Justin Trudeau and the limits of virtue-signalling

Since being elected in 2015, Justin Trudeau has led a government committed to signalling, non-stop, its support for the loftiest ideals right across the spectrum of governance. They have been busy posing as the patrons of human rights, native rights, refugee rights, children’s rights, LGBTQ rights, women’s reproductive rights… nowhere on the planet is there a higher concentration of virtuous politicians than in Ottawa.

Some of this virtue-signalling raises eyebrows in certain circles. It’s great to want to support the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people, for example, but when we’re doing this in concert with the extreme right-wing governments of  Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, and Honduras, countries where our human rights wish list would receive exceedingly short shrift, you have to wonder what’s really going on. Are we really advocating for human and democratic rights in Venezuela, or are we, wittingly or unwittingly, pushing forward a regime change agenda cooked up in Washington? There’s been a growing suspicion that all this frenetic virtue-signalling is designed to cloak a somewhat darker reality behind the scenes.

The Wilson-Raybould affair reveals that there’s been stormy times in the back corridors of this Sunny Days government. Seems the PM, who is all about “the rule of law” when it comes to political pressure in the Huawei case, isn’t afraid to apply a little political pressure when it comes to saving the bacon of Canadian conglomerate SNC-Lavalin. According to revelations first exposed by the Globe and Mail last week, the PMO leaned heavily on Justice Minister Judy Wilson-Raybould to ensure a happy ending for that company’s bribery and corruption scandal.

Ms. Wilson-Raybould was of course a feather in the cap of the Sunny Ways reconciliation initiative. Not only was she smart and competent, she was Native to boot!… look at us, we’re so virtuous we put a Native woman in one of the most important cabinet post! Not only is this a virtual bases-loaded homer in the virtue-signalling game, it serves to draw the eye away from the fact that this entire “reconciliation” gambit is more about optics than substance. Potable water, habitable housing, and equitable education funding are way too complicated, but hey, check out how forward looking we are!

Alas, Ms. Wilson-Raybould is turning out to be way more than a hang-around-the-fort power groupie. She has actual principles! Today, as she took the extraordinary step of resigning from Trudeau’s cabinet altogether, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs has publicly lambasted the Trudeau government over its “racist and sexist” treatment of her.

So much for reconciliation.