FASCISM IS ALWAYS DESCENDING ON TRUMP, YET LANDING ON TRUDEAU: Justin Trudeau’s man crush on Fidel.
Mr. Castro’s people loved him so much that nearly 20 per cent of the population tried to escape, taking off across the ocean in leaky homemade boats. Tens of thousands of them never made it. (The most complete account of the regime’s victims can be found at the Cuba Archive’s Truth and Memory Project.)
It’s hard to single out the worst atrocity committed by the Castro regime. One might surely be the execution of 166 Cubans back in 1966. Before they died, their bodies were drained of blood – an average of seven pints a person. The blood was sold for $50 a pint to Communist Vietnam, in order to support the Viet Cong aggression and gain hard currency for Cuba. After the victims were exsanguinated, their limp bodies were carried off to the firing squad.
Where did Justin Trudeau get his man crush on Fidel? Clearly he inherited it from his dad. Pierre Trudeau had a certain fondness for socialist dictators, of whom Fidel Castro was just one. He was an honorary pallbearer at Pierre’s funeral, which also marked a turning point in Justin’s life. His affecting tribute to his father was his first adult appearance on the public stage.
Like many other left-wing strongmen, Fidel was beloved of public intellectuals. Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre were among his early acolytes. They lionized him as a freedom fighter against American imperialism (but were eventually repelled by his human rights abuses.) This alone has been enough to turn Fidel into a folk hero – especially in Canada, where there’s plenty of sympathy for a small nation struggling to survive in the shadow of a big, bad cultural and economic oppressor.
Related: Bernie Sanders: ‘Very Excited When Fidel Castro Made the Revolution in Cuba.’