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Trudeau Eulogies


IC Khari

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Pierre Trudeau was a member of the Canadian Communist Party in the 50's & was a labor organizer in Quebec. He later became a Liberal when he entered federal politics. So, you know Justin was impressed by Castro as his father was enamoured with him. Two fellow communists talking by the fire. I don't agree that "All of Canada mourns". No, Justin does so don't include the rest of us.

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2 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Pierre Trudeau was a member of the Canadian Communist Party in the 50's & was a labor organizer in Quebec. He later became a Liberal when he entered federal politics. So, you know Justin was impressed by Castro as his father was enamoured with him. Two fellow communists talking by the fire. I don't agree that "All of Canada mourns". No, Justin does so don't include the rest of us.

Pierre actually stated "Viva Castro" at one point on a visit to Cuba while PM, and I believe he also allowed plane-loads of Cuban terrorists to land and refuel in Gander on their way to Angola.  Not Canada's finest moment.  At least it wasn't, until Justin's statement came out yesterday.  I actually saw Justin on the news the other day when he was in Cuba and he was praising Raul Castro and saying that their families had been friends for generations.  I thought I was going to be ill, but since that story only got coverage in Canada no one cared.  This statement by Trudeau is being pilloried world wide.  And rightly so.  

Edited by kelownabomberfan
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Another hash-tag has started on Twitter, this time making fun of Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the British Labour Party, who put out a similar glowing statement about Castro, completely glossing over Castro's mass-murdering past by just saying "for all of his flaws".   Now #forallhisflaws is trending on Twitter as the British get into the act of using the same mocking comments about Corbyn's horrific comment as many were doing with #trudeaueulogies.

NINTCHDBPICT000285077561

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24 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

Pierre actually stated "Viva Castro" at one point, and I believe he also allowed plane-loads of Cuban terrorists to land and refuel in Gander on their way to Angola.  Not Canada's finest moment.  At least it wasn't, until Justin's statement came out yesterday.  I actually saw Justin on the news the other day when he was in Cuba and he was praising Raul Castro and saying that their families had been friends for generations.  I thought I was going to be ill, but since that story only got coverage in Canada no one cared.  This statement by Trudeau is being pilloried world wide.  And rightly so.  

Life's a beach in Trudeau's world. All flowers & sunshine. This is just typical Trudeau shill. How many stupid comments has he made over terrorist attacks in Europe? "Canada stands with the City of Paris". Canada stands with the City of Brussels". "Canada stands with the people of Belgium". "Canada stands with the people of France". Meanwhile, Justin does nothing. He needs to go stand in the corner. If Trudeau says he has these countries backs, they're in huge trouble.

Edited by SpeedFlex27
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20 hours ago, Goalie said:

Meh. Castro never did anything to me. So really ... I don't give a crap. I think its odd for people to celebrate someone's death tho. 

To some people Castro was good. Plenty of mourners in Cuba right now shows you that 

Just like when Kim Jong Il died.  

Edited by kelownabomberfan
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About 10 years ago we went for a week long holiday to Cuba over New Year.    Rather then a tour into Havana on a bus with a big group, we opted for a more personal tour with just our group in a mini-van with a tour guide.  Got to know the guide over the course of the day and by the end of it he opened up a bit to us.

In a quiet moment at the end of the day as we were grabbing a drink, he told us about how his job dealt with showing tourists around all day long, every day.  He got to meet a lot of different people from a lot of different countries, but he also felt like a prisoner in his country.  He (like most citizens) was not allowed to leave Cuba for any reason, including vacation.  He had absolutely zero chance of visiting all these countries of people he had met.  They had no freedom to live their lives how they wanted.  They had to follow the state rules and the propaganda that was forced onto them.

Just imagine if that was how Canada was run.  You had little say in how you lived your life, what your job was, where you wanted to live, and where you wanted to go.  We all take the basic freedoms that we have for granted and can't even contemplate what it is like for people in other countries who don't have them.

We each tossed in $5 US for a tip at the end of the day, to give him $25 after driving us around and showing us the sites for a full day.  He was almost in tears as that was more than a months wage for him.  Granted that could have been a bit of an act as I'm sure he gets this regularly with his job (being in tourism was one of the best paying jobs in Cuba because of the tips), but it seemed very genuine.

