page_title: Justin Trudeau
section_title: Foreign policy
hierarchical_section_title: Justin Trudeau / Prime Minister of Canada / Foreign policy
caption_attribution_description: President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump participate in a family photo with G7 leaders, extended partners and their spouses during the G7 Extended Partners Program Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019, at the Hotel du Palais in Biarritz, France. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
context_page_description: Justin Pierre James Trudeau PC MP is a Canadian politician who has served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada since 2015 and has been the leader of the Liberal Party since 2013. Trudeau is the second-youngest Canadian prime minister after Joe Clark; he is also the first to be related to a previous holder of the post, as the eldest son of Pierre Trudeau.
  Born in Ottawa, Trudeau attended Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, graduated from McGill University in 1994, and then the University of British Columbia in 1998. He has a bachelor of arts degree in literature and a bachelor of education degree. After graduating, he worked as a teacher in Vancouver, British Columbia. He started studying engineering at Montreal's École Polytechnique in 2002 but dropped out in 2003. Beginning in 2004, he took one year of a master's program in environmental geography at McGill University but, again, left without graduating in 2005. He has also held jobs including camp counselor, nightclub bouncer, and snowboard instructor.
  In the 2008 federal election, he was elected to represent the riding of Papineau in the House of Commons.
context_section_description: In October 2015, Trudeau stated that, once prime minister, he would end Canada's airstrike mission against ISIL. In his mandate letter to Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, he also called for increased focus on Canadian trainers for local troops and humanitarian aid for the region.
  In November 2015, Trudeau was asked whether his plans to change Canada's contribution to the fight against ISIL and to repeal parts of Bill C-51 would change following the terrorist attacks in Paris. Trudeau responded, "It's too soon to jump to conclusions, but obviously governments have a responsibility to keep their citizens safe, while defending our rights and freedoms, and that balance is something the Canadian government, and indeed all governments around the world, will be focusing on."
  In June 2016, Trudeau's Liberals voted against a Conservative motion in Parliament to recognize ISIL's atrocities as genocide; during a question period, Trudeau said that Canada "strongly condemns the atrocities committed by" ISIL but voted against the resolution because "We do not feel that politicians should be weighing in on this first and foremost. Determinations of genocide need to be made in an objective, responsible way. That is exactly what we have formally requested the international authorities weigh in on." Following the issuance of a report by a United Nations inquiry formally concluding that ISIL was perpetrating a genocide of Yazidis, Trudeau's government recognized the genocide.
  Trudeau supported the Harper-negotiated arms deal with Saudi Arabia, and Trudeau's government approved export permits for the shipment of most of Canadian-made LAV III combat vehicles to Saudi Arabia under the deal, which is valued at $11.3 billion or $15 billion. Human rights and arms control groups have repeatedly called upon Trudeau to halt the deal in light of Saudi Arabia's poor human rights record and the humanitarian crisis associated with the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. In October 2018, Trudeau condemned the killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, promised "consequences"; later that month, following Khashoggi's killing and the continuation of the war in Yemen, Trudeau announced that his government was suspending the issuance of new arms export permits to Saudi Arabia pending a review.
  In August 2018, Canada called for the immediate release of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi and his sister Samar. In response to Canada's criticism, Saudi Arabia expelled Canada's ambassador, and froze trade with Canada. Trudeau said that Canada will "continue to speak clearly and firmly on issues of human rights at home and abroad wherever we see the need".
  Upon hearing the news of former Cuban President Fidel Castro's passing, Trudeau released a statement that described Castro as a "remarkable leader" and a "larger than life leader who served his people"; the remark was criticized.
  In 2017, Trudeau criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's issuance of an executive order banning refugees from seven countries, six of which have Muslim majorities, from entering the United States. On social media, Trudeau displayed support for affected refugees.
  In September 2018, as the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar became ethnic cleansing against the country's Rohingya Muslim minority, Canada stripped Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship.
  Since Trudeau was elected as Prime Minister, over 25,000 Syrian refugees have settled in Canada.
  UN Security Council bid
  In June 2020, Canada lost a vote on temporary membership of the United Nations Security Council. Trudeau was criticized for having an unclear message on the world stage. Meanwhile, opposition leader Andrew Scheer criticized the campaign as "another foreign affairs failure for Justin Trudeau," accusing him of "[selling] out Canada's principles for a personal vanity project. Former U.N. ambassador under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Stephen Lewis, pointed to public controversies affecting the Trudeau "brand" as having played a role in the results, such as the pri
caption: Trudeau with Emmanuel Macron, Shinzo Abe, Angela Merkel, Donald Trump, and other leaders at the 45th G7 summit in Biarritz, France
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