“The gradual red pilling of Bill Maher has been something to watch over the last few years,” Stacey Lennox wrote recently, and Matt Margolis noted that “his rants are important, because even he is embarrassed by the radical elements of his party, and he’s not afraid to call them out.” On Friday, Maher also called out Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, reading aloud comments Trudeau made about unvaccinated people and excoriating the feckless Canadian leader’s authoritarianism, even likening him to Adolf Hitler. But unlike the Left’s comparisons of virtually every dissenter from their agenda, especially Donald Trump, to Hitler, Maher actually had a point.
Trudeau, according to Maher, “said — this is a couple of weeks ago, he was — or maybe this is September, but he was talking about people who were not vaccinated. He said, ‘They don’t believe in science, they’re often misogynistic, often racist.’ No, they’re not. He said, ‘But they take up space and with that, we have to make a choice in terms of a leader of a country: do we tolerate these people?’”
.@billmaher points out the terrible comments Trudeau has made on unvaccinated Canadians pic.twitter.com/l2BQzLlwGp
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) February 12, 2022
Maher’s quote was accurate. Trudeau’s full statement was: “They don’t believe in science/progress and are very often misogynistic and racist. It’s a very small group of people, but that doesn’t shy away from the fact that they take up some space. This leads us, as a leader and as a country, to make a choice: Do we tolerate these people?”
“’Tolerate these people?’” Maher asked. “Now you do sound like Hitler.” Maher continued, “And recently, he talked about them ‘holding unacceptable views.’”
Maher was right. Proposing the idea that some people simply “take up some space” and opening the question of whether or not they should be “tolerated” is a hallmark of totalitarian regimes, of which Hitler’s was foremost. The specter of such language coming from the prime minister of Canada is nothing short of chilling.
It is, however, no surprise. Trudeau has a long record of affinity for authoritarian governments. In 2013, before he was prime minister, he was asked what country he admired most. Trudeau answered, “You know, there’s a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say ‘we need to go green fastest … we need to start investing in solar.’ I mean, there is a flexibility that I know Stephen Harper must dream about, of having a dictatorship that he can do everything he wanted, that I find quite interesting.”
And when Fidel Castro died in 2016, Trudeau’s statement gave no hint of the bloodthirstiness and repression of the Communist regime in Cuba. Instead, Trudeau was fairly gushing with praise for “Cuba’s longest-serving President.” He declared that “Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.”
Related: Rebel News Co-Founder DEMOLISHES Canadian Media’s Lies About the Freedom Convoy
Trudeau acknowledged that Castro was a “controversial figure,” but insisted that “both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people, who had a deep and lasting affection for ‘el Comandante.’” He said that his family was joining “the people of Cuba today in mourning the loss of this remarkable leader.”
Now we can see that this was not just an ill-considered outpouring of grief for a man Trudeau obviously loved dearly. His praise for China and for Castro have in common an admiration for the authoritarian’s ability to get things done with no regard for the opposition or the give-and-take of the democratic process. China was able to go green and Castro was able to make significant improvements to education and healthcare (in Trudeau’s view, not in real life) because they didn’t have to deal with all the carping and compromise that working with parliaments and voters entails.
Bill Maher thus makes a sound and important point. It remains to be seen whether or not Justin Trudeau will emulate the iron-fist regimes he so admires in dealing with the Freedom Convoy. But anyone who is surprised that Trudeau would make the statements Maher quoted simply hasn’t been paying attention. Justin Trudeau has made his authoritarian leanings known for years. It’s a shame that Canadians didn’t ponder the significance of his statements on China and Castro and think twice about entrusting him with the fate of their republic.
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