In U.S., Canadian minister says: ‘It’s important to speak up, condemn’ racism
WASHINGTON — The foreign ministers of Canada and the United States have jointly condemned the racist-fuelled violence in Charlottesville, Va., with Chrystia Freeland adding that people have a responsibility to denounce such incidents..
Amid a furor over the incident and President Donald Trump’s handling of it, they used a meeting to make a public statement Wednesday. Freeland was in Washington for the opening round of NAFTA talks, and she dropped in on the State Department to visit Rex Tillerson.
The secretary of state first brought it up. With reporters present in the room, he opened his remarks by noting that Canada and the U.S. are close friends with shared values — which include freedom and tolerance.
He said that’s why he felt it was appropriate to address the incident in Virginia, where white supremacists gathered and a car plowed into a group of anti-racism protesters, killing one and injuring more than a dozen others.