And you know, Hitler never did anything to me personally, it doesn't mean I don't give a crap about what he did.

 

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I actually some people tweeting about how anyone who is critical of the PM better not have ever visited Cuba on vacation.  I dont see the connection whatsoever.  In fact, perhaps, as Rich demonstrated, people who visited Cuba might have a personal story to relate about the country and Castro.

Its a weird world we live in now where world leaders can openly embrace a guy like Castro and in many circles its considered a relevant opinion.  Personally, I'd be thrilled if it led to Trudeau's shamed resignation.  I actually think that would be reasonable.  How many more despots is this kid going to praise on behalf of "all Canadians"?

Worse, I bet JT didnt even think he was making a controversial statement.  He was probably legitimately shocked at the backlash. 

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A friend of mine worked for a Canadian company in Cuba for five years.  He actually was one of these guys who believed all of the nonsense about Cuba being a "socialist paradise" and how Castro was a social justice hero who had brought health care and education to the people.  It didn't take him long after starting work in Cuba to realize that was all PR bunk.  He also as a Canadian had some more freedoms and saw some of the large estates that Fidel and Raul live on, while the majority of the country languishes in poverty, with no hope.  He said that the people have been lied to and indoctrinated for so long that there will be no counter-revolution.  The only hope is for the Castros to relinquish power and bring in elections.  And that's not going to happen, as there are what, 8 Castro sons that already run almost everything?

The most disheartening sight for him was seeing fields full of food just rotting, because the state-controlled agriculture department was so inept that they couldn't or wouldn't give the order to harvest the crops on time, and no one is allowed to harvest anything until told to do so, on pain of arrest and probably torture/death.  He couldn't understand that.

So needless to say, he was partying on Saturday night. 

Edited by kelownabomberfan
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A little more Nuanced take:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/27/opinions/trudeau-castro-complicated-legacy-joseph-opinion/index.html

Quote

 

Peniel Joseph is the Barbara Jordan Chair in Political Values and Ethics and the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also a professor of history. He is the author of several books, most recently "Stokely: A Life." The views expressed here are his.

(CNN)The firestorm over Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's praise for Fidel Castro is proof that, despite the US government's official denunciation of the Cuban leader, Castro's legacy around the world ultimately remains far more complicated.

Trudeau's characterization of Castro as a "legendary revolutionary and orator" drew swift and withering rebukes from American elected officials, most notably from Sen. Marco Rubio, who tweeted that Trudeau's remarks are "shameful & embarrassing," and Sen. Ted Cruz, who called them "disgraceful." Both senators are descendants of Cubans who fled pre- and post-revolutionary Cuba and both remain determined to close off US-Cuban ties until the island's communist regime is replaced with free elections.
Peniel Joseph
 
Peniel Joseph
Castro's death, taking place against the backdrop of President Obama's efforts at the end of his tenure to normalize relations with Cuba, has touched off a fierce international debate over the meaning of human rights, social justice and political revolution.
Trudeau's praise illuminates the fact that the meaning of Castro's legacy largely depends on historical context. He stands alongside Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X as a political icon who indelibly shaped world history and re-shaped global politics before reaching the age of 40. Castro's successful 1959 revolution overthrew the US-backed Batista regime in favor of a socialist political experiment that was soon backed by the Soviet Union. Castro's acumen as a revolutionaryreached far beyond his country's borders. He excoriated American imperialism in jaw-dropping three-hour speeches before the United Nations, met with Malcolm X and stayed in Harlem during a September 1960 visit to the States. He offered military, financial and medical assistance to unfolding liberation movements in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Trudeau calls Castro a "remarkable leader." As the leader of a tiny island 90 miles off the coast of Florida determined to reject the dictates of US foreign policy, Castro was nothing if not a survivor: He weathered assassination attempts, fallout from the Cuban missile crisis and the economic punishment of the US embargo to emerge as the symbolic leader of revolutionary movements raging across the Third World during the 1960s and 1970s.
For liberation movements—including Nelson Mandela's African National Congress in South Africa—Cuba proved itself to be, under Castro's leadership, a friend of last resort, willing to stand by jailed and demonized guerrilla fighters who, over time, emerged as global statesmen. Cuba provided safe space for Black Panthers, political exiles and revolutionaries around the world challenging what Castro blasted as American imperialism.
Castro's swashbuckling forays into international affairs also overshadowed a visible dark side: the ruthless suppression of anti-Castro opposition forces, the curtailment of freedom of speech and expression, the imprisonment and killing of political enemies and a failure to confront racial hierarchies in revolutionary Cuba.
For all the genuine strides his regime made in offering free education, medical care, housing and resources for the Cuban people, Castro's authoritarian rule atrophied a once-promising revolution into a virtual dictatorship.
Castro's most enduring legacy is a contradictory one. For millions around the world, he remains a defiant figure: the handsome, cigar-chomping leader who attended UN meetings in olive fatigues, comfortably gossiped with Cuban peasants without security guards and challenged the hypocrisies of American politicians who balked at his close ties to the Soviet Union and nationalization of Western industries on the island but were willing to support pro-capitalist dictators. For his critics, especially the large Cuban-American exile community in Florida, Castro remains in death an egomaniacal dictator who murdered friends, families and innocents and forced them into over a half-century-long exile they pray will end soon.
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Join us on Twitter and Facebook

