Trudeau criticized during visit to EU parliament: ‘You are a disgrace for any democracy’

Trudeau’s visit to Europe to deal with the Ukrainian conflict was met with harsh defiance from a few EU Members of Parliament.  

Mislav Kolakušić a lawyer and independent MEP for Croatia, addressed Parliament saying, “Canada, once a symbol of the modern world, has become a symbol of civil rights violations  under your [Trudeau] quasi-liberal boot in recent months.”

He went on to explain, “We watched how you trample women with horses, how you block the bank accounts of single parents so that they can't even pay their children's education and medicine, that they can't pay utilities, mortgages for their homes."” Referring to Trudeau’s policy of freezing the bank account of those who donated to the freedom convoy.  

The Freedom Convoy was led by a group of truckers who were fed up with new regulations that would require truckers to show proof of vaccination to cross the Canadian-U.S. border. The convoy raised over 10 million dollars from supporters, and remained in Ottawa for three weeks. 

Trudeau then invoked the never-used before, Emergencies Act, deployed police to violently remove the protesters and had the bank accounts of those who supported the convoy frozen.      

Kolakušić concluded by saying “For you, [Trudeau] it may be liberal methods, but for many citizens of the world it is a dictatorship of the worst kind.”

Official translation of Kolakušić’s remarks: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/plenary/hr/vod.html?mode=unit&vodLanguage=HR&playerStartTime=20220323-18:31:56&playerEndTime=20220323-18:34:03#

MEP Christine Anderson representing Germany as part of the Alternative for Germany party, objected to Trudeau being permitted to speak, suggesting that a special meeting under Article 144, which calls for a “debate to be held on an urgent case of a breach of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”

She described the Canadian Prime Minister as one “who openly admires the Chinese basic dictatorship, who tramples on fundamental rights by persecuting and criminalizing his own citizens as terrorists just because they dared to stand up to his perverted concept of democracy.”

And concluded by saying, “Mr. Trudeau, you are a disgrace for any democracy. Please spare us your presence.” 

Bernhard Zimniok, of the Alternative for Germany party, also tried to prevent Trudeau from speaking. 

“Clearly the values of democracy are being despised by this individual. Let us not give someone like this any speaking time in this house of democracy.”

Romanian MEP Christian Terhes refused to even attend Trudeau’s speech in the EU Parliament. 

“You can’t come to teach Putin’s democracy lessons from the European Parliament when you pass with horse hoofs over your own citizens who demand that their fundamental rights be respected,” he said via a Facebook post.

None of these comments prevented Trudeau from speaking, and there were numerous MEPs who welcomed the PM and gave him a standing ovation after his speech. 

Global News political correspondent David Akin, reports that only about 200 of the 705 MEPs turned out to hear Trudeau speak.

Meanwhile, in Canada, this past weekend, a smaller convoy made its way through Ottawa continuing to protest Canada's discriminatory policies against the unvaccinated who are still prohibited from boarding planes or trains.