Trudeau does not hesitate to use genocide against Canada, he will not use it against China

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For Justin Trudeau, Canada is a genocidal state, but the jury is still out on China. On Sunday, Trudeau refused to label China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority as genocide, even though parliament has done so, saying such a designation requires international experts.

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Trudeau said Canada committed genocide in 2019 in response to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry. When the final report of the inquiry was delivered, Trudeau said he accepted all of their findings, including a conclusion that Canada had committed genocide, but Trudeau did not use the word himself.

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Under political and media pressure, everything changed.

« We accepted their findings, including that what happened amounted to genocide, » Trudeau said in June 2019.

He and his government also accepted that the residential school system was also genocide, which means that more than once the Trudeau government has declared Canada guilty of genocide. Yet on Sunday Trudeau was asked about China’s treatment of the Uyghurs, whom Parliament voted 266 to 0 to declare genocide in February 2021.

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« The Canadian Parliament has already called China’s treatment of Uyghurs genocide, why not you? » Trudeau was interviewed by CTV reporter Annie Bergeron-Oliver.

“The word genocide, acts of genocide are things to take incredibly seriously as a world. We have objective, historical and expert processes for putting these words or designations in place,” Trudeau said. « Genocide designations must be made by the appropriate international authorities. »

That is certainly not what happened when he called Canada a genocidal state. Nor is it what happened when, earlier this year, Trudeau said people were « absolutely right » to call Russia’s actions in Ukraine a genocide.

When it comes to China, however, he takes a softer approach, certainly softer than the process in place to declare the Canadian government a genocidal actor. He is afraid of China, afraid of insulting the great power and its basic dictatorship.

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It’s infuriating, it’s insulting, it’s downright wrong, but it’s also normal with Trudeau.

“There are many ongoing debates around words and the use of words. Our focus as a country, as leaders, as citizens has to be on the steps we take to end this,” Trudeau said in 2019 when he first used genocide.

Interestingly, Trudeau said the focus was on the words, he wanted action. He has shown through his actions that the opposite is true.

Far too many First Nations communities still do not have clean drinking water, they do not have access to basic services for which the federal government is responsible, such as functioning schools. Solving these issues would show that Trudeau wanted to act, instead he talks about these issues but does not act.

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Nor did his government attempt to hold anyone accountable for issues like residential schools. There are four living prime ministers – Clark, Mulroney, Campbell and Chrétien – who oversaw the residential school system. Each of these leaders ran governments that ran the schools. Why have they not been prosecuted or even officially condemned? If Trudeau believed his words, he surely would have done something.

The last boarding school closed in 1996, but the last to open was in 1976 under Pierre Trudeau. Why do we continue to honor Trudeau Sr. with an airport, a mountain, schools and a foundation named after him?

Trudeau’s lack of action on concrete or symbolic measures should tell First Nations communities across Canada that these are just words for him. That Trudeau is afraid to use a word to describe China’s actions while using it so casually to describe Canada’s actions tells the whole country everything we need to know about the Prime Minister and his character, or lack thereof.

These are just words, until he is afraid of the leaders in Beijing.