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If you don’t recall, a brief recap: Trudeau was in Toronto for a meeting of the Liberal party’s elite-level donors, the so-called Laurier Club. As the prime minister spoke to the donors at a posh Toronto hotel, some Indigenous protesters interrupted to decry the lack of progress addressing mercury contamination of drinking water at the Grassy Narrows reserve in Ontario. The protesters were quickly ejected by security and the prime minister quipped, “Thank you very much for your donation,” as they were marched out.

They were there to protest a lack of clean water, the prime minister made jokes at their expense as they were shoved out the door … and the crowd laughed.

It was a self-inflicted disaster for the prime minister. I wrote in a column at the time that his glib mockery of Indigenous protesters was a kill shot on his own political brand: “Mr. Jobs For The Middle Class made an ass of himself at a glitzy event at a posh downtown venue where only those with considerable cash to burn can get on the invite list. Prime Minister Reconciliation cracked jokes as two people were bodily removed from the venue for daring raise concerns over Indigenous Canadians being poisoned by their water and food.” He quickly apologized, saying the next day that he failed to live up to his own standard and that their donations would be refunded. “They wanted to express their concerns about an issue and I do take that seriously and I apologize to them,” he said.

But it wasn’t the prime minister’s flub that the public should remember. Lord knows he’s had enough of those. What’s harder to forget is how the crowd reacted. This well-heeled assortment of Liberal elite, gathered in the downtown heart of the country’s largest and one of its most proudly progressive cities, laughed when the prime minister cracked jokes as two Indigenous people were dragged from the room. They were there to protest a lack of clean water, the prime minister made jokes at their expense as they were shoved out the door … and the crowd laughed.