Some people (including members of the First Nations) are frustrated at how the news about Canada's first ever Day of National Truth and Reconciliation became dominated instead by the story of Justin Trudeau's decision to spend the day vacationing with his family instead of performing any public act of rememberance and atonement for Canada's numerous crimes and our abysmal record of physical and cultural genocide.
And that is perfectly valid. I can see where they're coming from.
On the other hand, I ask the mewling Liberal apologists who are shamelessly appropriating that argument: Could you not just SHUT THE FUCK UP and take your lumps on this? If you're so appalled at how the national conversation has been diverted to the subject of Trudeau's bone-headed decision, why not make the choice to ignore the criticisms (or, alternatively, make a quick apology for Trudeau's bone-headed decision) and return the discussion to where it should be? Write a blog post or tweet about Canada's past and present crimes and about how you personally will atone and how you will try to help make "Canada" as a whole atone. On that same "other hand" there are many First Nations activists (like Cindy Blackstock) who are publicly condemning Trudeau's decision.
For my part, while I acknowledge the frustrations mentioned above, I also think it's important for us to realize that Trudeau's behaviour does deserve and, indeed, require condemnation. Getting out of the way the fact that many of the people criticizing Trudeau on this are hypocrites who demonstrably don't give a shit about the sufferings of the First Nations, with some of them even endorsing the policies that cause(d) that suffering, it's important to look at how Trudeau's behaviour is par for the course on the way that Canada treats the idea of truth and reconciliation with the First Nations.
Justin Trudeau is not a private citizen. He's the Prime Minister of Canada. He just stood for re-election to continue to be prime minister so it's not as if he's sick of the job and really wants to be somewhere else. So he's prime minister and his government has legislated a federal holiday: The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This federal holiday had already been planned before the confirmation (not "discovery" because the First Nations knew they existed) of a mass grave of First Nations' children on the site of a former residential school. The revelation of this mass grave would (one would think) have made honouring the very first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation at least TEN TIMES as important as before.
So what does airhead Justin Trudeau decide to do?
Use the day to vacation with his family.
...
In other words: "Yeah. Sorry about the whole mass graves and genocide and continued abuse and theft and all that other shit. Sucks to be you. Catch you on the flip-side babies!!!"
Is this not indicative of the hollowness of all official promises from Canadian governments, individual politicians, and institutions (like the Catholic Church)? Wouldn't someone who really cared about Truth & Reconciliation do more than provide lip service to it?
And the rush with which partisan hack Liberals are claiming to be offended on behalf on whoever First Nations people are more angry with the diversion of the reportage is sickening. Case in point is the execrable Montreal Simon. Simon tries to excuse how Trudeau attended a ceremony for the day the evening before heading off for a vacation. I'm sorry Simon, this was Canada's VERY FIRST National Day for Truth & Reconciliation. Trudeau is supposed to lead. He's supposed to set an example. Running off to a vacation with his family is the WRONG example. (Which, stupid as he is, Trudeau knew. Hence his itinerary's saying that he was in Ottawa working, with his vacationing in Tofino being mentioned late in the day.)
Then, Simon attempts to tug at our heart-strings by mentioning how:
this is the time of the year when the Trudeau family gathers to remember Pierre Trudeau, and Michel Trudeau who was killed in an avalanche in 1998.
Did the Trudeau family really all gather together in Tofino? Like, extended family, like his mother and his brother? Or was it just him and the wife and kids? Because if it was the latter, well it goes without saying that they could have easily "gathered" in Ottawa. And, even if it was the former, ... well, ... so what?
Pierre Trudeau died on September 28th, 2000. I get that September 30th is only two days away from the anniversary of his father's death. But that was twenty-one years ago. I'm willing to bet that Justin isn't incapacitated by grief (for days on end) every September 28th. And, as I said above, Justin Trudeau is not a private citizen. He chose to be a public figure and therefore he has to face up to his responsibilities. (Michel Trudeau died in mid-November. It's disgusting for Simon to attempt to wedge that into this discussion.)
What's even more disgusting is how tone-deaf Simon is with this argument about Trudeau wanting to be with his family to remember their dead. Do you know who else wanted to be with their families you fucking SHIT-HEAD???? The First Nations' children whose bodies are in those MASS GRAVES!!!!! Do you know who else wants to remember their dead? The FIRST NATIONS!!!!
Jesus Christ! The more you think about it, the more insane Montreal Simon's garbage becomes! (He spends much of the rest of the post babbling like an idiot about how Trudeau's failed attempt at a majority government was a resounding victory. Just like how if someone lost in the woods wanders around all day and finds themselves back where they started could be said to have made progress!)
Simon wrote a post about his "own journey" to truth and reconciliation. I thought about reading it, but, and I'm being quite honest here, ... I'm worried that it would make me throw-up on my laptop forcing me to have to buy a new one. But when I read that title, my mind went back to a memory of Montreal Shithead stupidly asking "Will the Native Protests Kill the Reconciliation Process?" Not the fucking pipelines being shoved through First Nations' territories against their protest; Not the fucking RCMP arresting them at peaceful roadblocks on their own land with RCMP snipers pointing rifles at their heads; but the "Native Protests" are the threat to reconciliation!!! Supposedly (according to Simon) none of this was Trudeau's fault because of provincial jurisdiction and the autonomy of the RCMP. As if a trans-national pipeline (and all the subsidies and approvals it got) has nothing to do with federal authority! As if the federal government has not jurisdiction in Aboriginal affairs! As if Trudeau was genuinely helpless to do anything about the RCMP's actions! Poor lambikins Justin Trudeau! Being unfairly "bullied" by those First Nations' goons and their "monstrous" non-Native allies!
You know, when Simon first started acting like a groupie/apologist for Justin Trudeau, I began to criticize him for it, but I always said that his heart was in the right place and maybe he was just too traumatized by the stephen harper years to process that the Liberal Party of Canada are definitely not the friends of ordinary Canadians. But as the years go by, I fear that Simon continues to lose whatever grasp of morals and principles that he ever had as he descends further and further into hackery.
And cases like this expose the dangers of said hackery. At the end of the day it was disgusting and inexcusable for Justin Trudeau to use the very first National Day For Truth & Reconciliation to take a family holiday. And the legions of Liberal hacks making apologies and rationalizations for him are only helping to perpetuate the issues that have led us to needing a day for Truth and Reconciliation in the first place.
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