Justin and Pierre Trudeau: the apple fell far from the tree

I will never forget the diplomatic visit of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to Pope Paul VI in 1969, at a time when I had been working in the Vatican for more than 15 years. During the 40-minute private audience, the successor of St. Peter presented a Vatican medal to his Canadian guest and gave his blessing to the great nation of Canada, the second-largest country in the world after Russia.

After his encounter with His Holiness, pontifical protocol had the Canadian Prime Minister also meet with two other important prelates – Cardinal Eugene Tisserant, Dean of the College of Cardinals, and Cardinal Jean-Marie Villot, Secretary of State. Pierre Trudeau then ended his visit in Italy at the Canadian Embassy in Rome with an elegant reception. I was able to participate in these events, being the private secretary of Cardinal Tisserant.

It was Jan. 16, 1969, and I got the opportunity to speak with Mr. Trudeau. I admired him for his efforts to consolidate the Quiet Revolution (la Revolution Tranquille), and for avoiding the separation of Quebec from Canada which even French President Gen. Charles de Gaulle had supported when he publicly said: “Vive le Quebec libre!” Trudeau was also instrumental in negotiating Canada’s constitutional independence from Great Britain, and established a new Canadian constitution, making Canada officially bilingual. 

Pierre Trudeau paid homage again to the Holy See in 1980, and met with the new Pope, John Paul II. This time he came with his 8-year-old son Justin, who was born on Christmas Day 1971, and who would later write in his memoirs – “I wasn’t at all my father’s son. I was Jimmy Sinclair’s grandson.”

James Sinclair (whose daughter Margaret married 51-year-old Pierre Trudeau when she was just 22, and publicly separated from him at 28) was a federal minister in the Liberal governments of the 1950s and represented Vancouver North Shore ridings for 18 years.

Unfortunately, the future successor of Pierre Trudeau was a victim of his parents’ controversial marriage which had been celebrated at St. Stephen’s Parish in North Vancouver and which produced three children. “…he (Pierre) would not give me money and he would not contemplate me taking the children away from him. I was perfectly free to come and go, but the boys were to stay with him,” Margaret Trudeau wrote in her book Consequences (Seal Books, p.9).

When Justin Trudeau was elected in 2015, I was hoping that this son of Pierre and Margaret would follow the Christian religiosity of his father and defend the teaching of the Catholic Church. I am sad that he has adopted other ways. He addressed the One Young World gathering by exhorting them to change the culture, and I asked myself: is he playing the role of a leader by exhorting Canadian youth to change the world by distancing himself from the strict tenets of Catholicism and urging youth to reject “old men with old ideas”? He also demonstrated his immaturity when he asked Pope Francis to apologize to the Aboriginal people of Canada.

Justin began the 2015 election campaign at Vancouver’s gay pride parade, and since his victory he has led an administration heavy on symbolism and self-congratulation. Three years into his office, his ministers have announced that “real change” has been done about the protection of the vulnerable, a change which is of grave concern to Catholics. Before his Liberal Party received a majority in the House of Commons, Trudeau declared that no Liberal would be allowed to stand for election if they were in favour of any change to Canada’s legal vacuum on abortion. His announcement was a definitive break with the past. The Liberal Party of Canada had long been a political home for both Catholics and pro-life voters, and his decision was criticized at the time by Clifford Lincoln, a respected former Liberal parliamentarian, as “doctrinaire, judgmental and the antithesis of liberalism.”

Since there are no legal restrictions on abortion in Canada, Trudeau’s government quietly committed foreign aid funds for abortion in developing countries. Same-sex marriage, legalized in Canada, is no longer an issue in the federal Human Rights Act which would add “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the grounds of prohibited discrimination. 

Can Trudeau lead a progressive resurgence? He has decided largely to ignore economics and make modest reforms on the environment and do it in constant view of the cameras as he presents himself as the leader of a new generation.

How can Justin Trudeau be a leader of life when he is so open to euthanasia and assisted suicide? Toronto’s Cardinal Thomas Collins has spoken out against euthanasia in the country saying the introduction of the legislation would lead the country down a “dark path.”

The Canadian government has introduced legislation to allow voluntary euthanasia for Canadians suffering from serious medical conditions, which can be administered by themselves, doctors, or family members. Reacting to this news, Cardinal Collins of Toronto said: “We are all deeply concerned that this is a sad day for Canada.”