Help Me Understand, Please!

July 21, 2022 · 0 Comments

by SHERALYN ROMAN

The other day while driving about town I saw yet another vehicle proudly (one assumes) flying not one but two F*ck Trudeau flags. It caught me off guard because…well, why?

I may be a bit late to the party but I’m still wondering after all this time why these flags and why F*ck Trudeau is a thing? More specifically, I guess what I’m really wondering is why he, amongst all the leaders we have ever had, has been singled out as a “communist,” “treasonous” and any of the myriad other offenses of which he’s been accused.

Help me to understand. Explain it to me like I’m in kindergarten – and without swearing – please!

It seems, in addition to our own embarrassing incident right here in Bolton last year, and of course, the massive “freedom convoy” protests in Ottawa (winter and summer versions) people are still pre-empting the Prime Minister, barring him from attending events due to protestor gatherings, all in the interests of his own and the public’s safety.

Just recently in a small town outside of Ottawa and again near Surrey BC, some people were seen carrying around makeshift gallows and/or nooses and flags with “Trudeau=Treason” written on them. I might not be a fan of Trudeau but who actually thinks it is ok to walk around with a noose, threaten our Prime Minister with death, and also thinks it is even remotely believable that this man has committed an act of treason against our country?

According to the Government of Canada’s own legal and justice website, the definition of treason is sweeping and includes offenses such as: “high treason,” an attempt to kill Her Majesty the Queen, or an act of war levied against Canada or an attempt to assist an enemy in an act of war against our nation. As for simple “treason,” amongst several subsections the definition amounts to, “the use of force or violence for the purpose of overthrowing the government of Canada,” something it sounds more like the convoys have threatened than Mr. Trudeau has.

In other words, unless I missed several big news stories over the last six months of this year, I’m pretty certain our Prime Minister has done nothing to warrant a charge of treason. Other comments by the kinds of folks that believe in the treason charge are that we’re living in a “communist state.” These also don’t hold much water with me for the very reason that comments like “we’re living in a communist state” are allowed to be made – without any risk to the person making them!

They will not risk incarceration, or fines, because unlike people living in a communist state, we have the right to free speech. The fact that the vehicle I saw was driving with flags so emblazoned is also living proof that we are NOT living in a communist state. In fact, last I checked we lived in a civilized, (ok, we could use some work on maintaining civility) democratic country which relied on legal elections to replace its leaders or, in a worst-case scenario, a vote of non-confidence in the House of Parliament, which would then trigger a legal election process.

Anyone who doubts the veracity of my claim is invited to travel to North Korea or China, rent a vehicle and parade around major towns and cities with a “F*ck Kim Jong-un” or “F*ck Xi Jinping” flag flapping out the window and see how long it takes them to figure out what living in an actual communist country looks like. My suspicion is they’d soon be using their democratic right to appeal to our Prime Minister for diplomatic help returning back to Canada.

Protestors have drawn parallels between Trudeau senior and his invocation of the War Measures Act, under entirely different circumstances and which DID suspend personal liberties, and Trudeau junior and the more current Emergencies Act, which emphatically did not.

They draw similarities that the Trudeaus, both senior and junior, are (and were) elitist and out of touch with the average working Canadians lived experience and in this area, I might well agree – but I still don’t think it’s a reason to hang the Prime Minister for treason.

Don Martin, writing for CTV news in June of this year wrote, “while this is hardly scientific, after a weeks-long survey of just about everyone I’ve met and many of them Liberals by voting inclination, the overall judgment on Trudeau is one of being a political write-off with their body language alternating between exasperation and eye rolls. He’s too woke, (they say), too precious, preachy in tone, exceedingly smug, lacking in leadership, fading in celebrity, slow to act, short-sighted in vision and generally getting more irritating with every breathlessly whispered public pronouncement. And that’s just the one-sentence summary.”

Once again, many Canadians might agree and certainly the fellow who grabbed my attention with his flags flying probably does, but as for me? You need to tell me, like you might tell a small child, why exactly it is that we need to drag him from office, accuse him of treason and threaten to do bodily harm?

There have been a lot of Prime Ministers over the years that people have loved or hated. I don’t believe any of them have been threatened the way Justin Trudeau has. It smacks of the “Americanization” of our country. This is Canada. We’ll have an election. Because we are a free country. Feel free to exercise your democratic vote when that time comes and enough with the rhetoric and violence. Oh yeah and also, just be careful what you wish for because I’ve a feeling Mr. Poilievre could be equally problematic, if not more so.