Pro-Palestinian protesters who surrounded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a Vancouver restaurant this week did not mince their words. In a video of the incident circulating on social media, a woman can be heard chanting “You have blood on your hands!” », while calling on Mr. Trudeau to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
It is not the content of the words spoken to a Canadian prime minister that is shocking. It is rather the ease with which a group of demonstrators were able to enter a restaurant where the head of our government was dining, without going through the slightest security check, which leaves us speechless. Canada may be a free and democratic country, but we are not immune to political violence. Even more so in the current climate, which requires increased vigilance.
Alas! Mr. Trudeau does not seem to know where to stand as he faces pressure from both sides to change his position on the war in Gaza. He is torn between the most progressive members of the Liberal caucus, who unreservedly support the Palestinian cause, and those who line up firmly behind Israel in its attempt to eliminate Hamas, designated by Canada as a terrorist organization for more than two years. decades.
During the first weeks following the October 7 attacks by Hamas in Israel, Mr. Trudeau modeled the Canadian position on that of Washington, reiterating Israel’s right to defend itself and gently reminding it of its obligation to behave in accordance with international law.
At most, like US President Joe Biden before him, he called for “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid to be delivered to the population of Gaza. This position has become untenable as the deaths of civilians in Gaza have replaced the elimination of Hamas as the main issue in this conflict in the minds of more and more Canadians and, especially, among the most popular voters. likely to vote for the Liberal Party.
Canada now has more than 1.8 million Muslims, compared to approximately 330,000 people of the Jewish faith. The Muslim population is booming: it represented approximately 5% of the Canadian population in 2021, compared to 2% in 2001. The share of the Jewish population is decreasing from census to census: from 1.1% in 2001, it rose to 0.9% in 2021.
This growing disparity is not unrelated to Mr. Trudeau’s decision to finally raise his voice against Israel, as he did last week, which earned him a rebuke from the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and by the leader of the opposition in the Knesset, Yaïr Lapid. But the evolution of Canadian public opinion since October 7 and the pleas of Muslim and humanitarian organizations, which demand that Canada do more to end the suffering of Gazans, forced Mr. Trudeau to modify his speech.
“The world is witnessing the murder of women and children, babies. This must stop,” he insisted on November 9, while urging Israel to show the greatest restraint. “I have made it clear that the price of justice cannot be the continued suffering of all Palestinian civilians. Even wars have rules. »
Notwithstanding Mr. Netanyahu’s response, it was the imperatives of internal Canadian politics, and not a desire to stand out on the international scene, that pushed Mr. Trudeau to lecture Israel. His statement, however, made representatives of the Jewish community in the country shake off their hinges. “Rhetoric like that of Mr. Trudeau allows Hamas to continue to cynically and criminally use the Palestinian population as a human shield to advance its genocidal objective,” launched the CEO of the Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations, Shimon Fogel. “And while this is surely not his intention, such claims also fuel anti-Semitism here in Canada. »
Rarely have we heard such sharp criticism of a Canadian prime minister from an organization of this stature. Mr. Trudeau seems to have taken note of this since.
Jewish organizations also did not like a statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, at the Toronto Star according to which she wanted to see “a form of detente” in the conflict in Gaza, which in her eyes would allow “more negotiations around a table between the Israelis, Hamas and Qatar”. His comments gave the impression that Canada viewed Hamas as a trustworthy interlocutor.
She also said she agreed with French President Emmanuel Macron on the need to “work for a ceasefire,” which clashed with the position of her boss, who did not go that far in his statement of November 9. M’s officeme Joly was forced to issue a clarification, specifying that it was referring to negotiations for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and not to those, not yet started, for a ceasefire. “Canada’s position on Hamas as an organization remains unchanged,” said a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada. Star.
Between the tree and the bark on the Israeli-Palestinian question, Mr. Trudeau has just learned the hard way that it is not possible to please everyone. He might remember it.