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Justin Trudeau Photo by Rhonda Spivak

 
JUSTIN TRUDEAU ON REPRINTING MOHAMMED CARTOONS: I FOUND THE CHARLIE HEBDO COVER POWERFUL

By RHONDA SPIVAK, February 14, 2015

 

 

On February 12, 2015 during his recent visit to Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Jewish Review asked Liberal Party of Canada leader Justin Trudeau about the issue of reprinting Charlie Hebdo cartoons of Mohammed (following the recent terror attacks by radical Islamists in France ).  The WJR noted that the University Of Manitoba's student publication the Manitoban published a Charlie Hebdo cartoon of Mohammed, whereas the Winnipeg Free Press did not. The Winnipeg Jewish Review asked Trudeau what he thought the appropriate approach was regarding reprinting the cartoons.

 

Trudeau’s complete answer was as follows: “I won’t publish them [Charlie Hebdo cartoons of Mohammed] on the Liberal party website but I certainly have no problem with journalists deciding to do that. The freedom of the press to make those decisions is extremely important and I think that in a mature democracy that defends rights we have to make sure we defend all rights. I personally found that the Charlie Hebdo cover was extremely moving and very powerful and that’s something that I celebrate, our capacity to challenge one another, and I think that satire and free press is an extremely important and powerful part of political and civil discourse.   

 

 

[Editor's note: The Charlie Hebdo cover of Mohammed printed after the jihadist terror attack on its offices killing 12 people can be seen here:

 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/14/who-did-and-didn-t-publish-the-charlie-hebdo-cover-image.html  

The Manitoban published an editorial by Ethan Cabel on Jan 14, 2015 entitled" Time to Stand up to Radical Islam" which reprinted a Charlie Hebdo cover from an issue of  Charlie Hebdo in 2011. This cover the Manitoban reprinted can be seen here: http://www.themanitoban.com/2015/01/time-stand-radical-islamism/22088/

In that 2011 issue, Charlie Hebdo played off the fact that in French the words "Charlie" and "sharia" sound similar. Charlie Hebdo renamed its Nov 2, 2011 issue 'Charia Hebdo.' and announced the Prophet Muhammed as a "guest editor" to celebrate the victory of the Tunisian Islamist party Ennahada in Tunisia's elections. This Charlie Hebdo cover, which the Manitoban reprinted on Jan 14, 2015 showed Muhammed declaring "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter! On the day this particular cartoon appeared at 1 a.m., a molotov cocktail was thrown at the Charlie Hebdo offices.)

 
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Rhonda Spivak, Editor

Publisher: Spivak's Jewish Review Ltd.


Opinions expressed in letters to the editor or articles by contributing writers are not necessarily endorsed by Winnipeg Jewish Review.