There has been a lot of sniping on both social and mainstream media this week about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family enjoying a vacation in Jamaica in a luxurious villa owned by a friend. Personally, I couldn’t care less.
I do care that the Prime Minister was not forthright about it and did his best to cover it up, but there is nothing new there either. He is good at that.
On the face of it though, it’s not a big deal. Whether you like Justin Trudeau or not, being Prime Minister is a heavy load. If he can get away for a couple of weeks with his family, to a place provided by a friend, (and certainly he is not the first Prime Minister to do that), so what?
The only caveat to that would be if the friend was also benefiting from government pork barreling and if there was any evidence of that, the media would have been all over it.
To me, there is not much to be accomplished by sweating this kind of small stuff when more serious attention should be given to what is a much bigger deal, and that is the alarming increase of anger, hate, frustration, and to some extent, hopelessness in Canada.
I heard last week a story about a family who moved to Canada about a decade ago. They did so because of Canada’s reputation as one of the best places in the world to live, where people were generally friendly, helpful, and had a positive outlook. That proved to be true for a number of years, but they don’t see it that way anymore. They see Canada now as fractured, and many Canadians less happy and more concerned about individual freedom than the common good or the rights of others.
Of course, some would say to this family and to others like them, that if they are not happy here, they are welcome to leave. But that is the easy way, and it glosses over the reality that while Canada is still a great country, there are serious issues here today that need to be addressed.
That process must start at the top of the political chain. When we see our elected representatives, leaders both nationally and provincially, ducking the hard issues because they don’t want to offend potential voters, when we see them behaving in ways that promote divisiveness, anger, and frustration and consequently accomplishing little for their constituents, it is little wonder that many Canadians lose faith in those that lead them and act out accordingly.
And it does start at the top. Canada’s Parliament cannot get its act together and hardly portrays a good example to the rest of the country.
An editorial just before Christmas in the Toronto Star gets to the nub of that when it says, in part, “Suggestions that Parliament has merely retreated deeper and deeper into the Ottawa bubble and become increasingly irrelevant to Canadians, is hardly a new observation but there can be no denying that the toxicity, faux outrage, partisan posturing and schoolyard sniping in the just completed session has brought this cherished institution into further ill repute.”
Former Prime Minister Joe Clarke weighed into this issue as well, although a little more diplomatically, when he said recently, “I think that the current discouraging styles of our governments and our political parties, will only widen regional gaps in this still complicated country because they enlarge the gulfs between politicians and the people themselves.”
It is our government’s job to unite Canadians and not to divide them. While Opposition parties have less power to accomplish this, it is their obligation as well. When this does not occur, when dysfunction gets in the way of finding workable solutions to tough problems, when the rule of law takes a second seat to appeasement, that is when we have a problem.
And that problem has seldom, if not ever, been as evident as it is these days with the wave of antisemitism that has arisen in Canada, triggered by the Israeli/Hamas war. Pro-Palestinian rallies and demonstrations, the vast majority of which have been clearly antisemitic in nature, have blanketed the country. Synagogues and Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized, Jewish businesses blockaded and boycotted, access to public buildings blocked, and traffic disrupted.
Many Jewish Canadians living here fear for their safety, and rightly so. And what, over many weeks of these primarily illegal activities, have our political leaders and the agencies they control done about this? Beyond platitudes, almost diddley squat!
Many Jewish Canadians living here now fear for their safety, and rightly so. Is this what Canada has come to?
Going from the sublime to the ridiculous, what has been happening over the past few days in North Toronto just makes my head shake. Pro-Palestinian protesters have occupied and blocked a busy overpass to Highway 401 on Avenue Road. It was intentional in terms of its antisemitism. Many Jewish families live in that area. I know it because I was raised there, and we had a number of wonderful Jewish neighbours.
And how has law enforcement handled this illegal occupation? Well, instead of removing the protesters, they closed the overpass to vehicles that would normally use it “due to public safety concerns.” They have allowed the illegal protest and this serious disruption to continue. And unbelievably, they have been supplying the protesters with coffee and doughnuts and have even been in negotiations to provide them with toilet facilities. A very strange way to enforce the rule of law in my view.
Marco Mendicino is the Member of Parliament for this part of Toronto, and this is how he has responded to the occupation of the Avenue Road bypass: “Good intentions aside, police serving coffee to protesters will just embolden more deliberate obstruction of traffic, undermine public safety and add to local frustrations. Laws exist to prevent this. They should be enforced.” Amen to that.
