Trudeau's a hypocrite about the trucker protests. He's not the only one.

Canada's trucker protest.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

In 2020, thousands of farmers from all over India traveled to the capital city of Delhi. Protesting agriculture policies they believed threatened their livelihoods, they set up encampments and clashed with police. Responding to the situation, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged the authorities to show restraint. ​​"Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest," Trudeau insisted, to the annoyance of the Indian government.

Now the shoe is on the other foot. Faced with ongoing, trucker-led demonstrations against vaccine policies in Ottawa and the blockade of a major bridge to the United States, large-scale protests are trying Trudeau's patience. "Blockages, illegal demonstrations are unacceptable, and are negatively impacting businesses and manufacturers," he told Parliament on Wednesday. "It has to stop."

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Samuel Goldman

Samuel Goldman is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow in Religion, Ethics, & Politics at Princeton University. His books include God's Country: Christian Zionism in America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) and After Nationalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). In addition to academic research, Goldman's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.