Trudeau's expression of "deep sorrow" for Castro's death takes us back to an almost-vanished historical era, one in which public admission of complexity was not forbidden, statesmen did not use Twitter to make rash declarations and where even political enemies were offered a measure of dignity and respect in death. Trudeau's words acknowledge the achievements of a towering, but flawed, political figure. A warts-and-all portrait of Castro will satisfy neither unblinking supporters nor inveterate critics. Neither the saint nor the monster he's been often characterized as being, Castro was something far more and far less: a lawyer turned guerrilla leader who, in an extraordinary historical moment, threatened the legitimacy of the world's greatest superpower. He did it with a charismatic panache that dazzled millions and inaugurated political regimes that, like his own in Cuba, simultaneously furthered human rights and denied these same rights to internal critics.
Trudeau's remembrance of Castro reminds us that the Cuban leader's final legacy has yet to be written, but will be as interesting, complex and messy in death as it was in the course of his lifetime.

 

 
Edited by wanna-b-fanboy
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I dont think think there was anything complex about JT's statement.  Nor was there anything complex about the way Castro conducted himself and treated his people.  Oh he did some nice things?  Well then I guess the murders were ok.  Smart liberal wordsmiths might come to Trudeau's aid and clarify his statement in a way he's not nearly smart enough to do himself.  But it doesnt change the shameful and embarrassing tone-deaf and ignorant statement he made.

Imagine if JT was PM when Bin laden was killed...he would have mourned his death too.

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6 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

I actually some people tweeting about how anyone who is critical of the PM better not have ever visited Cuba on vacation.  I dont see the connection whatsoever.  In fact, perhaps, as Rich demonstrated, people who visited Cuba might have a personal story to relate about the country and Castro.

Its a weird world we live in now where world leaders can openly embrace a guy like Castro and in many circles its considered a relevant opinion.  Personally, I'd be thrilled if it led to Trudeau's shamed resignation.  I actually think that would be reasonable.  How many more despots is this kid going to praise on behalf of "all Canadians"?

Worse, I bet JT didnt even think he was making a controversial statement.  He was probably legitimately shocked at the backlash. 

Step back off the ledge. I don't agree with what he said either, but this is ridiculous.

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Just now, sweep the leg said:

Step back off the ledge. I don't agree with what he said either, but this is ridiculous.

Praising two or three dictators?  I think if the backlash snowballed, he would be looking at a dive in popularity.  But not enough Canadians care and too many lefties are presenting praise for Castro as reasonable, which confuses people.

I wasnt overly clear.  If people called for his resignation, I'd applaud it.  It wont happen ofcourse.  JT is wholly unprepared for the job he has and terribly out of touch with Canadians.

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19 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

Praising two or three dictators?  I think if the backlash snowballed, he would be looking at a dive in popularity.  But not enough Canadians care and too many lefties are presenting praise for Castro as reasonable, which confuses people.

I wasnt overly clear.  If people called for his resignation, I'd applaud it.  It wont happen ofcourse.  JT is wholly unprepared for the job he has and terribly out of touch with Canadians.

I remember when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was eulogized by Harper. It was same tone deaf language, praising all the good he had done.  

Both are reprehensible comments.  I wish our PMs didn't speak for all Canadians when sending out condolences.

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