Trudeau voices concerns about gay rights amid Poland PM’s visit

OTTAWA Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he raised concerns about reports that LGBTQ rights and democracy are under threat in Poland during a Friday visit with its prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, in Toronto. The visit comes amid unprecedented economic and military collaboration between the two countries.

“I certainly raised concerns that we have around some of the reports coming out of Poland around LGBTQ rights, around democracy, and we had a frank conversation, as must be the case,” Trudeau told reporters Friday.

His comments come amid rising concern about free speech and elections due to policies enacted by Morawiecki’s government.

The country recently passed a law that will create a commission to probe alleged Russian interference in the country. Academics and civilrights groups say the mandate is so vague that the panel of mostly government MPs will be used to attack opposition parties.

“It threatens, for sure, not only the electoral process but also academic freedom, because the commission has such large powers to question people from academia,” said Marcin Gabrys, a political scientist with Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

On Monday, the U.S. State Department expressed concern over a new law “that could be misused to interfere with Poland’s free and fair elections.”

Gabrys was surprised that on that same day, Trudeau announced Morawiecki’s visit by praising “a shared commitment to NATO and democracy.” He said there is a strong discrepancy between the values held by the two governments.

On Tuesday, a Polish MP from the far-right Confederation party blocked University of Ottawa professor Jan Grabowski from delivering a lecture in Warsaw that would have touched on Polish complicity in crimes during the Holocaust. The topic is a sore point for ruling PiS, which in 2018 outlawed truthful statements that some Poles were complicit in Nazi war crimes. “There is too much silence, and I think we are on the edge in Poland,” said Gabrys, who specializes in Canadian studies.

“For Canada, many times the economic interest and security interests are more important. And sometimes it means that Ottawa has abstained from saying what it should say. Nevertheless, the case in Poland is so clear; it has been for so many years,” he said.

Two years ago, Morawiecki’s government limited abortions to cases where a pregnancy resulted from a criminal act or posed a serious health risk. The party has called out LGBTQ rights as “an attack on the family and children” and turned a blind eye to municipalities and regions declaring themselves “LGBTfree zones.”

In January, the European Commission withdrew a 2021 court case against Poland over the LGBT-free zones, and Morawiecki noted that the body hasn’t withheld equalization payments to Poland after threatening to do so over judicial reforms.