(Ottawa) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ripped apart a Toronto Sun cartoon showing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stealing the wallet of American President Joe Biden.
Posted at 1:07 p.m.
The cartoon, published on Friday in the pages of the Postmedia group's tabloid, brought shame on the Canadian prime minister.
“The Toronto Sun cartoon, which conveys anti-Semitic content of the worst kind, is absolutely unacceptable,” he denounced on the sidelines of an announcement in Toronto.
Instead of falling into “stereotypes” in these difficult times, Canadians should show compassion and understanding, he also stressed.
“I think we can all expect better from our media organizations,” he said.
SCREENSHOT OF THE TORONTO SUN CARTOON
In the drawing, President Zelenskyy can be seen using his prominent nose to pull a wallet out of President Biden's back pocket, presumably in reference to the US Congress' dispute over aid for Ukraine.
It sparked anger within both the Jewish and Ukrainian communities.
“One of the most common anti-Semitic stereotypes is that Jews are greedy. A second is that of the Jewish nose,” the Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations (CIJA) noted to X.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress said it was “disgusted” by this “hateful” drawing of the Jewish leader, which “perpetuates anti-Semitic stereotypes and is an insult to the Ukrainian people.”
The group is demanding not only a public apology from the Toronto Sun, but also the destruction of all digital and print versions of the drawing, which contains “Kremlin-inspired hate propaganda.”
The Postmedia Group had not yet responded to questions from La Presse at the time of publication of this early Friday afternoon.