Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been holding cross-country town halls for the past many weeks, while presenting himself as a “man of the people”—as these events are giving ordinary Canadians a rare chance to ask him unvetted questions.
But apparently you’d better ask the “right” questions, or else he’ll blow up and attack you personally as the questioner. A new clip has surfaced of a recent exchange centered on a very legitimate question from an audience member about Ukraine, and Canada’s refusal to push for peace.
Prominent Canadian political commentator Stephen McIntyre presented the town hall video on Twitter, while providing the following context to the back-and-forth between audience member “Michael” and PM Trudeau:
Someone asks why Canada hasn’t put forward a peace proposal to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, even if Trudeau disagreed with the question, his knee jerk reaction is to say “Am going to call you out” and says the individual has been swayed by Russian propaganda and disinformation. Chilling and Orwellian.
Of course, Michael the audience member didn’t so much as “pick sides” or express some kind of admiration for the Russian side or Putin. Instead, he merely asked about the prospect for peace, and why Trudeau’s government wasn’t doing more to bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table.
Michael began his question with, “Canada is traditionally known for advocating for peace, I know we’re a member of NATO, but I know we don’t have a nuclear weapon.” The above clip is edited (see fuller clip below), but Michael at one point explained that the conflict has become a full-blown “proxy war”, posing immense danger for uncontrollable escalation.
And then he posed to Trudeau: “Why has your government failed to draft a peace proposal to end this war in Ukraine?” The audience member explained that Canada should be exhausting all diplomatic channels instead of escalating while following Washington’s policies of escalation.
The prime minister immediately took a condescending tone and posture: “Am going to call you out!” he told Michael. Included in his essentially ‘non-response’ to the actual question, Trudeau called the audience member “totally wrong” before charging that his words and perspective were all coming from “Russian propaganda and disinformation”.
Here’s the fuller clip of the exchange…
What more can be said of this truly downright Orwellian silencing of speech and legitimate questioning of top decision-makers…
This post was originally published at Zero Hedge