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Kenyan Digest

Live Updates on George Floyd Protests

2 min read
Published 3 June 2020
Live Updates on George Floyd Protests

Much of the country’s horror has been focused squarely on President Trump.

Most Canadians soured on President Trump two years ago when he slapped tariffs on their country’s steel and aluminum exports, threatened to cut Canada out of the continental free trade deal and insulted Mr. Trudeau as “very dishonest and weak” moments after leaving the Group of 7 summit, which Mr. Trudeau had hosted.

But, during the pandemic, public opinion of President Trump has sunk to even lower levels among Canadians.

While politicians here have set aside their partisan differences to work together to protect Canadians against the coronavirus scourge, Mr. Trump is viewed as politicizing the pandemic for his own reelection efforts.

“My view is one of profound sadness — sadness at watching communities we respect being so torn apart, and sadness at watching the loss of life in the pandemic,” said Frank McKenna, a former premier of New Brunswick and a former Canadian ambassador to the United States. “The United States is so polarized, the question of wearing a mask or not is fraught with political overtones. It’s excruciating to watch.”

Residents of Los Angeles are reliving the trauma of 1992.

With America seized by racial unrest, as protests convulse cities from coast to coast after the death of George Floyd, Los Angeles is on fire again. As peaceful protests in the city turned violent over the past few days, with images of looting and burning buildings captured by news helicopters shown late into the night, many Angelenos, have been pulled back to the trauma of 1992.

The parallels are easy to see: looting and destruction, fueled by anger over police abuses; shopkeepers, with long guns, protecting their businesses. The differences, though, between 1992 and now, are stark. This time, the faces of the protesters are more diverse — black, white, Latino, Asian; there has been little if any racially motivated violence among Angelenos; and the geography of the chaos is very different, with protesters bringing their message to Los Angeles’ largely white and rich Westside.

“South Central has been completely quiet and peaceful,” said Ms. Cullors, now a prominent activist and co-founder of Black Lives Matter who organized a protest on Saturday in the Fairfax District, west of downtown. “That’s an important distinction, that these current situations are not happening in black communities.”