By Amanda Magoteaux

Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his upcoming resignation after months of political turmoil inside the Liberal Party. This seemingly went public after Trudeau’s Finance Minister/Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned, due to conflicting beliefs on Trudeau’s handling of the Canadian economy. In a letter Freeland sent to Trudeau which later was published to social media, Freeland stated that Trudeau’s handling of the economy included “costly political gimmicks” and that the two had been “at odds” recently on how to handle the upcoming Trump administration.

Additionally, the public polling for the Liberal Party in general has been at a record low. It is now predicted that the Liberal Party has a less than 1% chance of winning the majority of seats in Parliament. According to The New York Times, the Liberal Party’s popularity problem, even in liberal strongholds such as Montreal, is Trudeau himself. He has essentially become the poster child for the unpopular policies that Canadians see as contributing to higher prices of living and the current housing crisis.

In his departing press conference, Trudeau recognized the political turmoil in which his party was currently residing. He believes the country will be best served if he is to stay on as Prime Minister until a new Liberal Party leader is elected, which is expected on March 24.

Most fascinating during the speech is how Trudeau listed his administration’s COVID-19 policies as being among one of his greatest achievements in office. His COVID-19 policies led to the months-long “Freedom Convoy” in 2022, causing major disturbances in the supply chain between Canada and the U.S. Trudeau’s administration, in congruence with the Biden administration, required anyone crossing the border (including semi-truck drivers) to be vaccinated. The Canadian courts across the country denied numerous requests for religious or conscientious exemptions.

What was most egregious during the COVID-19 pandemic was Trudeau’s apathy towards Christians. His most blatant public display of this was actually in 2021. In June 2021, there was a mass grave site of First Nations children found at a residential school run by the Roman Catholic Church in southeastern Saskatchewan. Just a few weeks prior, a similar mass grave site was found in British Columbia.

This set in motion the summer of fire. In 2021 alone, 90 churches across the country were burned to the ground. Being such a nationwide epidemic, one would think Trudeau would have strongly condemned such violence. However, in his statement after the height of these attacks, he discussed that he understood the anger the arsonists were feeling. He went on to apologize for the government and then called on the schools and Pope Francis himself to apologize.

Speaking of the arsonists he said, “It’s real and it is fully understandable given the shameful history we are all become more aware of.”

This all happened as Trudeau’s administration imposed COVID-19 lockdown restrictions upon churches as well. While most of the world was locking down to prevent the spread of disease, Canada was also jailing pastors, fining them, and seizing properties and assets if these congregants tried to worship together. Pastor James Coates of Edmonton, Alberta was jailed for 35 days and his church property was seized by local police and barricaded. GraceLife Church was trying to meet outside to ensure social distancing but afterward had to meet in clandestine underground services. Pastor Tim Stephens of Calgary, Alberta was jailed for 21 days for holding an outdoor worship service. Despite his efforts to comply and bring a semblance of health and safety to his congregants, he was still arrested in front of his wife and children at his home.

Pastor Artur Pawlowski of Calgary, whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, was jailed for 50 days and put in solitary confinement for at least a week for holding church services. Pastor Tobias Tissen of Steinbach, Manitoba, along with four lay pastors, were arrested and then the government prosecutor in the case sought fines in the amounts of $18,000 and $42,000 per person plus court costs and fees. Again, this pastor did try to ensure the health and safety of parishioners by hosting church services outdoors. Pastor Michael Thiessen of Alliston, Ontario was fined $300,000 and a potential three years in jail for keeping his church open — all the while grocery stores, liquor stores, marijuana dispensaries, and other “essential” businesses remained legally open.

These are just a sampling of the violations of religious liberties across Canada under Trudeau. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called for Canada to be put on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) Watch List, stating, “I am troubled that our Canadian neighbors are effectively being forced to gather in secret, undisclosed locations to exercise their basic freedom to worship.”

One of Canada’s neighbor states, Ohio, recommended this as well in Ohio House Resolution 194, sponsored by former Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus and former Rep. Timothy Ginter. Over 50 pieces of written testimony were originally received to present to the Ohio House State and Local Government Committee. These included stories from students, nurses, pilots, food service workers, soldiers, and even local elected officials about how they were systemically denied religious freedoms regarding COVID-19. For brevity, some of the testimonies were condensed into a statement by Liberty Coalition Canada, headed by Pastor Michael Theissen.

Pastor Pawlowski was still imprisoned at the time of the committee hearing and dictated his testimony over the phone to his family. His written testimony details a much longer history of religious liberty violations he has suffered than just due to COVID-19 restrictions. His testimony demonstrated a systematic intolerance on behalf of the Canadian government for his Christian activity such as: feeding the poor, handing out Bibles, holding traditional Biblical views of marriage, and preaching in the local park.

The resolution was to urge the USCIRF committee to put Canada on the Special Watch List of countries whose governments “engage or tolerate in severe religious freedom violations, but do not rise to the CPC (countries of particular concern) standard of "systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations. If they had indeed been added at the time, they would have been named alongside countries such as: Egypt, Turkey, Sri Lanka, and other serious human rights violators. Importantly, the State Department would have had more diplomatic tools at their disposal in relations with Canada to help correct this behavior.

While they were not added to the Special Watch List at USCIRF and many have moved on from the COVID era, there are some who have not forgotten. Some of us still remember Trudeau’s campaign beginning with promises of freedom of choices, most prominently a woman’s right to choose abortion and a person’s right to choose the LGBTQ+ lifestyle. However, his policies did not include protecting the freedoms of those who believed in upholding Christ and Christian values.

Thus, as he steps down, let us not forget his legacy (lest we become doomed to repeat it). Let us remember the Trudeau legacy as one of true religious bigotry and persecution and vow to not let it happen again, either on Canadian or American shores.