National Post (National Edition)
Young boy not reacting to PM after all
Dad clarifies why son looked exasperated
FREDERICTON • A photograph that captured a boy displaying exasperation while sitting behind the prime minister went viral on social media last week, but his family now wants to set the record straight about the circumstances.
Abdel Kader Al Shaikh, 10, was photographed covering his face with his hands and with his head tilted back as he sat in the front row of Justin Trudeau’s town hall meeting in Fredericton last Tuesday.
The Canadian Press photo struck a chord with social media users, with some interpreting the boy’s expression as frustration with the prime minister.
Trudeau laughed off the image, jokingly tweeting that he hasn’t seen that kind of look on a child’s face since his days as a math teacher.
However, Abdel Kader’s father said in an interview aided by an interpreter that his son wasn’t reacting to the prime minister, but was in fact fed up with his twoyear-old brother for crying while he was trying to hear Trudeau speak.
Hassan Al Shaikh said his whole family deeply admires Trudeau as the “only leader in the world who opened the door” to Syrian refugees while other countries turned the family of nine away.
He and his wife, Radia, were initially horrified that their son may have offended Trudeau and even feared that their family would be punished, based on the “bad memory” of living under the Syrian government.
Once it was made clear that the prime minister made light of the image, Al Shaikh said he was heartened by Trudeau’s “democratic reaction.”
The Al Shaikhs are expecting an addition to their brood any day now, and at their children’s request, they plan to name the boy “Justin Trudeau Al Shaikh.”