Contrast Trudeau’s aggressive response to Ontario regarding the Notwithstanding Clause to his response to Quebec using it.
There is a weird, unspoken ‘agreement’ in Canadian politics and the establishment media.
The agreement is that Quebec will be treated completely differently than the rest of the country, and truly stunning levels of hypocrisy will be used to make that so.
For example, if a politician outside of Quebec even so much as questions yearly immigration increases, they are immediately denounced by the Liberal establishment media as ‘racist.’
Likewise, any talk of preserving ‘Canadian culture’ or Western civilization is denounced.
The Liberal establishment thinks Canada should be a post-national state with no core identity or unifying beliefs, and anyone who pushes back is to be ostracized.
Meanwhile, Quebec politicians are constantly talking about slashing immigration, and preserving Quebec culture and heritage. Not only do they talk about it, they regularly impose legislation that heavily restricts individual freedom and pushes for conformity to language and cultural norms.
Yet, they are rarely denounced or criticized in the Liberal press outside Quebec.
And Liberal politicians like Justin Trudeau – who regularly denounce Conservative Canadians in English Canada as ‘bigots’ and ‘racists’, choose not to use those same aggressive terms to denounce what takes place in Quebec, even as Quebec politicians are far more nationalistic and authoritarian than any Canadian Conservatives.
The agreement here is that everyone knows it is completely hypocritical, but nobody talks about in the hopes that Canadians won’t pick up on it.
This is helped by the language barrier, with English language media and French language media operating in separate ecosystems, thus helping to hide the hypocrisy.
But now, that agreement – like so much else in our country – is collapsing.
Justin Trudeau and the Liberals – apparently sensing some potential political advantage – are going all in on their criticism of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s response to a pending strike of education support workers.
While I’m no fan of Ontario Premier Doug Ford using the Notwithstanding Clause – as it is normalizing the use of expansive state power even more after two years of governments getting way too powerful – the Trudeau Liberals have no credibility whatsoever on this issue.
Putting aside their own egregious use of government power, the Liberals have taken no action during all the times Quebec has invoked the Notwithstanding Clause. At best, the Liberals make a few mealy-mouthed statements and then hope attention moves elsewhere.
The Liberals thus play an incredibly hypocritical game. They use issues like ‘diversity’ and ‘tolerance’ as a cudgel against the Conservatives in English Canada, while going along with nationalistic, identity-based policies in Quebec.
To get a sense of the hypocritical game taking place here, just look at this recent Tweet by Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen:
“The foundation of our democracy is under attack.
There have been 9 premiers of Ontario since the #notwithstandingclause has been available for use.
Only one has ever used it.
This is *the* fight worth fighting for. We can not let this abuse continue.”
https://twitter.com/MarkGerretsen/status/1588194718390919174
Gerretsen closed replies on his Tweet, after he was inundated by Canadians pointing out that Quebec has used the Notwithstanding Clause over and over again without Gerretsen claiming that was “abuse” or an attack on “the foundation of our democracy.”
And this is how the ‘agreement’ breaks down.
Canadians are starting to look into what is happening in Ontario, and then comparing that to what has happened in Quebec, and are wondering why Justin Trudeau was so angry about one, but not the other.
They will see that Trudeau is glad to take a heavy-handed approach in Western Canada that ignores local opinion, while giving Quebec a free pass to do things he claims to vehemently disagree with.
These contradictions are unsustainable, especially in an era in which more and more people are confident in making their voice heard and criticizing government hypocrisy.
When you add this growing awareness to the moves by Alberta and Saskatchewan to assert autonomy, and the divisive tactics Trudeau used regarding vaccination status, it becomes more and more clear that Canada’s divisions are getting worse and worse under Trudeau’s failed ‘leadership’.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
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