Ever since the assassination of Charlie Kirk happened on September 10th, I have felt like I have been living in the Twilight Zone.
Particularly after witnessing our nation’s parliament give Kirk a standing ovation.
On the floor of the House of Commons, Conservative MP Rachael Thomas eulogized Kirk by saying he was “an outspoken advocate for faith, family and freedom.”
This is total revisionism of what Charlie Kirk stood for.
Charlie Kirk’s gruesome assassination was horrific and not something that should be celebrated to any extent. But his murder does not necessitate us to posthumously whitewash his message.
I was very familiar with Charlie’s programming. I listened to him speak for long periods of time, in his own words, since 2017. And yeah, he did talk a lot about faith and family. But freedom – can we be real for a second?
Charlie Kirk was not pro-freedom. Charlie Kirk was pro-Christian nationalism. But he did not wish the level of freedom he desired for his fellow Christians for everyone else.
Charlie Kirk did not advocate for the freedom of Muslims to practice their faith. He wanted mass deportation for immigrants, especially Muslims, using vile rhetoric to paint them as an urgent threat to “Western civilization”.
He was constantly talking down to the Black community, using false or misleading crime statistics to create the impression of a violent, criminal culture.
He was against the freedom of women to control their own bodies. He called transgender people “an abomination to God.”
He did not stand for free speech either. He called for journalists, such as Mehdi Hasan, to be deported because of their speech. He was in favour of speech for people he agreed with, but not for his political enemies.
As a Canadian, why the hell is my parliament having a standing ovation to honour an American right-wing MAGA influencer?
There was no standing ovation for The Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman when her and her husband were killed.
There has been no standing ovation for any of the children, women, innocent civilians who have been killed in Gaza.
There have been no standing ovations for any of the victims of school shootings in the United States over the past 10 years.
Notably, they did give a standing ovation to Nazi veteran Yaroslav Hunka.
Not only was Charlie Kirk not from our country, but he was one of the strongest advocates for an administration that has been explicitly targeting Canada.
A standing ovation for Charlie Kirk was not just a statement against political violence – it was, at minimum, an erasure of the hateful rhetoric he spread against so many of our fellow human beings.
Although we should condemn his death, we should not celebrate what he stood for.
Got an opinion? Submit an Opinion Piece or a Letter to the Editor to the Muse.