apology – mackaycartoons

Tuesday June 18, 2019

June 25, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

June 18, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 18, 2019

Does Justin Trudeau apologise too much?

(Article from March 2018) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has so far issued four formal apologies for historic injustice since his government’s election in 2015, beating all his predecessors in government mea culpas. Why is Trudeau Canada’s most apologetic leader?

Pez Prime Minister

Just over six months after his election, Justin Trudeau stood in Canada’s Parliament to say sorry.

His apology was made before descendents of passengers of the Komagata Maru, who were present for the statement.

The Japanese vessel was carrying 376 Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu passengers who were denied entry into Canada in 1914 under immigration laws at the time.

Trudeau called the incident “a stain on Canada’s past”.

It was the first in a series of formal apologies made by Trudeau’s Liberal government to acknowledge historic injustices in the country’s past.

His government is expected to issue at least one more mea culpa, having hinted at recognition of a 1939 incident where Canada turned away Jews seeking asylum from Nazi persecution.

Acting on a recommendation from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, last year Trudeau also asked Pope Francis to apologise for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential school system, where indigenous children were abused for decades.

February 25, 2010

His government is expected to issue at least one more mea culpa, having hinted at recognition of a 1939 incident where Canada turned away Jews seeking asylum from Nazi persecution.

The elder Trudeau rejected the idea that a government’s purpose could be to right the past.

“It is our purpose to be just in our time,” he told the House of Commons.

Historian Jordan Stanger-Ross of the University of Victoria says there can be “a fair amount of skepticism” around formal political apologies.

Be it an attempt to close the book on the past wrongs or the political considerations of key constituencies, “government always has clearly mixed motives in apologising,” he says.

The events Trudeau has chosen to apologise for fall squarely in line with the Liberal government’s contemporary policies.

The party campaigned on the idea that “diversity is a source of strength” – a stance he referenced in his Komagata Maru speech. (BBC)

LETTERS to the EDITOR, Hamilton Spectator, June 27, 2019

RE: June 18 editorial cartoon

I know many people, like your cartoonist, like to make fun of our prime minister’s numerous apologies. But the most recent one, which your cartoonist scoffed at, was to Italian-Canadians who were interred during Second World War. This particular apology is no laughing matter and long overdue.

Your cartoonist insulted the memory of my Italian ancestors. And for good measure he made fun of Trudeau’s speech defect. Is that what you call a good day’s work?

Deanna Campagnolo, Burlington

Trudeau’s empty apologies

RE: Justin Trudeau

Isn’t it just lovely that Justin Trudeau can say sorry for anything and everything that he had no hand in or wasn’t alive for but he can’t do the same for his own foibles. That tells more about the man than anything else he has to say.

Rob Montgomery, Hannon

Friday November 9, 2018

November 16, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 9, 2018

Trudeau apologizes for Canada’s 1939 refusal of ship of Jewish refugees

Survivors and families of 900 German Jews whose pleas for asylum Canada ignored during the Holocaust received an official federal apology Wednesday, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed more federal help to combat anti-Semitic acts.

Toilet paper apologies

It was 79 years ago that the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King rejected an asylum request from an ocean liner carrying German Jews as it neared Halifax, forcing it back to Europe.

Most of the passengers scattered across the continent and more than 250 of them died in the Holocaust.

The decision to turn the country’s back on European Jews was “unacceptable then and it is unacceptable now,” Trudeau said in his speech on the week marking the 80th anniversary of what is known as “Kristallnacht” and the start of the Holocaust.

January 10, 2015

Trudeau said Holocaust deniers still exist and anti-Semitism remains prevalent in Canada — the latest numbers from Statistics Canada show Jews are the most frequent target of religiously motivated hate crimes — and North America, shadowed by the shooting deaths of 11 worshippers inside a Pittsburgh synagogue almost two weeks ago.

The ensuing days have seen countrywide vigils and, Trudeau said, calls for the government to do more through a federal program that funds security improvements at places at risk of hate-motivated crimes, such as synagogues.

WLMKing merch

Trudeau pledged to listen to the request, but didn’t provide further details. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Yet, statues of the then Prime Minister, William Lyon MacKenzie King, remain standing, despite his and his government’s anti-semitist policies. This follows several months of debate and scrutiny of another Canadian Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and his government’s anti-indigenous peoples policies. Do more statues need to come down?

Saturday May 21, 2016

May 20, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 21, 2016

Trudeau apologizes over Commons scuffle as controversial motion withdrawn

The morning after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau barged swearing into a knot of opposition MPs, grabbing one and elbowing aside another to hurry up a vote, he made very public displays of personal contrition.

March 29, 2016

Trudeau appeared at an MPs prayer breakfast to read aloud a scripture of his choice, Romans 12, that counsels: don’t think you are better than you really are. Then the prime minister delivered an abject apology in the House of Commons.

