While Trudeau said that freedom of expression would always be something he defended, he also added that the practice was “not without limits.”
Upon reports that a Parisian schoolteacher was beheaded by a Muslim radical after showing Muslim students a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's comments fell short of any meaningful condemnation.
While Trudeau said that freedom of expression would always be something he defended, he also added that the practice was "not without limits."
"We owe it to ourselves to act with respect for others and to seek not to arbitrarily or unnecessarily injure those with whom we are sharing a society and a planet," said Trudeau.
"We do not have the right for example to shout fire in a movie theatre crowded with people, there are always limits."
While already initially disrespectful to those who lost their lives during the Charlie Hebdo cartoonist attacks and to Samuel Paty, the teacher who was beheaded on the streets of Paris, the comments now take on new meaning, as it was reported on Monday that the girl who had initially made the claims against her teacher had fabricated the entire story as to not upset her father.
The 13-year-old girl told her father that her teacher had kept Muslim students after class to show "a photograph of the Prophet [Muhammad] naked."
Her father then went on to file a legal complaint and began a full-on hate campaign against the teacher. This included creating videos detailing the accusations against the teacher. Days later, Paty was beheaded by 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov.
The girl is now facing charges of slander, and the father is facing charges of "complicity in a terrorist killing."
Trudeau's position back in November caused some backlash, including from Quebec Premier Francois Legault, who said he "totally disagreed" with the statements, siding instead with French President Emmanuel Macron, who called the act an "Islamist terrorist attack."
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