Tuesday June 18, 2019
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.
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.
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