WARMINGTON: Prime Minister rocks with Swifties in Toronto as rioters roll on Montreal

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Justin Trudeau Par-Tayed in Toronto while Montreal burned Friday night.

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It was far too easy of a pun to play off of as videos posted to social media showed the Prime Minister dancing at the Rogers Centre with fellow Swifties during the fifth of six Taylor Swift concerts.

And many on social media have been doing just that.

It was sad but true – the juxtaposition of Trudeau dancing the night away alongside footage of downtown Montreal that looked apocalyptic.

And even though Trudeau’s public broadcaster, the CBC, didn’t mention in its very late-in-coming coverage that a lot of the violence was perpetrated by pro-Hamas thugs with their faces covered by keffiyehs and waving Palestinian flags, that’s who was behind the lawlessness and mayhem.

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Instead, the CBC called the rioters anti-NATO demonstrators and referred to the burning in effigy of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as lighting a “mannequin” on fire.

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But there is no spinning this. People know what happened there and it was ugly. It looked like 1938 Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) in Germany and Austria.

Postmedia’s the Montreal Gazette was on the story and covered it as it as it unfolded.

In his story, reporter Harry North wrote “tensions escalated as demonstrators set an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on fire in the middle of the crowd. As the march continued, objects – including small explosive devices and metal items – were hurled into the street, targeting police officers. By 6:40 p.m., protesters had smashed shop windows near St-Urbain and St-Urbain and René-Lévesque Blvd., and set two vehicles ablaze.”

The pictures capturing the chaos and mayhem, taken by photographer John Mahoney, should be award-winning.

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This violence came on the very day Trudeau doubled down on his asinine backing of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defence minister and a now dead Hamas leader for alleged war crimes in the ongoing fighting in Gaza, post the Oct. 7 slaughter of innocent Jews.

“We stand up for international law, and we will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international courts,” Trudeau told reporters, adding, “This is just who we are as Canadians.”

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As was warned in both my column and a Toronto Sun editorial Thursday, Hamas supporters would see this as a green light to do whatever they want and that is what they did Friday night.

Jewish groups are now saying they don’t feel it’s safe for their community anymore in Montreal, Toronto or Mississauga.

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Those who support Hamas know they have effective control in Canada now. They are above the rules. They believe they are in charge and it looks like they are right.

They showed that in Montreal as they used hammers and flagpoles to smash windows of the Palais de Congress and local businesses before torching cars.

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This is Trudeau’s Canada – where his home city was in full riot mode even if he was oblivious to it all from his expensive seat at the sold-out Eras Tour show in the Rogers Centre.

But many across Canada, who know our country needs new leadership and direction, were not oblivious to what was going on and what it looked like.

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“Violent mobs riot and rampage through beautiful Montreal, typifying the chaos that is engulfing our once-peaceful country after 9 years of Trudeau’s radical, divisive agenda,” Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre posted to X. “Trudeau fiddles while Montreal burns.”

Montreal Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, himself Jewish, posted to X, “Tonight in Montreal it appears protests have veered into lawlessness. I have consistently asked mayors to advise police that criminal law and municipal bylaws need to be applied. Tolerating behaviour like this to avoid escalation emboldens those breaking the law and scares others.”

As of Saturday morning, Trudeau had not commented on the Montreal situation that saw three protesters arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer.

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Quebec Premier Francois Legault and Montreal Mayor Valerie Plant also did not immediately comment publicly.

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But it’s not lost on many how swiftly Trudeau and Canada’s power backed the idea of invoking the Emergencies Act in Ottawa in 2022 to end an anti-lockdown protest in Ottawa by truckers while doing little to address the daily anti-Israel protests in many major Canadian cities.

This happened on the very day one of the Freedom Convoy leaders, Pat King, was found guilty of five charges stemming from that protest, which saw the full extent of the law applied to him. He was not charged with lighting of fires or violence but with mischief and disobeying a court order.

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There’s such a double standard. The book is thrown at him and people like Chris Barber and Tamara Lich, who are awaiting their trial verdicts, but it’s quiet on those who shout antisemitic slogans like “there is no other solution, intifada revolution” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

It’s wrong and yet it’s allowed to go on. There was no martial law nor riot horses called in for this modern day pogrom.

Meanwhile, Hamas supporters calling for “global intifada” got what they wanted in Montreal Friday night while Trudeau was shaking it off at the Taylor Swift concert.

jwarmington@postmedia.com

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