Michelle Rempel Garner: Trudeau really needs to cut it out with the woke stuff

There are things that need to change in our country.

For example, in a recent interview, former Member of Parliament Celina Caesar-Chavannes pointed out that the Indigenous population is eight per cent in Canada, but comprises 25 per cent of those incarcerated in federal prison. She also noted that the Black population is 3.5 percent in Canada and occupies around 10 percent of prisons.

And this year, journalist Erica Ifill has written extensively about the inordinate volume of hate and harassment her and other BIPOC women in the Canadian media receive.

And while the LGBTQ population in Canada numbers over one million, hate crimes against the community are increasing. A recent Statistics Canada report stated that in 2019, police reported a 41 per cent increase in such incidents over 2018, which also was the highest level in over a decade.

So while the current Liberal government frequently attempts to take victory laps for their record of largely paying lip service to key social inclusion issues, they have left much work to be done on removing barriers to equality of opportunity for many Canadians.

Perhaps this is what a Liberal MP, who made this comment to the CBC on a not for attribution basis, was referring to when last month they said, “We need a government that is down to earth and less woke.”

The term “woke” has been used in the past to raise awareness of the social and political issues that affect minority communities, particularly Black persons. However, some Black leaders are now pointing out that the term has been co-opted and turned into a pejorative by those who seek to resist forward social progress on these issues.

But the way that unnamed Liberal MP used the word suggests there is another perception of the word emerging in Canadian culture; a reference to the hypocrisy of using tokenism and empty promises on removing barriers while seeking to maintain a repressive status quo.

The Justin Trudeau Liberals are arguably masters of this particular definition of wokeism.

Take for example, Trudeau’s claims of embracing feminism. Trudeau’s most notable contributions to women have been to leave allegations of groping largely unaddressed and firing a strong Indigenous woman from the Justice Minister position. Men in his caucus with harassment allegations known to the party have been allowed to seek reelection under the Liberal brand. He allowed a male defence minister to tolerate sexual misconduct in Canada’s military for years.

If Trudeau was actually woke in the purest sense of the word, he would not have not dismissed those allegations against him. Instead of lifting up a female Indigenous truth speaker, he used his power to attempt to silence Jody Wilson-Raybould. At the same time he kept former defence minister Harjit Sajjan in his role while allegations of cover ups of rampant sexual misconduct at the highest levels of the Canadian military emerged. He did this all the while actively claiming to be a feminist for the sole purpose of political gain.

He left women to do the heavy lifting of fighting injustice, while he politically benefited from the power afforded to him by maintaining the status quo.

Trudeau is so woke it literally hurts women.

But today, the Liberal’s lack of concrete solutions to address the economic problems that often underlie social inclusion issues has arguably become the culmination of their brand of regressive-wokeism.

1. Unparliamentary language alert! Rempel tells Liberals to cut the “woke s—t”

2. Tasha Kheiriddin: Trudeau's true legacy — stoking the woke

Barriers to equality of opportunity are being exacerbated as inflation makes the cost of living even more unaffordable. If someone is already struggling with issues related to discrimination, being unable to pay for $2/L gas or $8 butter or out of control rent prices cuts deep. This is why my party, the Conservatives, have been pushing the Liberals to stop planned tax hikes on fuel.

Other longer term plans to address systemic issues related to inflation are also needed. These include addressing labour shortages — including those created by punitive credentialing processes for new Canadians, energy sovereignty, fixing a tax and regulatory system that chases away investment capital, Canada’s housing crisis, Canadian federal government deficit and debt levels, and broader issues that impact supply chain resiliency.

Political leaders in Canada’s pluralism need to understand that our nation is not perfect and that we have work to do. Problems related to discrimination and inclusion cannot be dismissed as fake. However, actions that tokenize those who are in need of justice rather than solving the problem only serve to make things worse.

And in that sense, Canadians have had enough with the woke stuff, indeed.

Michelle Rempel Garner is the Member of Parliament for Calgary Nose Hill.