Don’t obey before you unravel Trudeau’s sticky rhetoric.

What one speech reveals about Trudeau’s tactics, and how his choice of language should concern you.

I wouldn't say I admire Justin Trudeau for his speeches, but as a Canadian who’s been paying close attention, I’m impressed by how skillfully he uses language to divide Canadians while at the same time seeming to unite us.

I’ve picked a recent speech to highlight, but we could do the same with speeches from the past few weeks and find a pattern. He’s taken a similar approach with his responses to the protests, and I’m convinced we could review them all and find similarly unsettling insinuations. 

Up until recently, I had a hard time listening to what he said because all I could hear was how he said it. He's too syrupy for my taste. Not like Canadian maple syrup either — more like sugar-free, sweetened-with-aspartame-syrupy. Now that the protests in Ottawa and across Canada have gained so much steam, I've begun to tune out his tone and tune in to his wording. Combine his wording with his tone, and it’s practically enough to make me jump in the car with my camera, and a can of maple beans, to drive to Ottawa to protest. 

I've been following these protests quite closely the past 18 days – mostly through social media, and mainstream news outlets, but also through phone calls with a family member who’s in Ottawa protesting. With some exceptions, these protests have been legal and overwhelmingly peaceful.

Here's part of a transcript from an update on the situation that Trudeau gave on February 11th. I want to see if I can tap into the essence of what he’s communicating to Canadians.

You can watch the clip here. 

"The illegal blockades are hurting Canadians, whether they're in Ottawa, Windsor, Coutts, or Emerson. They're endangering jobs. They are threats to our economy and public safety. The people these blockades are hurting are everyday families, Ottawa assembly workers, farmers, truckers, and blue-collar workers...President Biden and I both agree that for the security of people and the economy, these blockades cannot continue. The consequences are becoming more and more severe. You don't want to end up losing your license, end up with a criminal record, which will impact your job, your livelihood, even your ability to travel internationally, including to the U.S. We've heard your frustration with COVID, with the measures that are there to keep people safe. We've heard you. It's time to go home now."

Now, I’m going to break his spiel into 5 parts and reflect on each one, with the intent of more clearly discerning the whole.

"The illegal blockades are hurting Canadians whether they're in Ottawa, Windsor, Coutts, or Emerson. They're endangering jobs. They are threats to our economy and public safety."

Most listeners wouldn't argue that illegal blockades hurting Canadians is a bad thing, and for that reason, if Trudeau wants to get Canadians unified in opposition to these blockades (or anything else he’s against), this is an effective way to open a speech.

Now that he has us on his side, he mentions the names of the four major locations where protests are happening - Ottawa, Windsor, Coutts, and Emerson - naturally grouping together the geographic locations, and indirectly the actions of protesters at these locations. This has the effect of putting each location and every protestor in the same bucket - the same bucket we just inadvertently agreed is filled with people who are harmful to the jobs, the economy, and the public safety of Canadians.

Trudeau is alluding to Canadians that the illegal, albeit peaceful, blockade of the border in Windsor is the same as a legal and peaceful protest in Ottawa. Of course, he isn’t outright saying that, but he isn’t putting any effort into differentiating either. Perhaps, in his world, both are of equal threat.

He continues:

"The people these blockades are hurting are everyday families, Ottawa assembly workers, farmers, truckers, and blue-collar workers." 

Ironically, these are the same demographics protesting mandates across Canada. White-collared Trudeau has managed to blame blue-collared Canadians for hurting blue-collared Canadians, and everyday families for hurting everyday families. One begins to wonder if he’ll ever take responsibility for himself, for how his decisions have hurt Canadians.

He has a tough job; I don’t envy him. But, a leader who hopes for respect from his constituents should be careful not to insult them and blame them for the problems they’re looking to him to solve. In one short sentence, he’s managed to do both.

"President Biden and I both agree that for the security of people and the economy, these blockades cannot continue. The consequences are becoming more and more severe.”

"President Biden and I both agree" is a solid choice of wording to establish his authoritative position. Once again, we can all agree - Trudeau, decent Canadians, and now even President Biden - that our security and economy are important and that blockades stand in the way of that reality. No one can argue that.

But it's the following transition sentence that I find specifically clever and slippery, "The consequences are becoming more and more severe." If he’d stopped there, we'd assume he was referring to the economic consequences of the border being closed, but after this sentence, we see the subject change from a militarized object (blockades) to a person (you). It’s safe to assume Trudeau won’t mind if we take [the severe consequences] to mean individual consequences rather than economic ones. I can picture his speech-writing team smirking and patting themselves on the back for this one.

"You don't want to end up losing your license, end up with a criminal record, which will impact your job, your livelihood, even your ability to travel internationally, including to the U.S."

It took me reading that line several times before I noticed how low of a blow it really is. Trudeau is warning that they could lose something they’ve already lost; the very reason they are protesting in the first place. These days, it doesn’t take a criminal record to have your job, your livelihood, and even your ability to travel internationally affected. All it takes is being an unvaccinated Canadian.

He doesn’t mention who these consequences are for but instead keeps it intentionally vague. He doesn’t say “If you’re participating in an illegal blockade, you could face criminal charges.” That would narrow it down to just a handful of protestors, but then Trudeau wouldn’t be able to imply negative repercussions for the majority of peaceful protestors. He can’t directly threaten them with the law, because the law protects their right to peaceful protest, no matter how irritating he finds it. So he resorts to ambiguous comments directed at “you”. If you were considering joining the protests, and you heard this speech, wouldn't it be reasonable to assume these consequences could apply to you? Low-level anxiety starts to creep up your back and makes you question if you really should go to Ottawa to protest the federal and provincial mandates that you wholeheartedly disagree with.

This video clip ends with:

"We've heard your frustration with COVID, with the measures that are there to keep people safe. We've heard you. It's time to go home now." 

With one nudge, Trudeau shifts blame away from the government mandates surrounding COVID and places it back on the virus itself. Then he suggests that if you disagree with the measures you’re opposed to keeping people safe.

I disagree with Trudeau. Canadian’s may be frustrated with a virus, but they’re not protesting a virus. Canadians may be frustrated with safety measures, but they’re not protesting safety measures. They’re protesting government overreach. They’re protesting draconian mandates. These mandates are why everyday families and blue-collar workers are protesting in Ottawa and across Canada. Not because they don't want to participate in keeping fellow Canadians safe, as Trudeau suggests, but because they don’t trust his estimation of "safe." They don’t trust the government’s “measures” are reasonable. They don’t trust Trudeau.

So, when he says “We’ve heard you.” Big surprise, they don’t feel like he has.

Trudeau ends this part of this speech like your friend's mom would talk to you as a teenager when you overstay your welcome: "It's time to go home now."

Well, Trudeau, I get the feeling these protestors want to go home, but not until “home” is a Canada free of divisive mandates and the artificially sweetened syrup you keep pouring on our pancakes.