After using emergency powers to crack down on trucking protests, old footage has resurfaced of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau saying he has “admiration” for China’s “basic dictatorship.”
The footage was from a 2013 Sun TV segment, a Canadian English-speaking news channel.
The Liberal Party leader was asked which nation he admired most. Trudeau replied:
“There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China, because their basic dictatorship is actually allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime and say “we need to go greenest fastest, we need to start investing in solar.””
China is widely known to be the world’s top polluter by far, as well as an oppressive Marxist dictatorship.
Trudeau’s comments caused significant controversy at the time, with Asian-Canadians dubbing the remarks “foolish” and “uninformed,” demanding an apology.
Since then, Trudeau has enacted unprecedented emergency powers, for which he has been accused of extreme overreach and received significant condemnation from civil liberties groups.
CCLA warns normalizing emergency legislation threatens democracy, civil liberties
This week the Sun news clip has resurfaced and gone viral, amassing over a million views on Twitter.
“I really don’t understand what “Liberal” means anymore…[it] clearly doesn’t mean freedom loving,” said one user.
I really don't understand what ' Liberal ' means anymore … clearly doesnt mean freedom loving
— Hutchenator (@ahutch2003) February 15, 2022
“You can’t get any more of a red flag than this,” said another.
One person said: “When they tell you who they are, believe them. Canada is in a world of hurt.”
Gript recently interviewed one of the truckers involved in the protest, which can be viewed below.
Canadian trucker tells Gript why they are protesting, and says Trudeau can't deal with ordinary citizens. #gripthttps://t.co/IYAAwJYuoB pic.twitter.com/IoTEE9gjYw
— gript (@griptmedia) February 15, 2022
In addition, Trudeau has received criticism from Indian media outlets and former diplomats, after it was revealed that he formerly supported very similar protests in New Delhi in 2020 and 2021.