In 2015, the Liberal Party of Canada won a resounding victory at the federal elections, claiming almost 40 per cent of the vote share. Its leader, now Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau stood on a platform of liberal principles. He publicly championed the plight of refugees and immigrants, supported a woman’s right to wear a niqab at citizenship ceremonies, and argued that convicted terrorists had the right to retain their Canadian citizenship. Trudeau convinced Canadians that Canada should be an ‘open, generous and welcoming’ country.
One of Trudeau’s first actions as PM was the commitment to bring tens of thousands of Syrian refugees to Canada. As a result, over 40,000 Syrians have since settled in the country. In 2017, Trudeau defended his government’s decision to issue an official apology to Omar Khadr, a Canadian al-Qaeda activist and former Guantanamo Bay inmate, and grant him a compensation payment of $10.5 million. The aforementioned examples have led many commentators to describe Canada as ‘a bastion of liberal values’.
However, since Trudeau’s landslide win, Canada has seen a dramatic rise in the radical right. Reported hate crimes are at the highest since records began, rising every year since 2015, and mostly targeting Canada’s Muslim, Jewish, and black populations. The most horrific incident was that of 29 January 2017 when Alexandre Bissonnette, a white nationalist, entered a mosque in Quebec City shortly before evening prayers and shot at ‘everything’ that moved until he emptied his weapon. Six people were killed in the attack and five were seriously injured. (more...)
'A Bastion of Liberal Values'? The Rise of the Radical Right in Canada
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