Nadene Goldfoot
I just listened to Trudeau's speech and was absolutely spellbound. He was the best speaker I have heard in a long time. His voice was easy to follow, plain to understand, and I have been suffering from a deaf problem interfering with voices and their different ranges to hear. His explanation of his reason for giving the speech made complete sense and what I really admired was the man did not refer to him or his greatness at all but just the situation. No going off in the middle with ranting and telling us how nothing good has ever happened in the world except by being under his control. No way. Trudeau was an A+ great speaker.
Now I want to know a lot more about Trudeau and Canada and we Jews. How many Jews do live in Canada anyway and why did they move there instead of the USA? According to the 2021 census, the Jewish population in Canada is approximately 335,000 people, representing around 0.9% of the total Canadian population. According to the Pew Research Center, the Jewish population in the USA is approximately 7.5 million people, which represents around 2.4% of the total US population. We have stood at 6 million for a long time.
When fleeing Eastern Europe, Jews often chose Canada over the United States due to a combination of factors including Canada's more open immigration policies at the time, particularly during periods of heightened antisemitism in the US, a perception of greater tolerance, and the ability to settle in less densely populated areas with more opportunities for economic development, especially in the Canadian West; although it's important to note that Canada also had periods of restrictive immigration policies towards Jews, notably during the "MS St. Louis" incident where a ship of Jewish refugees was turned away.
The MS St. Louis was a ship that carried nearly 937 Jewish refugees, mostly fleeing Nazi Germany, from Hamburg to Cuba in May 1939, but was denied entry to Cuba, the United States, and Canada, forcing the passengers to return to Europe where many were ultimately killed in the Holocaust; this event is a stark example of the difficulties faced by Jews trying to escape Nazi persecution during World War II when the Brits still held the 30 year mandate in Palestine and refused Jewish entry as well but were helping Arabs instead. I can see Canada going along with the British umbrella.
While not "basically" a Catholic country, Canada does have the largest proportion of its population identifying as Catholic, with around 29.9% of Canadians identifying as Roman Catholic according to the most recent census, making it the dominant Christian denomination in the country; however, Canada is considered a secular state with a diverse religious landscape including other Christian denominations and non-religious individuals such as the Jews. As of 2021, 4.9% of Canada's population, or 1,775,715 people, identified as Muslim. This is more than double the percentage of Muslims in Canada in 2001. So already, the Jews are outnumbered in Canada by the Muslims with
335,00/1,775,715 or 0.9%/4.9%.
Trudeau is having his own problematic life in the political areas., but he is keeping that at bay when presenting a speech. On December 16, 2024, Chrystia Freeland resigned as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, hours before she was due to release the government's fall economic statement. That had a big effect on Trudeau.
Freeland's resignation came amid threats from the incoming Trump administration to impose 25% tariffs upon Canada, as well as Freeland's reported opposition to Trudeau's promise of $250 cheques to working Canadians who earned $150,000 or less in 2023. The resignation raised speculation as to the future of Trudeau's leadership, with renewed calls for his resignation emerging from Liberal MPs. The government's economic statement, released later that day, showed a deficit of $61.9 billion for 2023–24, exceeding the previous target of $40.1 billion or less, and left Trump's tariff threats largely unaddressed. Has it ever occurred to anyone that Trump's actions could cause more nations to have further problems than they ever thought?
Oh by the way, Following the US government's refusal to permit the passengers to disembark, the St. Louis sailed back to Europe on June 6, 1939, near the time the Germans marched into Poland. The passengers did not return to Germany, however. Jewish organizations (particularly the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) negotiated with four European governments to secure entry visas for the passengers:
- Great Britain took 288 passengers (maybe feeling guilty? 30 year mandate?
- the Netherlands admitted 181 passengers
- Belgium took in 214 passengers
- 224 passengers found at least temporary refuge in France.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a speech Tuesday morning on Parliament Hill announcing Canada's response to a 25 per cent tariff U.S. President Donald Trump is imposing on most Canadian goods. Here is a transcript of his remarks.
Today the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time, their talking about working positively with Russia. Appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator. Make that make sense. Canadians are reasonable and we are polite but we will not back down from a fight — not when our country and the well-being of everyone in it is at stake.
At the moment, the U.S. tariffs came into effect in the early hours of this morning and so did the Canadian response. Canada will be implementing 25 per cent tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods. Starting with tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods immediately and tariffs on the remaining $125 billion of American products in 21 days' time. Today, we will also be challenging these illegal actions by filing dispute resolution claims at the World Trade Organization and through the USMCA. But in the meantime, our tariffs will remain in place until the U.S. tariffs are withdrawn and not a moment sooner. And should these tariffs not cease, we are in active and ongoing discussions with provinces and territories to pursue several non-tariff measures — measures which will demonstrate that there are no winners in a trade war.
Resource:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/04/world/video/justin-trudeau-tariffs-trump-speech-digvid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Canada#:~:text=Article,as%20of%20the%202021%20census.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Trudeau
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