The Canadian Prime Minister is sounding more and more like Fidel Castro every day, even as his party members begin to show signs of sanity and reason.
A Liberal politician strayed from the party line during a press conference on Tuesday, where he questioned the language used by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against freedom convoy protestors who have gridlocked the downtown core of Ottawa for nearly two weeks now.
The French Canadian politician, Joel Lightbound, said that he went to the protests and saw firsthand that the grandmothers, blacks, and Indians who were all at the protest indicated to him that the group was not as fringe as the prime minister had made the event seem. The prime minister has worked hard over the last two weeks to spin the protest as one held by anti-democracy racists and bigots.
Lightbound said that he condemned all displays of hate that occurred early on in the protest, including a confederate flag and a swastika, but said that he would not go so far as to use the “easy and absurd labels” that the prime minister had used to generalize the group.
“It’s time we stopped dividing people, pitting people against each other. The tone and policies of my government have changed since [the election], now the approach stigmatizes and divides people,” Lightbound told reporters in Ottawa.
More generally, Lightbound called for a review to the country’s vaccine mandates that stop the unvaccinated from traveling on a plane or train.
“We need to reevaluate all the measures. That’s essentially my whole point I think we need to have a clear roadmap for when restrictions will be lifted, and this roadmap must take into account what we’ve seen with the World Health Organization’s recommendation, what other countries are doing, it’s essential for Canadians to have that understanding of where we’re heading and under what conditions and circumstances measures will be lifted,” he said.
“What a lot of the anxiety and frustration in the population lies with the fact that some people… are afraid that certain measures are being normalized and that these measures shouldn’t be normalized, that they should be extraordinary and limited in time.
“I think that would go a long way in alleviating some of the frustration, and some of the division in our society and some of the polarization. That’s essential going forward.
“I’m not advocating for lifting, necessarily, all measures right now. I’m not a public health expert. Im just saying that the government… needs to provide a road map going forward.”
Liberal MP Joël Lightbound: "I still am hopeful that the government will change course and adopt a different approach, and that's my ask today" pic.twitter.com/wCGRFHDz5O
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 8, 2022
In response, Trudeau said that Canada actually needs mandates in order to “avoid future restrictions.”
“I think one of the things we all understand is just how frustrated everyone is. We’re all tired of restrictions, of mandates, of having to make sacrifices, of not being able to do the things we love,” Trudeau said on Tuesday.
Trudeau: "I can understand frustrations with mandates, but mandates are the way to avoid further restrictions" pic.twitter.com/wwsm0U3X3q
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 8, 2022
“It’s been two years, and it’s really really tiring for all of us. This government has been focused every step of the way of following the best science and the best public health advice to keep as many people safe as possible and quite frankly, it has worked,” he gloated, pointing to “curves lower in Canada than elsewhere… lower death rates… [and] quicker economic recovery because Canadians stepped up.”
“Canadians got vaccinated. I can understand frustrations with mandates but mandates are the way to avoid further restrictions… As Canadians get vaccinated, as Canadians have gotten vaccinated, we’ve been able to get through things. And this team is going to stay focused on doing exactly that,” he said, according to The Post Millennial.
