and neighbours and allies under the bus is a position for a weak leader. This is not the Canadian tradition.”

Resulting CBC headline: “Canada isn’t about to ‘throw Mexico under the bus,’ foreign ministers say.”

Uh-huh. Gotcha.

When he was still getting all grippy with Enrique Pena Nieto in June, Justin Trudeau continued to proclaim the same sort of stuff. “I think it’s important that allies and partners like Mexico and Canada work together to address the challenges we’re facing together,” Trudeau declared, and the Mexicans smiled and nodded a lot.

Well, that was then, and this is now. Belatedly, correctly, Trudeau has concluded that Donald Trump is a monkey with a machine gun – and that, if there has to be a victim supplied at the NAFTA murder scene, well, Enrique c’mon down! 

Thus, when Agent Orange was asked if he was open to a U.S.-Canada trade deal – one that excluded Mexicans, who he regards as rapists and killers, anyway – Trump responded: “Oh, sure, absolutely.”

At that moment, of course, Justin Trudeau could have said no way, José. He could have repeated what he had said to Enrique Pena Nieto. He could have declined to nudge one of the “Three Amigos” under the bus. But here’s what he said instead:

Nothing.

After an uncomfortable moment or two, during which Mexico’s government was likely coming up with imaginative new swear words to describe us Canadians, Trudeau was asked about a two-way trade deal. Said he: “I continue to believe in NAFTA…so saying, we are ready for anything, and we will continue to work diligently to protect Canadian interests.”

Translation: “Enjoy the view under the bus, Enrique!”

This Benedict Arnold-style strategy creates three new problems for us, the Snow Mexicans.

One, it mainly helps Trump, not Canada. The American “president” may be a racist, sexist, lying bastard – but he knows a thing or two about negotiations. Decades devoted to doing New York City real estate deals with his Daddy’s money taught him that the best opponent is weakened opponent. 

By dispensing with a united Canada-Mexico front, Justin Trudeau has reduced his bargaining power. As Donald Trump knows – and as Trudeau may soon discover – it is always easier to steal the lunch money of one kid. Not two.

If Justin Trudeau doesn’t watch Game of Thrones, he should. Every fan of that shows knows that, when seeking a bargain with a much-more-powerful opponent, you need to form alliances with other less-powerful kingdoms. In Westeros terms, Trudeau has sped up Winter’s arrival.

Two, nudging Mexico under the proverbial bus makes a big, big assumption that almost certainly will be proven wrong: namely, that Donald Trump’s promises are worth they’re printed on. They’re not.

As half his cabinet, all of his wives, most of the Republican Party and all of Puerto Rico can attest, Trump will turn on you in a New York minute. His word is no good. He was elected on a platform to tear up the TPP and NAFTA – and build a xenophobic, inward-looking, protectionist demi-monde. He hasn’t kept any other promise, but he’s kept that one.

Thirdly, finally – and seriously, folks – this makes Canada look bad. It makes us look like we will turn on our allies, even after we repeatedly said we never would.

Desperate people do desperate things. Canada is looking desperate. 

And that isn’t a good thing.

 

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