In the midst of the controversy over the appointment of Amira Elwaghaby, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a point of making a long clarification to defend the choice of his government, while offering his perspective on the “Quebec bashing” and the “extremely defensive reaction on the part of Quebeckers”, whom he says “understand”.
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“We must remember several facts,” began Mr. Trudeau before lending himself to a reading of Quebec history before his caucus meeting on Wednesday morning.
“Quebecers are among the most ardent defenders of individual rights and freedoms, and that comes from a place in recent history where, before the Quiet Revolution, Quebec was subjected to a religion that did not respect the rights and freedoms individual.”
This explains why “mistrust” towards religion is present in Quebec more than elsewhere in Canada, and which is often confused “with this idea of intolerance towards others”, he said.
“But that’s not it at all,” said Justin Trudeau. “Quebecers just want everyone to be liberated and to be completely free.”
“So people need to understand a little bit that there are two different visions of what is a secular society, what is a secular society, and that will be resolved when reasonable people have a real conversation and deep.”
All this “controversy” and even this “confrontation” between “English Canada” and Quebec stems from these differences of opinion, dependent on different historical paths.
“It’s easy to go up to the barricades and point fingers at each other,” he continued. But it takes people to explain the perspectives, to explain how believers of any religion whatsoever can feel pained by this perspective and this reality of Quebec culture.
Responding to a question that remained unclear until today, the Prime Minister said he was aware of ‘some of what he said’ but not ‘some others who are coming out now’.