Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed “regret” for calling the Freedom Convoy protestors a “fringe minority” with”unacceptable views” a year after cracking down on protestors with the Emergencies Act.
The Canadian Prime Minister spoke out about comments he made in January of 2022, prior to the arrival of the Freedom Convoy protestors in Ottawa, in which he called protestors, “the small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa, who are holding unacceptable views that they are expressing, do not represent the views of Canadians.”
“I wish I had phrased that differently,” Trudeau said and claimed that he was referring to a small minority within the protest but not the protesters as a whole, the National Post reports.
“The fact is there is a very small number of people in this country who deliberately spread misinformation and disinformation that led to Canadians’ deaths that lead to excessive hardship in people who believe them,” Trudeau said and added, “But that is a small subset of people who were just hurting and worrying and wanting to be heard.”
The “fringe minority” comments were not the only derogatory statements made by Trudeau toward the Freedom Convoy protestors last year.
Just days after the protestors arrived in Ottawa, Trudeau called them “racist” and stated, “A few people shouting and waving swastikas does not define who Canadians are.”
The Freedom Convoy protestors were protesting the coronavirus vaccine mandates and other restrictions but were largely painted as part of an anti-vaccine movement, which Trudeau had previously labelled as “racist” and “misogynistic.”
Restrictions at the time included vaccine passports to enter certain venues in many provinces and even saw the province of Quebec attempt to implement a special tax on unvaccinated people before provinces dropped restrictions as the protests went on.
Trudeau eventually invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history, which grants emergency powers to the government, to quash the protests with force.
The Canadian Prime Minister’s recent regret comes after the inquiry on the use of the act found it to have been justified, despite criticising Trudeau’s comments, the government and police for contributing to the situation that led to the act being needed.
Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), reacted to Trudeau’s statement by saying, “His purpose is to divide and conquer. He believes that if he can turn Canadians against each other, then they’ll forget how miserable life has become.”
“He thinks that if you’re afraid of your neighbour, you’ll forget that you can’t pay your rent. If you’re afraid of a trucker, you might forget that you’re hungry, and take your eyes off of the guy who caused the problem in the first place,” he added.