The Canadian Federal government has invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time ever, for what we were told only recently is a “fringe minority” of protestors.
Trudeau’s language has been carefully nationalistic and his style contained while discussing the protestors. He repeatedly makes appeals for the “safety” of all Canadians. His case sounds reasonable:
“Individuals are trying to blockade our economy, our democracy, and our fellow citizens’ daily lives,” he said. “It has to stop.”
But the pursuit of safety can become a danger when it leads an alarmed populace to acquiesce to increasingly strong-arm government.
The language used by Trudeau also subverts ideas that would typically appeal to liberals. He has declared the protestors to be “anti-vaxxers”, “racist” and “misogynist”. They are bad people, and therefore we should stand against them.
Unfortunately for Trudeau – although fortunately for the reputations of the freedom convoy truckers – the cat was out of the bag when we saw footage of protestors of all ethnicities, peacefully singing and dancing in the streets. Even Joël Lightbound, a member of Trudeau’s same party, has accused the prime minister of trying “to divide and to stigmatise” the unvaccinated.
I suspect Trudeau may even have welcomed a little violence to justify a strong dispersement of this protest, but it has remained remarkably peaceable.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said that banks and financial institutions would be able to freeze the bank accounts of anyone linked with the protests without any need for a court order. The truckers’ insurance licenses can be revoked. The police will have new powers to fine and imprison protestors.
Freeland said they were broadening Canada’s “Terrorist Financing” rules to cover cryptocurrencies and crowdfunding platforms as part of the effort. Well, naturally. Imagine being able to bypass fiduciary totalitarianism – must put a stop to that!
This should be a huge wake up call to people. If western liberal democracies (in the case of Canada, I use this term more lightly than I would like at the moment) go down the route of programmable central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), governments will be able to swiftly switch off access to money, or specific products and services, if they do not like your behaviour. Here in the UK, the Treasury and the Bank of England are exploring a potential UK CBDC, and identity-based programmable money is under consideration. As I have already written, all that glitters is not gold. Add to this the subjective complexities of defining terrorism and the problem is self-evident.
Shutting down protest and blanket defunding a large group of protestors is a bad look for liberalism. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association said in a statement that the standard for invoking the Emergencies Act “has not been met”. The media will be dissecting whether this step was overreach for weeks to come. Those with a liberal heart know it is overreach now. If you support Trudeau’s action, you might as well support setting up a Chinese-style social credit system.
The battle lines are being redrawn. We are no longer engaged in a fight against a virus, but a fight for liberal values and against despotism.
Discussing some of these issues with Kevin O’Sullivan on talkRADIO today:
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Author Laura Dodsworth
