Canada’s woke nightmare is a vision of Britain’s future

Under Justin Trudeau, Canada has sought to position itself as the global bastion of progressive politics. In my latest Telegraph documentary, seen above, I went to the former British colony to find out how Canadians are dealing with Trudeau’s radical reforms; from the promotion of gender ideology in schools and the mass legalisation of drugs, to his extreme new suicide laws and clamp downs on freedom of speech.

I began my investigation in one of the country’s most liberal cities, Vancouver. Possession of up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs, including heroin, cocaine and fentanyl, has been legalised in the city as part of a three year experiment which began in January of this year. If the aim was to combat the opioid crisis that already beset the city then it appears there is still much to be done as vast tent sites line the streets, patrolled by roaming zombie-like drug addicts.

As we filmed on Hastings Street, infamous as the epicentre of Vancouver’s homelessness crisis, I witnessed a topless man shoot a needle into his arm five feet from me. Though it wasn’t quite as bad as San Francisco, where my cameraman and I came under attack from angry vagrants, the scenes were still shocking.

It’s not just the homeless who patrol the streets of Vancouver. Chris Elston, better known online as Billboard Chris, campaigns against the imposition of gender ideology on children, whether through Canada’s education system or via dangerous operations to “transition” children. As his nickname suggests, Chris walks around Vancouver wearing signs protesting gender ideology, encouraging lively debates with passers-by which he puts on X, formerly Twitter.

Chris kindly allowed our crew to join him on a walkabout, where we found many Canadians horrified by the use of puberty blockers in children and the promotion of biological men in women’s sports.  

We did encounter some opposition of course, mostly through the odd shout or flicking of the finger. So much for Canadian politeness.

One aggressive gentleman, tall, ageing and angry, began a tirade against Chris with the rather bizarre singular message that he is “queer”.

For those who do question gender ideology there can be severe consequences. We spoke to a nurse, Amy Hamm, who faces losing her licence to practise after two members of the public complained about a poster she was involved in pledging support for the gender-critical author J K Rowling.  

The promotion of transgenderism in Canadian schools has led to a fierce backlash from some parents, not least from some of the country’s ethnic minority communities. While multiculturalism has become a key pillar of Justin Trudeau’s vision of Canadian identity, not everyone fits in with his mould of the enlightened immigrant.

In Toronto, I caught up with a family originally from India to discuss their experiences of modern Canada. Neerunjun, a social worker fired by his company for refusing to take the Covid vaccine, discussed how his eight-year-old son was asked to wear the opposite sex’s clothes for a school day promoting cross-dressing. He let his child have a day off instead of submitting to such woke indulgence.

Part of Canada’s social revolution can also be witnessed in its extreme new euthanasia laws. In 2016, the ruling Liberal Party passed legislation enabling assisted suicide for terminally ill Canadians. Next year the legislation will be expanded to include those with mental health problems. As Christianity declines across Canada, and the liberal obsession with “bodily autonomy” and “personal freedom” reaches its logical conclusion, a new dystopia is forming. As Dr Konia Trouton, a euthanasia advocate, told me, “we are an organised society but within that organisation we have to allow some freedoms and opportunities, this is not a communist system where we can try and reign that in”. The campaign group Euthanasia Prevention Coalition estimates that 13,500 people chose state-assisted suicide last year.

For a nation to be truly woke, it must have its own narrative of oppression. In America, activists focus on the country’s history of slavery and racist laws. In Britain, they focus on the Empire. In Canada, where historically there were very few black people, the nation’s story of guilt centres on a so-called genocide against its indigenous population. Supporters of this narrative point to the discovery  of hundreds of disturbances in the earth around an Indian residential school in Kamloops, which is supposedly evidence of a mass grave site. 

However, no bodies have ever been found and many question the idea of a genocide as being at best an exaggeration and at worst a total fabrication. We interviewed a man who questioned the genocide story, and was fired from his job as a teacher as a result. Canada’s Justice Minister David Lametti has said he is open to punishing those who deny the indigenous genocide narrative, similar to bans on Holocaust denialism.

To prevent wokeism from spreading it is important to have a strong opposition party. Canada’s Conservatives have been historically weak in pushing back against Trudeau, however, their recently elected leader, Pierre Poilievre, has injected fresh energy into the party. Whilst there are some who still question Poillievre’s conservative credentials, his strategy seems to be working; one recent poll gave his party a twelve point lead over Trudeau’s Liberals.

However, the most successful opponents to Canada’s social revolution have so far not been politicians but members of the public. Our film highlights some of these brave individuals, including Dr Jordan Peterson, perhaps the most high-profile Canadian in the world other than the country’s leader.

During my travels I found ordinary people appalled at Canada’s surrender to drug dealers, its contempt for freedom of speech, its enforcement of gender ideology on children and a breezy willingness to terminate the lives of its own citizens. However, for all the depressing stories of people losing their jobs, or being hounded by the government, these cases were equally inspirational. Whilst Canada is a warning to the West, there are also individual messages of hope from those brave individuals fighting for their freedom.

How has Canada changed in recent years? Have you noticed the impact of progressive politics? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below