Rising in the Commons after a scathing rebuke by official Opposition leader Rona Ambrose, Trudeau said he was “sorry,” “apologized,” or “regretted” his actions 16 times over the course of an hour.

The prime minister said he would willingly accept a committee’s decision on his behaviour. But he was non-committal faced with opposition fury and calls for him to withdraw a controversial and provocative motion that was the backdrop of the Wednesday night scuffle. Known as Motion 6, it would have given the Liberal government unilateral control over the parliamentary agenda as it scrambles to push through its legislation, including Bill C-14 on medically assisted suicide, before a June 6 deadline.

But by midday, Trudeau’s entire government was in damage control mode.

Trudeau’s longtime friend and House leader Dominic Leblanc withdrew the motion he’d insisted was necessary just the day before. Leblanc offered to co-operate with the opposition to extend debate time so all MPs could speak to Bill C-14, and said the government still wanted to try to meet the June 6 deadline imposed by the Supreme Court of Canada. (Source: Toronto Star)

Friday February 19, 2016

February 18, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday February 19, 2016

Pope Francis says Trump’s views on immigration ‘not Christian’

Pope Francis said Thursday that Donald Trump is “not Christian” if he intends to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump immediately fired back, saying it is disgraceful for a religious leader to question a person’s faith.

Wednesday February 10, 2016

Trump, a leading U.S. Republican presidential candidate, has promised to build a wall along the Mexican border from Texas to California and expel 11 million people who are in the country illegally if elected president.

The Pope’s comments en route home from Mexico came hours after he prayed at the Mexico-U.S. border for people who died trying to reach the United States.

“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said. “This is not in the Gospel.”

Not having heard Trump’s border plans independently, Francis said he’d “give him the benefit of the doubt.” But he added: “I’d just say that this man is not Christian if he said it this way.”

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, another Republican presidential contender, has also supported building a border wall, and joked that he will make Trump pay for it.

Trump, a Presbyterian, last week criticized Francis’ plans to pray at the border. He said the move was ill-informed and showed Francis to be a political figure being exploited by the Mexican government.

Rock Star Pope

“I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “I think Mexico got him to do it because they want to keep the border just the way it is. They’re making a fortune, and we’re losing.”

On Thursday, he responded to the Pope’s comments during a campaign stop in Kiawah Island, S.C.

“No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith,” he said. “They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant.”

He also said the Mexican government has disparaged him to the Pope and separately invoked the Islamic State group, saying that if it attacks the Vatican, “I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been president because this would not have happened.” (Source: CBC News)

Social Media

As I turned the page on this story in my newspaper, I was greeted with an editorial cartoonby artist Graeme MacKay that took a different spin on this same piece of news. Mackay’s cartoon had Trump on one wall with a banner saying “No Illegal Mexicans” and the Pope is on another wall with three plaques saying, “No Gays. No Women Priests. No Apologies.”

Everyone deserves a reality check. We all have our own walls. Being a follower of Jesus has to allow for hard questions. We need to continually ask ourselves as Christians,

Where should I be building a bridge?

What walls do I need to tear down?

How can I be more holistic in my faith?

Source: Hamilton Commons

Saturday February 6, 2016

February 5, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 6, 2016

Ferguson unrepentant and ‘offended’ by accusations

(By Andrew Dreschel) An official with the Colombian consulate says it’s not up to him to say whether Coun. Lloyd Ferguson should apologize for controversial comments about his country being backwards.

“I leave that to the City of Hamilton,” Toronto-based trade commissioner Alvaro Concha said Thursday.

But far from entertaining apologies, an unrepentant Ferguson is on the attack.

He’s “offended” that his reference to Colombia as a “backwards” place where the only wealthy are “drug lords” and chickens ride buses has been branded as stereotyping by politicians and members of the public.

“I wasn’t making that crap up; it’s what I visibly saw,” said Ferguson, who visited Colombia 12 years ago for a weeklong business conference.

“I don’t like being accused of stereotyping because I wasn’t stereotyping. I witnessed it first hand.”

Ferguson made his controversial comments during a budget meeting this week. He was responding to the city’s transit director using a quote from the Mayor of Bogota, Colombia’s capital city, stating a developed country is not where the poor have cars, but where the rich use public transit.

Calling the ensuing kerfuffle a “tempest in a teapot,” the Ancaster councillor and police board chair says he was objecting to benchmarking Hamilton against Bogota, a city of eight million.

Coun. Mathew Green immediately took Ferguson to task for stereotyping. When the story went mainstream, it lit up social media and online commentary. Many demanded Ferguson apologize. The pitchfork-and-torch mob called him a racist and xenophobe.

One twit on Twitter accused Mayor Fred Eisenberger of agreeing with Ferguson because he was silent on the issue. Eisenberger pushed back, calling that and other comments as “outrageous” as Ferguson’s own. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)