Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau allegedly apologized to the Filipinos and promised to give Filipino caregivers visa-free entry to his country. At least this is what some blogs are claiming.
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The story has already been shared several hundreds of times on Facebook by pages such as “Duterte,” “Latest Duterte News,” “Philippine News Courier,” and “Pinoy Observer.” It was picked up by blogs such as localhero.altervista.org and latestdutertenews.altervista.org, but it likely came from Okd2.com.
Okd2 did not label the story as “Humor & Satire” just like many of its stories, but we went on to check the details of the story, where Trudeau’s first name was misspelled as “Justine.”
In the story “Justine Trudeau Apologizes to Filipinos, Promises No Visa for PH Caregivers within His Term,” the Canadian prime minister allegedly apologized to Filipinos during his speech to the over 30,000 Fil-Canadians in Ontario, Canada during the Filipino-Canada Day on December 4. Trudeau was said to have praised President Rodrigo Duterte and the Philippines.
The article attributed the following statements which were allegedly uttered by Trudeau:
“I had a good time in the Philippines and the hospitality of your president, President Rodrigo Duterte, was second to none. I will surely love to visit there again if opportunity comes in the future.”
“I know some of you might have been offended in what I said about the Philippines’ war on drugs. I didn’t mean to offend everyone. There must have been some misunderstanding and to all people who have been hurt by my words, please accept my apology.”
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“My previous words was misquoted and I want to make it clear. Canada and the Philippines have been good friends for decades and people like me have no right to destroy that friendship. Thus, both of our governments are working to settle than problem and bring those containers of garbage back here, where we can dispose properly.”“I am going to ask our immigration office if we can give no visa to these hardworking Filipino caregivers who spend their life caring our parents. I will ask our lawmakers and if they won’t agree with me. I will issue an Executive Order. I want this visa free to Filipino caregivers to take effect immediately.”
But all these remarks can only be found on Okd2.
We searched Trudeau’s official Twitter account, which is quite meticulous in covering his official activities. Since Okd2’s story mentioned that the Canadian PM made his apology to the Filipinos during the Fil-Canadian Day on December 4 in Ontario, we looked for his tweets on December 4. There were several tweets on that day, but they were all about Trudeau’s visit to a Canadian fuel cell manufacturer in Beijing; his appointment of two new independent senators; the arrival of the Canadian delegation at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People for stronger Canada-China ties; Trudeau’s dialogue with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang; his announcement of Canada’s partnership with China for environment protection, more employment opportunities, and increased trade; joint statement of Canada and China on climate change; and a video clip of Trudeau talking about his dialogue with Chinese Premier Li.
We can conclude that on December 4, Trudeau was in Beijing, not in Ontario for a Fil-Canadian Day.
The Filipino community in Canada celebrates the Philippine Independence Day every June 12 and Canada Day every July 1.
Unfortunately, many netizens bought the lies and were quick to heap praises on Trudeau for allegedly making an “apology” and realizing that he was wrong to insult the Philippines and President Duterte.
While searching for any relevant news about Filipinos caregivers possibly getting into Canada visa-free, we did find something about Filipino citizens’ visa-free entry to Canada, but it was from fake news site usa-television.com.
Canada did grant visa-free entry, but not to Filipinos. In June 2016, Trudeau announced that Canada would allow visa-free entry for Mexicans starting December 2016.
The feature image used by the blogs spreading this fake story first surfaced in 2015.
It was clear that the claims about Trudeau apologizing to the Filipino community in Ontario, Canada over his comment on the Philippines’ bloody war on drugs and human rights issues was made up by Okd2. Even his alleged statements can only be found on the blog, which has been known for making up fake stories and articles they casually tag as “satire.” And Trudeau did not mention anything about promising visa-free entry and stay for Filipino caregivers in Canada, either.
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