There is too much hate and anger in Canada right now. It is not only disturbing, it is also dangerous. Politicians are too afraid of stepping on some people’s toes in order to do something about it. Too many of them prefer to be all things for all people but sometimes that just can’t happen.
Anger and hate can be crippling. If our political leaders don’t step up now to enforce the rule of law and restore confidence and goodwill in the citizenry, the situation here will only get worse.
And that would be a real shame for Canada.
Hugh Mackenzie
Publisher
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has also served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently, Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
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Julian Porter says
Hugh,,,your remarks are important.
Thank you
Julian
Léon Portelance says
Hate & Anger …of the frustrated, should be ‘outlier’ conditions. Our leaders are publicly disrespectful/slanderous vs each other. Our medias, have morphed. News headlines suggest /prejudge realities; opinions should be left to the editorial pages.
David Wexler says
Thank you for these thoughtful comments, Hugh. I have non-Jewish friends who lived in the area near Avenue Road that you reference for many years and who would be appalled by what has been happening there. They say that Jews are the canary in the coal mine. Sadly, what starts with hatred of and acts of violence against the Jewish community rarely ends there, and leads to violence and destruction of the broader society.
I think (hope) that what is happening will pass and that calmer heads will prevail but it certainly wouldn’t hurt for our elected representatives to speak and act forcefully against current illegal acts against fellow Canadians.
Verda-Jane Hudel says
Have you heard of reverse racism? Hard to imagine!. It has been alive and thriving for years east of Toronto.
No reference, whatsoever ,to Jewish folks as they are not part of it.
Also read recently, Muskoka is one of the most racists areas in Ontario. So wish I could find the article…looking.
Another reference to racism. Goes back to a language school my children attended in hopes of learning a different language in addition to English.
Racism and reverse racism has been alive and well in Canada before Canada was even Canada. Nothing new.
Nothing new.
Hugh Holland says
Hugh, as you know, there are good and bad people in all groups. The problems are always caused by the extremists and the would-be leaders with outsized egos on both the left and the right. Netanyahu is a right-wing extremist who was already under siege for, like Trump, seeking to become a dictator by emasculating his own supreme court. He acquired his votes by supporting right-wing settlers in kicking Palestinians out of their homes in the West Bank. That gave the right-wing Hamas extremists the excuse they were looking for to seek revenge by attacking Israel. Then Netanyahu overreacted by killing 20,000 Palestinians and completely destroying most of the homes and services of 2 million mostly moderate but powerless people. And nobody wants them as refugees, just like nobody wanted the Jews after WW2.
How would we feel? What would we do if we saw that happening to our family and friends. The supreme court of Israel acted, and Netanyahu is again under siege by mass demonstrations in his own country. It’s a terrible mess created by extremists on both sides with no apparent solution. How many UN and US leaders have tried for decades to organize a two-state solution? Playing hard ball with passionate demonstrators on either side is not the answer either. That just invites more violence. Calming both sides down with a smile and a coffee may be the only immediate solution.
David Caswell says
How is the blockade of the avenue rd bridge acceptable and the trucker blockade in Ottawa vilified.
The ave rd blockade is in favour of the destruction of Israel and the anialation of the the Jews. The trucker wanted to meet with Trudeau or at least a liberal Minister.
The difference between these positions seem light years apparat .
Kathryn Henderson says
Maybe if Trudeau wasnt spending our tax dollars for his vacation we woukd not be angry. People in Canada are starving and homeless and hopeless while the leader of the country does not work at fixing the problems he has created but goes on vacation spending more than most people have for the years expenses. People have blinders on when it comes to Trudeau. They see him giving billions away to other countries and think thats a good thing while his own people are suffering. The natives still dont have water. Family is pitted against family over covid jabs, more crime, more homeless and more hunger. When is Trudeau going to step up and help Canadians and Canada.
Thomas R Spivak says
Mr. Mackenzie, I can generally agree with your summation of the situation and agree that although we should all embrace the right to protest, the methodology of the protestors in Toronto does little to further their cause.
Once again, we need to turn the clocks back and look at what precipitated this situation in Israel/Gaza. It’s history.
Mr. Holland is in my view closer to the point in the reality of the situation, you’ve clearly picked up a history book.
Ms Henderson, before you make brash comments on PM Trudeau and his vacations take a look back at Stephen Harper’s annual Arctic trips estimated at 3.4 million dollars.
Not to mention a list of other taxpayer funded follies for Mr. Harper and gang.
