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Justin Trudeau's statement on Fidel Castro's death a revisionist embarrassment
 By Mark Bonokoski, Postmedia Network  Cuban President Fidel Castro is seen in a July 26, 2006 file photo. (ALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images)
Blind to Cuban history, and blinkered by his late father’s fairy tales about Fidel Castro, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement on the death of the Cuban dictator was an embarrassment of international proportions.
He ignored the brutal truth about the man, dancing around it like a clown in a parade dodging horse droppings.
Today he is likely searching for his tattered Che Guevara T-shirt to wear in nostalgic homage.
“It was with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of Cuba’s longest-serving president,” Trudeau said. “Fidel Castro was a larger than life leader who served his people for almost half a century.
“A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.
“While a controversial figure,” said Trudeau, “both Mr. Castro’s supporters and detractors recognized his tremendous dedication and love for the Cuban people who had a deep and lasting affection for ‘el Comandante.’” For a supposed world leader, this is revisionist history at its worst, and therefore shameful.
Perhaps our prime minister should read the Washington Post, and a piece regarding the 13 facts that, in a just world, would be “etched on Castro’s tombstone, and highlighted in every obituary, as a fitting metaphor for someone who used firing squads to murder thousands of his own people.” Among them, Castro turned his island nation into a Communist outpost of the Soviet Union, and almost caused a nuclear conflagration during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Google it.
He forced almost 20% of his people into exile, leading to thousands losing their lives at sea while trying to make it to the safety of the Florida coast in crude boats.
He sponsored terrorism at every opportunity, and aligned himself with some of the worst dictators on the planet.
He condoned torture, and executions without trial.
The education system Trudeau lauded was actually a fraud, and was based on indoctrination as opposed to learning.
Castro built prisons at a rate that rivaled Stalin, and filled them to the brim with political prisoners and run-of-the-mill dissenters.
He persecuted gays and attempted to end religion, all while outlawing free enterprise and labour unions.
Yet Justin Trudeau eulogizes Castro as if he were benign, and some harmless old coot who ran out of time at the age of 90.
“I know my father was very proud to call (Castro) a friend, and I had the opportunity to meet Fidel when my father passed away,” Trudeau wrote in his statement.
“On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I offer our deepest condolences to family, friends and many, many supporters of Mr. Castro, (and) we join the people of Cuba today in mourning the loss of a remarkable leader.” This is so naïve that it defies credulity, yet these are nonetheless the precise words Trudeau put out.
One suspects that not “all” Canadians are mourning Castro’s death, nor remembering him as a “remarkable leader.” If “remarkable” means despotic and murderous then fine.
But that is not the definition Trudeau wants used.
It makes him look like a fool, and justifiably so.
markbonokoski@gmail.com
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