Should Justin Trudeau be deciding what views are 'acceptable'?The prime minister's scornful dismissal of the truckers convoy makes me wonder: have those who rule us forgotten the basis of their rule?National Post (Canada), Jan 28, 2022, Rex Murphy
Trudeau, in perhaps his meanest public statement to date, scorned them. He dismissed and derogated their motives. He gave the dismissal in his best “I’m-a-real-leader,” determined voice. His “I-really-mean-it-this-time” voice.
He described them as “a small fringe minority.” A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian, someone once said. But this “small fringe minority” can’t be Canadians. They have “unacceptable views.”
“Unacceptable views?” Are we in China now? ...
That statement of his made me genuinely wonder: have those who rule us forgotten the basis of their rule? The leaders of a democracy do not have “excommunicatory” competence. They do not get to declare what is a “fringe minority.”...
So, directly, I ask — who is Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister, to declaim on what is “acceptable” thinking? Does a prime minister of a democracy rule on what are “acceptable” responses to his very own government’s policies and practices?
This is a 33-per-cent-minority prime minister. So let me ask again what I have asked in other columns.
Has Trudeau had the courtesy to go and meet with a few truckers? Not just their leaders, if indeed they have formal leaders. Has he listened to any of the actual individuals who have thought it worthwhile to make this arduous journey? No cameras. No photo op. Just sit in a cab, or grab a coffee in a diner, and hear a few individual drivers out. It would be intensely enlightening.
More:
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-should-justin-trudeau-be-deciding-what-views-are-acceptable
