The violent assassination of a group Muslims in Canada provided Justin Trudeau with yet another chance to position himself central to peace and wisdom.
Justin Trudeau’s pleasant and comforting tone, nevertheless, only conceals a horrible truth. The same truth has whitewashed the original picture of Canadian politics for years.
In an address in the parliament two days after the attack, Trudeau said “this was a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred, in the heart of one of our communities.”
The attacker, Nathaniel Veltman, purposefully rammed his car into a Canadian community at Ontario. Except for a 9-year-old boy, the whole family lost their lives. The boy’s parents, along with his grandmother and sister were the victims of London attack.
Trudeau’s questions in the same address were further attempts to hide the reality behind the world of words in the North Americas. “If anyone thinks racism and hatred don’t exist in this country, I want to say this: How do we explain such violence to a child in a hospital? How can we look families in the eye and say ‘Islamophobia isn’t real’?”
Unimportant Minority
While generally known as a progressive, democratic, and liberal, Trudeau and his apparent policies has had little to do with the reality of life in the past years.
The spiking growth of hardline, demagogic politics in Canada and similar countries talks the truth. Words betray the truth when politicians utilize them to talk against Islamophobia.
“National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia” may be an indication against such a practice in surface. However, only after intense campaigning and long years of social criticism, the activists persuaded Trudeau to declare the 29th of January as the day against Islamophobia.
The day is reminiscent of a violent assault on a mosque in 2017. Six Muslims lost their lives in Quebec while 19 others suffered serious injuries. The attacker was a Canadian nationalist who grew up in Canadian societal and political air.
Trudeau used that occasion chance to shout against terrorism in a similar way. In the end, all bluster was meaningless since the Canadian administration has done hardly anything to stop the alarming trend. Because of this lack of action, the government is involved in the rise of Islamophobia and hate crimes in Canada.
While asserting the necessity to end Islamophobia, the Canadian prime minister says the backlash against such hate crime must not further complicate the issue. Trudeau further explains that this makes sense because such conducts and acts of hate comprises a minority in Canada.
Apart from the chauvinist side, Trudeau was effectively saying that recognizing and combating Islamophobia is unimportant because it would put excessive focus on a limited and bigoted “minority.”
A Solution Beyond Words
According to a survey by the United Nations, more than 52% of citizens claim that Muslim are not trustworthy. 42% of respondents even say hatred against Muslims is primarily due to Muslim’s own bad conduct.
Official statistics published by Trudeau government also confirms the rising tone of Violence against Muslims. There were 166 such cases in 2018 while the number rose to 181, showing a 9% rise. Besides, hate crimes have become more and more severe and bloody.
Trudeau’s policies, Media coverage, ignorant backlash against hate crimes, and rising jingoism in Canada. These are among the main reasons behind the current Toxic atmosphere.
If Trudeau truly wants to rid Canada of extremism, the way goes through purging bigotry from his own party. Ending any effort to criminalize people based on faith and banning racism in speech and act is the second step.
