EDITORIAL – Whatever happened to saying nice things about dead people?

An ArmchairMayor.ca editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

IN CANADA, we have a quaint tradition — when people die, we say nice things about them.

In the U.S., apparently, they like to call dead people names.

Here at home, when Joe or Josephine passes on, we say they’ll be sorely missed, speak of their work ethic on the farm, on the railway, the accounting office, and so on.

If the material gets thin, we’re always able to mention their cooking skills or their love for bridge, the grandkids, weekends at the lake and their small white dog Mr. Snuggles.

When it comes to leaders, we eulogize them for their achievements in social and economic policy; we speak of their legacy.

In the U.S., especially if they didn’t pay appropriate homage, if their politics were different, if they stood up to American aggression, dead people are described as blood-thirsty tyrants who brutalized their own people. They are demonized.

And if you say something nice about them, in the Canadian way, then you are an idiot. Our prime minister found this out over the weekend.

At the passing of Fidel Castro, Trudeau issued a statement expressing deep sorrow, calling Castro larger than life, legendary, controversial, dedicated. For that, he’s being pillaged by American politicians and more than a few Canadians.

Trudeau didn’t mention Castro’s ruthless suppression of dissent, but try surviving politically and militarily when you have the world’s most powerful nation and most powerful armed forces doing their best to destroy you from 90 miles away.

Yes, Castro was a self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist, and he made a terrible mistake with the Cuban Missile Crisis as he tried to protect Cuba from the U.S. And he did not bow and scrape to the U.S. as the corrupt and savage military dictator Fulgencio Batista and so many others did before him. And Castro humiliated the Americans at the Bay of Pigs.

The U.S. tried to assassinate him, invade him and bring him to his knees by economically isolating him, but Castro prevailed. Canada and Cuba have maintained relations the whole time, and Canadians have been travelling to Cuba for decades while the U.S. steadfastly stuck to its useless, counter-productive embargo.

American leaders and American media ignore the progress Cuba has made since Castro’s revolution, in health care, infrastructure, education, and economic diversification.

Cuba is not a democracy. It’s a tough country. It’s certainly not our kind of system nor our kind of country. Many people have suffered. But Cubans are many times better off today under the dictatorship of the Castros than they were under the dictatorship of the Batistas. Some day, maybe democracy will come to Cuba but it will be no thanks to the U.S.

So if our Canadian prime minister wants to comfort the Cuban people with some kind words instead of cruel insults, the Marco Rubios and Ted Cruz’s and Donald Trumps can put a sock in it. And we mean that politely, of course.

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