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It’s always kind of amusing when political parties have names that make their guiding ideology sound exactly the opposite of what it actually stands for. In Portugal, the Social Democrats are the center-right party. Russia’s controlled-opposition Liberal Democratic Party is the vehicle for Vladmir Zhirinovsky, an unhinged fascist who makes Jair Bolsonaro sound moderate and grounded.
And here in Canada we have the Liberal Party, which continues to abandon all pretence of anything resembling classical liberalism:
As opposition parties dug into their formal opposition to the Liberal government’s Emergencies Act, debates took an ugly turn in question period as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau indirectly linked a Jewish MP to Nazi supporters.
Comments directed to Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman were made during a heated exchange in which she compared his “positive, optimistic, hopeful vision of public life” in 2015 with recent negative comments made toward truck convoy supporters.
“Conservative Party members can stand with people who wave swastikas; they can stand with people who wave the Confederate flag. We will choose to stand with Canadians who deserve to be able to get to their jobs, to be able to get their lives back,” replied Trudeau.
This prompted the Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota, to remind all MPs, including the prime minister, “to use words that are not inflammatory in the House.”
Lantsman took to social media to denounce the prime minister’s comments, while at the same time asking for an apology.
“I think the Prime Minister should think long and hard about his own history before singling out a Jewish Member of Parliament and falsely accusing me of standing with a Swastika. What a disgraceful statement unbecoming of anyone in public office – he owes me an apology.”
It’s the demagogue’s oldest and most effective trick: when your opponent stands up for fundamental rights, accuse them of agreeing with and supporting the beliefs and activities of the worst people exercising these rights. It’s the same impulse that makes people attack defence lawyers for representing people accused of terrible crimes, a phenomenon we’ve seen from the right and the left in recent years. And, yes, the Conservative Party (of which I am a member, at least for the time being) hasn’t been shy about using such rhetoric when it controls the government.
I’ve written repeatedly that I do not support the “freedom convoy” and that the CPC is playing with fire in identifying so strongly with it. Despite my skepticism about whether the Emergencies Act is necessary to clear out downtown Ottawa, I remain open to being convinced otherwise.
But you don’t waive your rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by waving a Confederate flag, any more than you do when you are accused of murder. If anything it’s the opposite: a “right” that exists only at the pleasure of the government of the day, and can be rescinded just for being a bad person, isn’t really a human right at all.
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