Roundup: And the Tony for outrage goes to…

Posted on by

I really didn’t want to have to write about this, but it managed to suck up all of the oxygen in the news cycle this weekend, and I feel compelled to once again say something that I really didn’t want to, but lately this seems to be my lot in life. I’m talking about the whole Trudeau/Castro statement, and how very tiresome that pile-on soon became. Forgetting of course that nobody’s hand are clean in the game of international diplomacy, and for some reason nobody is allowed to speak ill of the dead unless it’s Fidel Castro, Trudeau’s comments weren’t sufficiently scolding enough of his legacy – never mind that he has a personal family connection there, and he has to be pragmatic about relations as he walks the line between needing new markets with American protectionism on the rise and economic liberalisation slowly happening in that country. And when pressed, Trudeau made no bones about the fact that Castro was a dictator while still explaining making the statement that he did. Nevertheless, I will hasten to add that Trudeau’s statement has nothing on the leftist paeans being sung to Castro that I’m finding all over my Facebook timeline, praising his stand against Imperialism and how the love of his people protected him from CIA assassins, and so on. (And these are from the same kinds of people who considered Stephen Harper a dictator, so seriously, chill out). And then there was the digging up of statements that Stephen Harper had made after the deaths of the likes of the King of Saudi Arabia (“desired peace”) and Hugo Chavez, and lo, no outright condemnations in either of those statements. Should Trudeau have said something more? Probably. But I do get that he’s trying to walk a very fine line.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, people took to social media to bombard us with endlessly with the instantly tiresome meme of #Trudeaueulogies, while the whole of the Conservative leadership race decided that they too needed to take to social media to perform some outrage for us, demanding that Trudeau not go to the funeral, and beating at their breasts, wailing and gnashing their teeth about how terrible it was that he didn’t mention the executions or the persecution of gays, and it was like every single one of them was vying for a Tony award. And then they all emailed party members trying to crassly try to fundraise on this issue. Honestly, it’s just so tiresome because it’s just so transparently performative.

https://twitter.com/cfhorgan/status/802593401107611650

Meanwhile, John Geddes talks to a historian about the legacy of Pierre Trudeau and Castro with Canada-Cuba relations. Terry Glavin thinks that this proves that Trudeau is as vacuous as most people seem to think, while Charlie Gilles calls Trudeau’s statement “egregious whitewashing.”

Good reads:

  • At La Francophonie Summit, Trudeau promoted women’s and LGBT rights, saying there’s no excuse for violence and discrimination to continue.
  • Because it was such an issue last week, here’s an explainer of the Pierre Trudeau Foundation and debunks some of the claims made around it.
  • Japan’s ambassador to Canada still isn’t willing to give up on the TPP, but there are calls for a bilateral trade agreement with that country instead.
  • CBSA wants to deport an American-born man who rejected his earlier radicalization and is now working to de-radicalize others.
  • The NDP think that Judy Foote should take more responsibility for the Phoenix pay fiasco, but there’s not really anything more she can do under our system.
  • It may not be until 2018 that the government finally gets around to fixing the issue of minors on no-fly lists.
  • Maryam Monsef is starting to hint that electoral reform may not happen if there’s not enough national buy-in – thankfully. (Seriously, it was always a bad idea).
  • The government’s new Elections Act bill allows for pre-registration to happen as early as 14, while in most other countries it’s 16 or 17.
  • One of the new Senate appointees tries to take a nuanced position on China, and the Conservatives call him a Beijing apologist.
  • Joe Clark weighs in on the Conservative leadership race, and his disappointment in rhetoric like that coming from the Leitch campaign.

Odds and ends:

The provincial NDP in BC have nominated a trans candidate for the upcoming provincial election.