When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently addressed the European Union Parliament and warned of growing threats to democracy, he received an angry backlash from some elected members who accused him of responding to the recent anti-vaccine mandate convoy protest like a dictator.
The public rebukes by a handful of far-right, populist and anti-vaccine members of the European Parliament claiming Trudeau violated civil rights in response to the protest that occupied Ottawa for almost a month went viral on social media.
Trudeau’s Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in history in February, giving police and other authorities extraordinary powers to disrupt the protest.
Most of the European Parliament members in attendance for Trudeau’s speech in Brussels, the Belgian capital, were seen giving the prime minister a standing ovation. The assembly’s public galleries were full for the speech.
After Trudeau’s address, some of the 705 elected members of the assembly who hail from the 27 countries in the European Union were invited to respond to Trudeau’s remarks. Most MEPs were welcoming but a handful used the opportunity to attack the prime minister.
The European Union Parliament has a history of making news when outspoken members make controversial remarks. Some of those members represent parties that oppose the existence of the EU itself.
CBC News takes a look at what was said, who said it and how the European Parliament is vastly different from parliaments elsewhere in the democratic world.
What did MEPs say about Trudeau?
Describing Trudeau as someone who “tramples” fundamental human rights and freedoms, Independent Croatian MEP Mislav Kolakušić said Canada once stood for civil rights but now seems more like a “dictatorship of the worst kind.”
“Under your quasi-liberal boot in recent months,” Kolakušić said, “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.”
Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, launched an investigation on Feb. 20 after a 49-year-old woman reported being seriously injured by a Toronto Police Service officer on a horse as police were clearing out people who had occupied Ottawa’s downtown core.
Independent Croatian MEP Mislav Kolakušić, shown here in a picture posted to his European Union parliamentary website, accused Trudeau of ‘dictatorship of the worst kind’ during the prime minister’s trip to Brussels this week. (mislavkolakusic.eu)
“Mr. Trudeau, you are a disgrace for any democracy,” said German MEP Christine Anderson, the political spokesperson for the ID parliamentary group in the European Parliament through her party Alternative for Germany.
Anderson went on to accuse Trudeau of civil rights violations during the trucker convoy protest, calling him a dictator who treats citizens as “terrorists.”
Another Alternative for Germany MEP, Bernhard Zimniok, accused Trudeau of “trampling on democratic rights” by cracking down on people for protesting “disproportionate” public health measures.
Who are the MEPs who accused Trudeau of being a dictator?
Mislav Kolakušić, whose speech in the assembly went viral on his Twitter feed, is a failed Croatian presidential candidate and is not affiliated with any political party in the European Parliament. He has aligned himself with anti-vaccine voices inside and outside of the assembly.
Reuters reported earlier this year that Kolakušić had accused French President Emmanuel Macron of “murdering citizens” through vaccine mandates and that he claimed “tens of thousands of” Europeans had died from vaccine side-effects during the pandemic.
Reuters said Europe’s drug regulator pushed back against that claim, describing it as “incorrect” and a “misrepresentation of data.”
Kolakušić was also one of six MEPs censured by the European Parliament for refusing to present an EU Digital COVID certificate to enter the assembly. Anderson was another of the MPs punished in that incident.
Christine Anderson, an MEP for Germany’s anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD), attends a campaign event ahead of the EU election in Frankfurt in 2019. Anderson told the European Parliament this week that Trudeau is ‘a disgrace for any democracy.’ (Reuters/Ralph Orlowski)
A German court ruled recently that the party is “a suspected threat to democracy” after an administrative court in Cologne found that there are “sufficient indications of anti-constitutional goals within the AfD.”
Alternative for Germany is one of the national parties that fall under the Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament. With 63 members from 10 countries, it is the fifth-largest group in the assembly.
Identity and Democracy is made up of domestic political parties opposed to the EU. They hold far-right positions on issues like immigration, EU membership and social welfare. The ID group includes France’s Rassemblement National party, which was founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen.
What is the European Parliament?
As the second-largest elected assembly in the world after India’s Parliament (which has 788 seats to Europe’s 705), the European Parliament is one of the seven institutions of the European Union. And while it’s called a parliament, it more closely resembles a city council or the UN General Assembly than a parliament in the Westminster tradition.
The assembly sits in two cities: Strasbourg, France and Brussels. It does not have a prime minister. The person who holds the title of “president” in the European Parliament is not a head of government in any sense. The president acts more like a Speaker in the Westminster system, presiding over sittings and chairing debates.
The European Parliament also does not have government and opposition sides, so there are no equivalents to cabinet ministers sitting in the assembly.
Unlike national parliaments, the European Parliament cannot propose legislation. That task is reserved for the European Commission, the appointed executive branch of the EU that functions as a cabinet and acts on behalf of elected member governments.
The European Parliament can amend or reject legislation, has some budgetary approval powers and is required to approve some acts of international co-operation, such as data-sharing initiatives and funding for international development initiatives.
The institution rarely makes the news unless it takes some extraordinary political action — such as refusing to approve the EU budget — or unless its members make outlandish or controversial statements.
It also has a tradition of seating MEPs who are vehemently opposed to the European Union’s existence. Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party and the Brexit Party — political entities assembled to pull the United Kingdom out of the EU — led his party to 29 seats in the European Parliament in 2019.
WATCH | Nigel Farage insults Herman van Rompuy, calls EU president a ‘damp rag’:
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
