Trudeau’s call for civility

Muslim Canadians aren’t the enemy, even if extremists in their midst have distorted their religion seeking to legitimize terror attacks and plots in this country. Yet you wouldn’t know it to judge from the generalized fear and suspicion that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has been fanning as it brands itself as tough on terror in advance of the coming federal election.

Canada is better than this, and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was right to boldly call the government on it in a powerful speech in Toronto this week that sounded the alarm on a worrisome trend.

“Leading this country should mean you bring Canadians together,” Trudeau told the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, speaking on the theme of Canadian liberty and the politics of fear. “You do not divide them against one another.”

“Canada is where a million Muslims live and thrive in a free and open, secular democracy. The world needs more of that, not less of it,” he said. Yet “across Canada, and especially in my home province, Canadians are being encouraged by their government to be fearful of one another.”

They are indeed. The Conservatives have exploited the recent attack on Parliament Hill and other terrorist activities to fan fears of a farreaching jihadist “war on Canada” waged by an enemy who hates our values, in order to legitimize the government’s Anti-Terrorism Act of 2015 and its draconian overreach. And they have railed against a court ruling that struck down Ottawa’s bid to ban Muslim women from wearing the “offensive” face-covering niqab while taking the citizenship oath. This amounts to deliberately blurring the line “between a real security threat and simple prejudice,” Trudeau charged.

The Conservatives “indulge the very same repressive impulse that they profess to condemn,” Trudeau said, by wielding the state’s power to restrict religious freedom and free speech.

This is a message Canadians need to hear from a national leader at a time when Parliament is weighing the overreaching security law and when Muslims feel besieged as never before. Trudeau’s call for civility and inclusion speaks to the best Canadian values. It should prompt some soul-searching right across the political spectrum.

While his assessment will no doubt sound harsh to some, it reflects a profound unease that many share, irrespective of party affiliation. In Parliament, New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair has been consistently scathing in his denunciation of government fear-mongering. And even veteran Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton has acknowledged that Muslim Canadians don’t feel “completely respected” in the current climate, and that her government has “got to work very hard to dispel that” sentiment.

Sadly, opinion polling confirms that Canadian attitudes toward Muslims have grown more negative on this government’s watch.

“We all know what is going on here,” Trudeau said. “It is nothing less than an attempt to play on people’s fears and foster prejudice, directly toward the Muslim faith. This is not the spirit of Canadian liberty. It is the spirit of the Komagata Maru. Of the St. Louis. Of ‘none is too many.’ ” The references were to Canada’s shameful record of denying entry to Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs in the first half of the 20th century. He also alluded to the wartime internment of Japanese and Italian Canadians.

Since those dark days, Canada has grown into a more open and inclusive society that “gives people room to live and breathe,” Trudeau pointed out. “We have proven that a country — an astonishingly successful country — can be built on and defined by shared values. Not by religion, language or ethnicity. But shared values.” Including tolerance for each other’s culture, beliefs, language and sexual orientation.

While the Constitution protects such rights, it is up to political leaders to actively promote them, he said. That has been too sadly lacking recently.

Trudeau has been criticized by some — including this newspaper — for trailing behind the Conservatives and New Democrats in rolling out specific policies in the run-up to the election. But by challenging the government so directly, he has left no doubt where he stands on the bigger issue of values: On the side of civility, tolerance and inclusion. Where most Canadians are most comfortable.

Liberal leader’s call for an end to fear-mongering and divisiveness is most welcome