Is Trudeau Moving To The Far Right?

This afternoon (Thursday, May 18, 2017) CBC’s Power and Politics host Hannah Thibedeau hosted ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (“ex” as in being forced out of the current Poroshenko government). Apparently Yats has been traipsing around western political circles looking for support for his neoNazi anti-Russian stance in the Ukraine. Support for this would obviously be easy to find in the U.S. as their whole intention is to move NATO up to Russia’s borders and to isolate and dominate Russia.

Thibedeaus’ questions were reasonable but hardly penetrating, and not once did she question the false assumptions made by Yats during the interview. As for balanced broadcasting, forget it, the CBC is very much in alignment with U.S. foreign policy and thus Canadian foreign policy. Thibedeau ignored the lie told by Yatsenyuk that Russia invaded Georgia without first stating Georgia attacked Ossetia first, a region that has been de facto independent since the breakup of the former Soviet Union. For this particular instance it should also be noticed that once having defeated Georgia, the Russians withdrew while the Georgian leader essentially defected from the country due to criminal charges against him and fled to Ukraine where he has tried to establish another political identity.

Also ignored by Thibedeau is the overall background – and I can’t believe that anyone in the Canadian government would still believe otherwise – that it was the U.S. that funded and supported events leading up to and including the Maidan with the ultimate goal of securing Crimea and Sevastopol. She did not challenge the mythology of NATO being a non-aggressive formation as implied by Yatsenyuk’s statements continually reiterated about Russia being the aggressor nation. She did not question the situation in Luhansk and Donetsk where Ukrainian forces essentially controlled by Yats’ neoNazi compatriots continue to shell civilian areas, killing civilians and destroying civilian structures, both war crimes.

She did not seem aware, perhaps wilfully so, that the leaders of the new republics have sworn they will never rejoin Ukraine as the Minsk Agreements are continually being avoided by Kiev and the Ukrainian forces (no new constitution, no discussion with “rebel” leaders, no maintenance of civic structures and functions, crossing over the withdrawal line and keeping heavy artillery near the demarcation line). Ukraine has cut off rail line traffic including coal for power, has attacked water and power structures, has refused to pay pensions and other state benefits – without considering that those actions only consolidate the resolve of the people to be independent or rejoin Russia. These are all actions taken by the Ukrainian government as they wish to proceed with their ethnic cleansing of all things Russian.

As the CBC reflects the general attitude of the government although nominally independent, the weakness of the interview can only translate to Canada’s continuing and perhaps increasing role in acting as cover for U.S. militarized foreign policy. Thus the heading question, is Trudeau moving to the far right?

It would appear that the answer is yes, as recent actions and intentions indicate. Canada’s foreign policy is led by an elitist wannabe plutocrat, as PM Trudeau maintains Chrystia Freeland as our Foreign Policy minister. Freeland is a staunch anti-Russian fanatic, is very pro-Ukraine, and while denying her roots within the Ukrainian Nazi movement, those roots seem to be well recognized by other media. Further, in her writing titled Plutocrats she says,

“America really does need many of its plutocrats. We benefit from the goods they produce and the jobs they create. And even if a growing portion of those jobs are overseas, it is better to be the home of these innovators—native and immigrant alike—than not. In today’s hypercompetitive global environment, we need a creative, dynamic super-elite more than ever.”

Israel

“Today, while we celebrate Israel’s independence, we also reaffirm our commitment to fight anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, May 2, 2017

Really? First of all, the Jewish people are not the only Semites living in the region, especially as Palestinians are Semites as well. Even David Ben-Gurion, the father of Israel (or at least of its nuclear weapons), recognized that the indigenous Palestinians were more than likely descendants of historical Semitic people in the region. Obversely, many Jewish people are not Semitic, having become Jewish through conversion – one can convert one’s ideology, but not convert one’s biology.

That is old news, as old as the Zionist movement and one of its biggest manipulations and false accusations made against anyone that speaks out against Zionist ideology. It is the commitment to fight anti-Zionism that stands out as a radical turn to the right. Zionism is – or at its origin it was – a secular ideology using the Jewish religion as a means to obtain its goals. Well before the holocaust, the Zionists advocated ethnic cleansing of the region, built the lie of “a land without people for a people without a land”. Ethnic cleansing was accepted to the point where genocide was also an acceptable idea.

Along with these good Canadian values are more modern Canadian values. This includes military laws for the majority of Palestinians in the West Bank, imprisonment of all of Gaza and denial of all humanitarian rights, the abuse, torture, and imprisonment of children, destroying Palestinian civic structures, a variety of civic laws that deny equal treatment in most areas of civilian life. Of course Canada need only to look at its own history and current actions in relation to its indigenous people to recognize why many of these Canadian values are so readily acceptable by Trudeau and company today.

Given a Foreign Affairs Minister with a neoNazi bent, and ridiculous statements about supporting another country’s ethnic cleansing/genocidal ideology the current “Liberal” government is much more in alignment with U.S./EU neoconservative ideologies than anything to do with anything truly liberal (“generous” as per the Oxford dictionary) or progressive. Combine that with a sycophantic following for deep state U.S. foreign policy and the question continues.

I do not expect an answer, at least not one that actually responds to specific criticisms. For Israel I would expect the usual drivel about a right to protect itself (even though Israel militarily dominates the region and oppresses the indigenous Palestinians) and the usual never to be realized two state solution – in reality now a de facto unitary state with its own system of apartheid (oops, another bad and soon to be banned word in Canada – but then look at our own indigenous population…..).

Canada makes a great pretence of being a progressive government, and has successfully used women’s rights and the Syrian immigrants in the media for its exemplary characteristic. But for Canada’s Foreign Policy in alignment with the U.S. and many of its domestic policies in alignment with corporate elites the Trudeau government leans far to the right.

Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular contributor/columnist of opinion pieces and book reviews for The Palestine Chronicle. Miles’ work is also presented globally through other alternative websites and news publications.