Trudeau’s Unwillingness To Dialogue With Protesters Is Un-Canadian

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unwillingness to open dialogue with protestors isn’t just political folly, it’s downright un-Canadian. 

Let me explain.

Dialogue, compromise, and tolerance are central to the Canadian ethos. It’s why our country is officially bilingual. Canada is a geographically massive place and contains many different groups of people with unique identities. 

Without a healthy dose of pragmatism from our leadership, Canada would fall apart – literally.

Think about it: in Canada, people who were ready to go at each other’s throats in the old world have usually been bound to each other in their new home by a mutual love of freedom and of the values that gave rise to that freedom. 

But almost two years of government restrictions and mandates have done critical damage to social harmony in Canada. Of course, we should have seen this coming: forcing a large group of people in society to do things against their will never ends well. 

History is replete with examples of this: it turns neighbour against neighbour and divides families.

It doesn’t matter whether you think everyone ideally ought to get vaccinated, treating the unvaccinated like second-class citizens is bad for Canada. It’s also embarrassing to our national reputation. Unless, of course, you wish to live in a country where people hate each other.

This is where Prime Minister Trudeau comes in. Trudeau used vaccination mandates as a political gambit to get himself re-elected. And then he didn’t have the good sense to back off and pull a u-turn.

Now he’s cornered himself.

Remember when he went on the record saying that people who strongly opposed getting vaccinated were often racists and misogynists who don’t believe in science? We all knew this isn’t true – these people come from all walks of life. Trudeau must know this too, but he chose to say it anyway.

Trudeau went even further and asked an ominous question: “Do we tolerate these people?”

Well, then came the truckers and the myriad of protestors who have taken to the road across Canada to oppose mandates. At first it appeared that Trudeau was trying to ignore the convoy in the hope that it would fizzle out. 

But it didn’t work, so he changed gears. And the media joined in. They hit the gas on Trudeau’s dishonest narrative about the unvaccinated and chose to slander a lot of hard-working patriotic Canadians.

Much of the media coverage has been a disgrace. It strikes me that many “journalists” already knew which story they wanted to tell even before events unfolded. It’s a dishonour to the profession and profoundly unfair. 

But back to Trudeau. By slandering the protestors as essentially an alt-right fringe, the Prime Minister put himself into a position where he can’t dialogue or negotiate without losing face.

Meanwhile, it’s getting ugly out there. People are exhausted and angry. And the radio silence toward the protestors sets a horrible example to the nation.

It’s going to take a long time to heal from the debacle of the past two years. Opening the channels of communication with the protestors instead of strong-arming them would not just be a beginning but a downright Canadian thing to do.

Mr. Prime Minister: it’s time to hit the brakes before you take us off the road.