The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau has spoken and ironed out issues regarding Trudeau’s remarks about the tragic incident that happened in France which led to the brutal decapitation of a teacher and the death of three churchgoers, the BBC reports.
The teacher was beheaded for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his students. The incident sparked a lot of reactions from leaders of countries all over the world. Trudeau had reacted to the teacher’s death by condemning the acts of those responsible and calling for limits of the freedom of expression when it will affect others.
The Canadian Prime Minister had stated that although he condemns the three suspected cases of Islamist terrorism recorded in France in less than a month, he urged people to realize that there is a limit to freedom of speech. Trudeau had likened the caricature of the Prophet Muhammad to someone raising a false alarm of a fire outbreak in a cinema filled with people, Fox News writes.
“There is a limit to the freedom of expression,” Trudeau had said. “It is our responsibility to respect other people and avoid causing them unnecessary injure with this freedom. It is not within our right, for instance, to shout fire in a movie theatre filled with people.”
Canadian and French citizens had responded negatively to Trudeau’s remarks about the limitation of the freedom of expression in such a situation. Macron had called Francois Legault the premier of Quebec, one of the provinces in Canada who had shown his unreserved disapproval of the brutal murder of the teacher. He appreciated the support of Legault during the crisis but he had not spoken to Trudeau.
Trudeau later explained what he had meant with the remark stating that he is in staunch support of the defense of the freedom of speech. He also explained that his remarks were not made to undermine the importance of artists in society as they help us to think about our society.
Macron, who was heavily criticized by prominent members of Islamic communities for his views on religion has spoken with Trudeau on Thursday, and the issues have been ironed out according to reports. Trudeau’s office has also released a statement that Trudeau and the country as a whole stand with France following the attacks.
On Thursday, Macron pledged to crack down on illegal migration into the country, explaining that it is a step towards stopping terrorist attacks on citizens of the country.
“It is very clear that people who are illegally coming into France are spurring these attacks on our citizens,” Macron stated. “We have to tighten our policies to promote national security.”
He also explained that the number of border patrol officers in the country will be doubled.
The president’s statement is coming days after 21-year-old Ibrahim Issaoui, a Tunisian the alleged individual had attacked and killed three members of the Notre Dame Basilica with a knife in Nice last week. Investigations revealed that Issaoui entered France illegally through Italy in September.
Macron expressed the fear that Islamic jihadists are trying to take over Europe after the terrorist organization, ISIS, took responsibility for a bombing that killed five people and left others injured in Vienna, Austria last week.
Source: bbc.com
