Harper, in London to attend the funeral of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher Wednesday, appeared to take issue with Trudeau’s suggestion to search out the “root causes” behind Monday’s devastating attack.
“When you see this type of violent act, you do not sit around trying to rationalize it or make excuses for it or figure out its root causes,” Harper told reporters.
“You condemn it categorically, and to the extent you can deal with the perpetrators, you deal with them as harshly as possible.”
While Harper didn’t name Trudeau, they appeared aimed at the Liberal leader’s comments in a CBC interview that aired Tuesday evening.
“We have to look at the root causes,” Trudeau said in the interview done just hours after Monday’s bombing. “Now, we don’t know now if it was terrorism or a single crazy or a domestic issue or a foreign issue.
“But there is no question that this happened because there is someone who feels completely excluded. Completely at war with innocents. At war with a society. And our approach has to be, okay, where do those tensions come from?”
On Wednesday, Trudeau’s comments were fodder for the government in the Commons as Conservative MP Stella Ambler called on the Liberal leader to provide clarification.
“There is no root cause and no tension that justifies the killing and maiming of innocent civilians,” Ambler said.
But late in the day, Trudeau responded to the Conservative jabs and accused the prime minister of using the American tragedy for his own political purposes.
“Two days ago, there was a horrific tragedy and I expressed clearly both today and yesterday the shock that I can only imagine that father feels that his son was killed for wanting to give him a hug,” Trudeau said on Parliament Hill.
“I really hope that Mr. Harper rethinks the extents and the lengths he’s willing to go to personally attack people and to politicize tragedies like that.”
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Bruce Campion-Smith
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