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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has just spent several days in Europe. Not everyone has been happy to see him.

During Justin Trudeau’s recent visit to Brussels for G7 and NATO meetings, the Canadian Prime Minister addressed the European Parliament. But he faced an icy reception.

At least three members of the EU assembly vocally denounced Trudeau for his recent human rights violations against Freedom Convoy protesters in Ottawa, Canada’s capital.

When Trudeau took to the stage on Wednesday, the gallery was full, but only around 200 of 705 EP members were present, despite footage showing a full house earlier that day.

During his speech, Trudeau referred to the freedom protests that took place in Canada, warning of a “rise in cynical populists who are trying to exploit” anxieties and who “pretend to have easy solutions that play on people’s fears”.

He then condemned Russia’s Vladimir Putin for his “attack on the values that form the pillars of all democracies”. Trudeau also advised those present to recommit to “the work of strengthening our democracies, and demonstrate the principled leadership people are looking for.”

‘A Dictatorship of the Worst Kind’

During a plenary session, however, members from Croatia and Germany were determined to hold Trudeau accountable for the gap between his words and actions.

“Freedom, the right to choose, the right to life, the right to health, the right to work for many of us are fundamental human rights for which millions of citizens of Europe and the world have laid down their lives,” began Croatian lawyer and politician Mislav Kolakušić. But then he pivoted:

Unfortunately, today there are those among us who trample on these fundamental values. Canada, once a symbol of the modern world, has become a symbol of civil rights violations under your quasi-liberal boot in recent months.

We watched how you trample women with horses, how you block the bank accounts of single parents so that they can’t even pay their children’s education and medicine, and they can’t pay utilities, mortgages for their homes.

To you, these may be liberal methods, for many citizens of the world, it is a dictatorship of the worst kind.

The video of Kolakušić’s speech has been viewed over 1.4 million times so far on Twitter.

‘Trampling on Democratic Rights’

Two German politicians serving in the European Parliament as members of the Alternative for Germany party sought to prevent Trudeau’s speech from going ahead. During remarks delivered at the EP, one of them, Bernhard Zimniok, explained:

I worked in Syria and Pakistan for many years as a diplomat and therefore value democracy very highly.

The invitation to Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is an invitation to someone who’s been trampling on democratic rights, who’s been cracking down on people who protested against disproportionate corona measures — people who were supporting a non-sanctioned movement coming under criticism. So clearly the values of democracy are being despised by this individual.

Let us not give someone like this any speaking time in this house of democracy.

Zimniok’s colleague, Christine Anderson, likewise described Justin Trudeau as “a Prime Minister who openly admires the Chinese ‘basic dictatorship’, who tramples on fundamental rights by persecuting and criminalising his own citizens as terrorists just because they dared stand up to his perverted concept of democracy.”

Anderson declared that Trudeau “should not be allowed to speak in this house at all”. She concluded, “Mr Trudeau, you are a disgrace for any democracy. Please spare us your presence.”

Anderson’s speech, shared on Twitter, has garnered over 1.8 million views since it was posted yesterday.

Other Recent Condemnations of Trudeau

This isn’t the first time Justin Trudeau has faced denunciations in Europe this year.

During a visit to the United Kingdom earlier this month, Canada’s PM was met by protesters using colourful language to condemn his treatment of truckers. The unhappy crowd’s reportedly meant that Trudeau has to enter 10 Downing Street via the back door.

In February, Irish Senator Sharon Keogan gave a searing speech in which she called for stronger condemnation of Trudeau following Canada’s peaceful freedom protests “being violently suppressed and dispersed by armed government forces”.

“It sounds like something you’d see from Russia, or actions which we’d condemn in Hungary or Poland, but instead, it is happening in the supposedly liberal democracy of Canada,” the Senator remarked.

Romanian EP Member Boycotts Trudeau Speech

In another speech that went viral in February (below), Romanian EP member Cristian-Vasile Terheș scorched Trudea for behaving “exactly like a tyrant, like a dictator,” and comparing the Canadian leader to former Romanian despots.

Terhes boycotted the European Parliament meeting in protest of Trudeau. In a Facebook post he wrote that Trudeau has no place to “teach democracy lessons to Putin from the European Parliament when you trample with horse hooves your own citizens who are demanding their fundamental rights be respected.”

“The difference between democracy and tyranny is not determined by the geographical location of political leaders, but by the values they promote,” Terhes added.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has initiated a court challenge over Prime Minister Trudeau’s use of emergency powers to disperse protests in Ottawa.

Trudeau’s trip to Europe concluded yesterday.

Photos by AP/Susan Walsh and John Thys/AFP via Getty.