I don’t think any of us can comprehend the schedules and stress associated with leadership roles no matter what political party you adhere to.
Your rehtoric sounds more like a distaste for the wealthy having something you don’t rather sound judgement.
Have you looked at Galen Weston’s spending habits using money from inflated food prices and price fixing?
Sometimes people just need to complain and when the political party that runs the country changes as it surely will one day I wouldn’t be surprised if you are all over them as well.
I for one cannot ever abide by Mr. Ford’s leadership provincially but still I think Mr. Clement did more for the province than many Premiers had in decades.
I judge the man not the party, it’s who gets the job done.
Hugh Holland says
Dave Caswell, the Avenue Road bridge was closed for 2 hours from 2 to 4 pm by a legal and peaceful demonstration. Downtown Ottawa was blockaded and terrorized for 22 noisy days and nights by a group that was largely funded from south of the border. Big difference. The Ambassador international bridge was blocked for 4 days. The Coutts Alberta border crossing was blocked by individuals armed with assault weapons at the ready in their trucks. Fortunately our well trained police forces managed all situations well with none of the injuries and casualties that are all too common in many countries.
Hugh Mackenzie says
Hugh Holland, In relation to your comments about the disruption of the Avenue road bypass in Toronto, it was not a legal demonstration. Any unnecessary disruption of traffic is illegal. Also, it is my understanding that the demonstration around the Avenue Road bypass lasted far more than two hours. In addition this disruption was strategically planned to be in a place where many Jewish people reside. What happened there was pure antisemitism and should not be trivialized just because you want to make a point about the Ottawa Truck convey.
Erin Jones says
Good commentary, Hugh McKenzie!
The Bible says to the followers of Christ, “Be angry but do not sin.” Hatred of any other human being is a sin and it poisons that person from the inside. Hatred of our Jewish citizenry is a sin. Period. Muslims are said to believe in Jesus (they call Him,”Isa”) and they should acknowledge that the average Jewish Canadian has little to nothing to do with events in the Israel/Hamas conflict. Accordingly, any action taken against them is just ethnic hatred and THAT is what needs to be dealt with in the hearts of those who hate. I actually don’t mind the police showing kindness to the demonstrators because, as the Bible recommends, showing kindness to those who hate you is to “heap burning coals on their heads”. Breaking through the hardness of hearts that hate, represents what Jesus meant when He told His followers to turn the other cheek and even pray for those who hate us. We have laws and they should be enforced, of course, but a little kindness along the way “helps the medicine go down.” NO ONE here in Canada has much ability to do anything about the conflict in the Middle East, but what we CAN do is end hatred in our own hearts, if there is any.
We are to let our frustration/anger lead us to understand problems and propel us to seek solutions–not let it fester into hatred. Loving kindness is always the much better way and is why even the atheistic communists have often acknowledged that the Christian base of Western nations and cultures has made them successful–in the past. As we turn away from the “faith of our fathers” expect more ethnic/political strife.
Solutions are the way to dissolving frustration/anger, leading to greater unity and harmony. They are made possible when those of good will, meet at the discussion table. “First seek to understand before seeking to be understood” is very good advice for these times.
David Wexler says
For me to comment twice on one article is a first, but I feel a need to add to Hugh M’s response to Hugh H’s misinformed comment about this being a “2-hour legal and peaceful demonstration”. The demonstration was not legal as it blocked traffic on public roads and had no permits; the demonstration was anything but peaceful as it targeted Canadians in their homes and neighbourhood; the demonstration was not 2 hours as it has occurred repeatedly in this location; and the demonstration was not a demonstration in the sense of public protest but rather, if a demonstration, one focused on making Canadians of a certain background feel unsafe, unwelcome, and fearful.
Joanne Tanaka says
Many people suffer from intergenerational trauma from past wars, horrific incidents, criminal acts, whether politically generated or fuelled by racism or the anger and hate Mr Mackenzie refers to in his column’s title. The trauma experienced becomes a kind of prison of the mind and heart. There are many triggers in our media diet that can exacerbate the pain. There is nothing any persons in Canada can do that is constructive to resolving the current armed conflicts across the world. We will be welcoming more and more refugees from everywhere who have suffered trauma and lost loved ones and everything they owned. Indeed, it seems that Israel’s solution to their security concerns would mean more of Gaza’s people would be settled in Canada.
Democracy and inclusivity means we are challenged to do our best to live together peacefully, appreciating our differences and being kind to one another.We never know what the person next to us is suffering.