Part of the memorial held on Oct. 8, 2024, “From Tkaronto to Palestine: 12 Hours of Grieving for 12 Months of Genocide,” at Nathan Phillips Square. Photo: K. Gowan.

OPINION: Trudeau’s Oct. 7 Statement Perpetuates Violence by Erasing Palestinian Lives

As I read and re-read Justin Trudeau’s statement on Oct. 7 of this year, my throat tightened. A silent scream of hurt and despair rose in my chest as disbelief washed over me. I thought of all the work that we Palestinian Canadians and our allies have done — putting our livelihoods on the line for speaking out, putting our bodies in the streets while being brutalized by police, week after week for a year, to make our voices heard above the relentless din of pro-genocide hegemony.

Justin Trudeau’s statement on the first anniversary of an ongoing genocide — and in the 76th year of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land — dehumanizes Palestinian Canadian families and is a glaring example of moral dystopia that values some lives over others based on their identities.

In his statement, Trudeau refers to the victims of Hamas’ October 7 attack as innocent people, yet he refuses to acknowledge the innocence of Palestinian victims of Israel’s ongoing genocide.     

Trudeau claims to speak to the pain of “all Israelis and Jewish people” while entirely ignoring the deep pain felt by Palestinian Canadians and anyone else whose empathy is not exclusionary. His words send a clear message: Jewish Israeli suffering is prioritized (non-Jewish Israelis are not acknowledged) and they are depicted as the true victims, while the lives, suffering and trauma of Palestinians don’t matter as much, if at all.

The omission of Palestinian children and civilians whom Israel has killed in staggering numbers — over 16,000 children and 41,765 civilians as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry and possibly closer to 200,000 as per an estimate in the Lancet  — is not an oversight but a cruel erasure of our humanity. There was no solemn recognition, no names recited, no plea for the world to “mourn” them, while eight Israeli-Canadians or Israelis with close ties to Canada who were killed on Oct. 7 were named and mourned individually by Trudeau.

Instead, Palestinian killings are brushed aside as collateral in the vague reference to “civilian casualties” and a “path of war and violence” supposedly led by Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran — sweeping Israel’s sustained campaign of colonial genocide under the rug.

Trudeau also highlights antisemitic attacks on synagogues and schools but makes no mention of the numerous attacks on Muslim places of worship, or skyrocketing incidences of anti-Palestinian racism in schools, workplaces and communities. Trudeau’s selective outrage diminishes the very real and rising threats faced by Muslim and Palestinian communities in Canada. His failure to acknowledge these incidents only deepens the sense of alienation and erasure felt by many Muslims along with Palestinian Canadians. His hypocrisy is obscene.

This skewed framing reinforces the mainstream Western narrative that Israel’s genocidal actions are justified. Pundits and politicians may wring their hands, like Trudeau does, about “the scale of civilian casualties since October 7 [being] heartbreaking and unacceptable,” but there is no sense that anyone can do anything about this. There is no mention of Canada’s active participation in sustaining this genocide, by equipping Israel with both the weaponry and diplomatic cover it needs to act with impunity. Without condemnation and accountability, there can be no end to Israel’s war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. 

His mention of international law is an afterthought, a toothless appeal that makes Trudeau seem more concerned about keeping up diplomatic appearances than about the massive human toll on Palestinians.

Neither does Trudeau recognize that well before October 7, the people of Gaza were victims of a 17-year siege that has been depriving Gazans of any semblance of normality, living under constant threat due to a strategy of regular indiscriminate bombardment that Israeli officials call “mowing the grass.” Trudeau then proceeds to bury Palestinian suffering beneath a call for peace and security for Israelis first. 

Where is Trudeau’s outrage over the targeted bombings of refugee camps, hospitals, or schools? Palestinians whose land has been seized as I write this, whose food, medicine, and bodies have been blockaded, and who are being systematically erased, are reduced to mere footnotes in a spineless statement that once again, positions Israel as the primary victim. It has become abundantly clear: Trudeau has completely and willfully tossed aside our cry for justice in favour of political pandering.

For Palestinian Canadian families, this is more than dehumanizing. It’s an endorsement of the structural violence that allows an entire people to be repeatedly slaughtered while the world looks away. There was another historical tragedy not long ago, where those in power stood by and did nothing. We said, “Never again, for anyone.” Justin Trudeau, what will you tell your children when they ask, “What did you do about it, Dad?”