Despite a $2.1 billion renovation of the United Nations, despite the modernization of the grounds and headquarters, I fear the area is as physically toxic as it is—and has always been—politically intoxicating. I fear the General Assembly Hall contains poisonous levels of carbon monoxide, resulting in dizziness, confusion, and euphoria among those who spend too much time within this relic of pride and before this rostrum of pomposity; where dictators use democratic procedures to condemn democratic leaders; where the voices of freedom silence themselves, so the enemies of free peoples may deny the commission of war crimes and dispute the history of the ultimate crime against humanity.
I also fear that whenever Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada visits New York City his words belie his actions, particularly when he lectures Americans—and the world—about the rights of Indigenous Peoples; his country’s native peoples, whose trail of tears lie beneath the permafrost of Canada’s remotest regions; whose treaties lie shredded in Parliament Hill; whose entreaties for help lie alongside Trudeau’s pile of broken promises.
His most recent—and ongoing—betrayal involves his judicial appointee’s refusal to allow Indigenous law to govern child support payments by Ken Hill, one of Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs.
The case is noteworthy for two reasons.
First, for all his paeans to multiculturalism, for all his proclamations about the majesty of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples; if we were to gather all the paper inked by Trudeau’s government and stained by his signature—including the ink on his own arm, of a Haida raven, representing the native people in the Haida Gwaii territory in British Columbia—it would confirm Trudeau’s impotence as a leader.
Secondly, the Hill case is a case study in Canada’s indecency toward Indigenous Peoples. Take, for instance, this request by opposing counsel for increased security at the Court of Appeal: as if Mr. Hill, true to stereotype, were to wear war paint, fringed buckskin clothing and a feather headdress, while brandishing a hatchet. (Aside from an automatic reply acknowledging receipt of an email to Canada’s Department of Justice about the presiding judge, James Sloan of Kitchener, Ontario, delay seems to be the government’s preferred method of denial.)
My suggestion to Prime Minister Trudeau is to stop.
Stop pretending to be a symbol of enlightenment, when you continue to be a gross caricature—an “Indian giver” of the worst kind—who speaks in platitudes and is a phony.
Stop.