Trudeau broke down | The Press

Why is Justin Trudeau stubbornly staying on the sidelines while protesters are making more of a mess in Ottawa and at the Canada-US border every day?

There are two good reasons for this.

First, the federal government, by virtue of its areas of jurisdiction, is dedicated to a supporting role in this crisis. We will come back later.

Second, there is no obvious solution to this problem. If so, the truckers would already be home.

On the other hand, Justin Trudeau has a space to assert his leadership.

And it is clear that he does not occupy him enough.

We do not blame the Prime Minister for not having used the army to put an end to the crisis.

Not only does this not correspond to the management style of the Trudeau government, but it is a solution that comes with the risk of huge slippages.

Nor is he reproached for not backing down on the issue of compulsory vaccination for truckers.

Not only would this represent a terrible admission of weakness, but it could have the opposite effect, that is to encourage the protesters to demand more concessions.

What we can blame him for, on the other hand, is for not moving heaven and earth to find a peaceful outcome to this crisis.

It is conceded: basically, it is because the Ottawa police did not enforce the law from the start that everything degenerated in the federal capital.

His clumsiness is all the more striking when compared to the virtuosity with which the Quebec police managed the anger of the truckers who disrupted the carnival last weekend.

Before the federal government, it is also the Ontario government that is more challenged, as are the provincial police.

But Doug Ford has been even more discreet than Justin Trudeau since the start of the crisis – he nevertheless qualified as illegal, on Wednesday, the demonstration which blocks access to the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit.

In short, the federal government is a supporting actor. But we still expect a solid performance from him (in Hollywood, there’s even an Oscar for that).

However, for more than a week, Justin Trudeau has practically skirted the walls.

He did appear during Monday’s emergency debate, but his tone was conciliatory and he didn’t make a strong impression.

“We shouldn’t fight against each other, we should unite to fight the virus,” he said.

It’s screaming true, but it’s kind of the equivalent of singing When men will live on love to protesters.

So far, calls for solidarity have not moved them very much.

We understand – and we share – the demonstrators’ fed up with health measures.

As one can understand some of the grievances formulated Tuesday by Liberal MP Joël Lighbound (and supported Wednesday by a second Liberal, Yves Robillard), even if his remarks formed a curious mix, which was quickly taken over by those who have long opposed to all sanitary measures.

It’s never a good sign when you seduce… Maxime Bernier.

That said, it is increasingly clear that there is a movement of “sedition” in Canada, as former Governor of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney has asserted. A concerted uprising against public authority.

We are talking about demonstrators who interfere with the freedom of citizens under the pretext of defending their own, who in no way reflect the concerns of the trucking industry and who – some have said it explicitly – demand the departure of the government.

We are also talking about demonstrators who have received political and financial support from the American right subservient to Donald Trump (and the NDP is right to have asked, on this subject, for an investigation by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada ).

Need we remind you: these American politicians and their supporters continue to believe that the insurrection on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021 must be qualified as “legitimate political expression”.

It is therefore not surprising to see these revolutionaries getting their legs worked up by seeing what is currently happening in Canada.

They find that our country is not immune to the anti-democratic virus that has infected the United States.

It is therefore difficult to see why the demonstrators, strong in this support, galvanized by their international successes, would voluntarily agree to return home soon. And this, even if we are witnessing the gradual lifting of health measures across the country.

All the more reason for the federal government to find a way to quickly end this increasingly disruptive but less and less legitimate uprising.

All the more reason for Justin Trudeau to show greater leadership in times of crisis.