"Is Christmas racist?" Trudeau answers Bloc Quebecois leader's "totally ridiculous question"

A Christmas-themed question left members of the House of Commons stunned, entertained, or irritated on Wednesday.

Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanchet rose to ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “Is Christmas racist?”

Here’s what went down.

The “ridiculous” question

“According to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, celebrating Christmas with trees, family music and gifts, that’s systemic racism,” said Blanchet. “I wonder whether Santa Claus is racist. I wonder whether snow has become racist. Mr. Speaker, according to the Prime Minister, is Christmas racist?”

What he’s referring to is likely a CHRC discussion paper on religious tolerance in Canada, published October 23 this year.

“Discrimination against religious minorities in Canada is grounded in Canada’s history of colonialism. This history manifests itself in present-day systemic religious discrimination,” reads this document. It highlights that statutory holidays in Canada are an obvious example of this discrimination.

“Statutory holidays related to Christianity, including Christmas and Easter, are the only Canadian statutory holidays linked to religious holy days. As a result, non-Christians may need to request special accommodations to observe their holy days and other times of the year where their religion requires them to abstain from work,” it states.

The document also attributes an Ontario Human Rights Commission’s policy on preventing discrimination based on creed, which stresses how “systemic faithism” like having Christian statutory holidays “may adversely affect non-Christians, some of whom may therefore need to seek out special accommodations to observe their own faith holy days.”

Christmas itself is not categorized as a racist celebration or “systemic racism” in either document.

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Trudeau’s answer (and a follow-up question)

In response to Blanchet’s question, House Speaker Greg Fergus promptly said he wasn’t convinced that the question should go to the government administration.

But seeing that PM Trudeau had already gotten up to answer, Speaker Fergus gave him the floor.

“Mr. Speaker, I’m very pleased to stand up and try to answer a totally ridiculous question. Obviously, Christmas is not racist,” Trudeau began.

“This is a country of diversity — a country that celebrates not just our personal individual beliefs, but we share and celebrate the events of our neighbours, too. That’s what makes this country so rich. We share our celebrations. It makes us a more rich and diverse country and we will keep doing that. The Bloc is always looking for ridiculous ways to pick fights. I can’t get over it,” he concluded.

But unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it.

“We’re having a Christmas celebration in my riding in a few days. Do I have to cancel that because of what the CHRC has said, because it’s racist?” continued the Bloc Quebecois leader. “That’s my question to the Prime Minister.”

“No, Mr. Speaker,” began Trudeau, giggling. “We have to celebrate everything — Christmas, Hanukkah, all the different festivals and celebrations — that we have in our ridings and all across the country. Our diversity is a profound source of wealth. There are lots of issues in the world today, but I think we should all take a moment to celebrate one another’s celebrations. I think that’s only a good thing.”

Read the full discussion paper from CHRC to decide for yourself. Watch the time-stamped video of Wednesday’s political exchange here: