Dear Editor,
When Justin Trudeau called a woman “racist” after she asked him a question at a rally in Quebec, free speech hit rock bottom.
This was her question: “Who will pay the 126 million dollars that Quebec has had to draw from their coffers in order to provide for the refugees crossing the Canadian border from the United States?”
Trudeau responded to this legitimate question by accusing the woman of being an intolerant racist.
Having watched the entire video of the altercation and trusting the translation of French to English nowhere does the woman engage in racial comments or slurs.
Her concern is who will pick up the tab.
Yet Trudeau goes so far as to tell her that she does not belong in Canada!
Does that mean anyone who questions this Prime Minister, who does not agree with open borders, abortion, and a free pass for lawbreakers is not welcome here because they are somehow racist and intolerant?
Is that what this Liberal Government is working toward? According to Trudeau’s rhetoric, his policies are put in place in order to pull the Canadian people and their communities together.
I think we can safely say this approach will not have the desired result.
To me, these are not legitimate refugees because none of these people have subjected to torture or are in fear of their lives from the Americans.
Yes, I have heard their reasoning that they fear Trump will deport them.
And why would that be?
Could it be because they have already entered that country illegally and if they were truly refugees, the US would have to process their claim but instead they come to the place of least resistance?
A country whose leadership has tried to win Brownie points with the rest of the world by announcing that we are nice people and we will take in any and all.
The only problem is as the woman asked, who will pay for this open border policy?
And the answer, of course, is the Canadian taxpayer.
It appears to me our PM does not even like the population that built this county.
Almost daily we are bombarded with what awful people we are.
Always at the forefront is the so-called “dark side” of our history.
Never mind the dedication of the early settlers that overcame tremendous hardships in order to offer a better world for their children.
Never mind the families that built churches and schools as soon as a community was beginning to form.
Never mind the men who set out to explore and map huge unknown areas of land in some cases risking life and limb, not for glory, but for the good of all.
A railroad of tremendous length was designed and built traversing some of the most rugged terrain in the world in order to transport needed supplies for the existing and growing population.
Opportunities presented and opportunities seized by men like Banting and Best whose discovery of insulin has saved countless lives over the years, not just in Canada but all over the world.
Never mind the women like Irene Parlby who defied the culture of the day in order to gain a woman’s right to vote.
Canada being one of the first to legislate that right.
How many Canadians have ever heard of Dr. Charlotte Ross who received her medical degree in 1875 and practised medicine first in Quebec and then in Manitoba as one of the first women ever to do so?
Mistakes were made to be sure but given the times and what the population had to work with it has been an amazing transformation from nothingness to what we enjoy today.
Can we not celebrate our accomplishments?
Can we not foster a bit of ‘nationalistic pride’ without being regarded as the enemy, the intolerant ones, or the racists?
Remember, forced uniformity is not unity and the constant attack on the largest segment of the population in this great nation does not create harmony.
Faye Pearson,
Stettler, Ab.
