When a high-profile crime happens in the United States, the Trudeau Liberals are quick to tweet their outrage. When crime happens close to home, it’s crickets.
It’s been that way lately, with Liberal MPs and cabinet ministers, including those from Toronto, making statements about American crime while being mum on what happens at home.
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that crime across Canada is up, especially violent crime. It seems the Trudeau government is living under a rock on the issue of crime.
“In the first three weeks of this year, Toronto Police said that crimes were up more than 37%,” Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman said in the Commons Monday.
“We have repeat violent offenders out on our streets because of this government’s weak bail system. And the Minister of Public Safety says he’s concerned, but not concerned enough to do anything about it.”
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino stood to say that he is concerned about crime. I don’t doubt that Mendicino has some concern, but like other Liberals, he was slow to say anything about shocking crimes in Canada but quick to tweet about American examples.
No one should expect the federal Minister of Public Safety to tweet and react to every shocking crime in Canada, but when he can tweet within hours about a shooting in Monterey Park, Calif., then you’d expect something about crimes in his own city. Same with fellow cabinet minister, Toronto MP and former Toronto Police chief Bill Blair.
Blair has had more to say in public on the beating death of a black man by five black police officers in Memphis, Tenn., than he has on the rash of attacks in Toronto.
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In both of these cases, the Liberals jumped on what looked like racially motivated attacks in the United States and denounced them as hate driven. While both incidents are horrific and should be condemned, they aren’t race-based attacks.
The Trudeau Liberals love importing American culture war issues that are hot in the news cycle south of the border for their own political gain in Canada. It’s why Trudeau talks about abortion with every move in the American situation and why he discusses gun control in Canada after mass shootings in the States.
Trudeau uses the American news cycle to drive his domestic agenda, which in so many instances, mimics what progressive Democrats want in the United States. It’s why he and his ministers will quickly discuss an event in California but not Toronto.
Meanwhile, crime rises across Canada, not just in Toronto.
“Since Prime Minister Trudeau took office, violent crime has increased 32% and gang-related homicides are up 92%,” Lantsman said in her letter to Speaker Anthony Rota.
Those are figures the Conservatives have been hounding the government with for months, but to no avail. The Liberals have tried their best to ignore the issue, even turning a deaf ear to repeated calls from every premier, big city mayor, major city police chiefs, and police union to engage in bail and criminal justice reform.
The Liberals passed Bill C-75 in 2019 to make bail easier to get, and recently passed other legislation eliminating minimum sentences for serious crimes. They are not inclined to do anything that would make a criminal’s life more difficult.
But with a possible election on the horizon and the public worrying about crime, they may need to become as concerned about violent outbursts in Canada as they are in the United States.
Otherwise, crime, along with the rising cost of living, will help put Pierre Poilievre in the prime minister’s office and the Conservatives on the government benches while the Liberals move to the opposition sidelines.
They can’t say they weren’t warned.
