Trudeau Doubles Down on Tyranny
Notes the BBC:
The law will grant Mr. Trudeau’s government extraordinary powers for 30 days – including the power to prohibit public assembly, travel and the use of specific property.
…The Emergencies Act outlines four different types of emergencies: public welfare emergencies, public order emergencies, international emergencies and war emergencies. If the legislation is invoked this week, it will likely be under the ‘public order’ category. Again, the criteria here is strict – lawful protests do not qualify.
Instead, the situation must be considered a threat to the security of Canada, as defined by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act. This law outlines four possible scenarios:
- Espionage or sabotage
- Foreign-influenced activities
- Threats or use of acts of serious violence for political, religious or ideological objectives
- Covert, unlawful acts intended to undermine or overthrow the constitutionally established government
It is so far unclear which scenario Mr Trudeau would rely on to justify the use of the Emergency Act – none of these four scenarios have been clearly present in Ontario.[2]
According to the Associated Press:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers Monday to quell the paralyzing protests by truckers and others angry over Canada’s Covid-19 restrictions, outlining plans not only to tow away their rigs but to strike at their bank accounts and their livelihoods.
…In invoking Canada’s Emergencies Act, which gives the federal government broad powers to restore order, Trudeau ruled out using the military.
…at least three other provincial leaders — from Quebec, Alberta, and Saskatchewan — warned the prime minister against taking emergency action, some of them cautioning that such a move could inflame an already dangerous situation.
“At this point, it would not help the social climate. There is a lot of pressure, and I think we have to be careful,” said Quebec Premier François Legault. “It wouldn’t help for the polarization.” [3]
According to a statement by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association:
The federal government has not met the threshold necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act. This law creates a high and clear standard for good reason: the Act allows government to bypass ordinary democratic processes. This standard has not been met. The Emergencies Act can only be invoked when a situation “seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada” & when the situation “cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada. Governments regularly deal with difficult situations, and do so using powers granted to them by democratically elected representatives. Emergency legislation should not be normalized. It threatens our democracy and our civil liberties.[4]
The federal government has not met the threshold necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act. This law creates a high and clear standard for good reason: the Act allows government to bypass ordinary democratic processes. This standard has not been met. 1/3
— Canadian Civil Liberties Association (@cancivlib) February 15, 2022
The Premiers of Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, and Saskatchewan have opposed the mandate giving Trudeau extraordinarily broad powers; they stand in the minority.
Jordan Peterson’s Peaceful Solution
In a thoughtful message to the Freedom Truckers in Ottawa, Professor Jordan Peterson made the following statement:
I’ve been asked to say a few words to the truckers in Ottawa. I’ve given that some careful consideration. You protesters have accomplished an awful lot already. The conservative leadership has crumbled. Erin O’Toole has been replaced by someone who is giving a fair bit of voice to your concerns.
All the people you represent have a voice in the House of Commons. You have four provinces that have moved quite precipitously in the direction that the protest was hoping for. They are starting to lift mask mandates on something approximating as reasonable a timeline as might be expected under the circumstances. You’re now faced with a difficult choice: what are your criteria for satisfaction?
You need to determine that, so that you can negotiate with the necessary people. You’re also faced with another danger at the moment, now that which is that the political process bends in the direction that you’ve insisted upon — rightly, in my estimation. This, more and more of you who are most reasonable are going to pack up and leave, or decide that this is done sometime over the next week or so (or a couple of weeks: that’s obviously up to you) — but there’ll be a remnant that’s much more committed in some sense to more extreme goals. That’s going to be something very difficult to manage.I’d like to commend all of you for your diligence and work — on accomplishing what you have accomplished under trying conditions — and also for keeping your heads in a way that’s been a model for the entire world. You’ve been able to remain peaceful. You haven’t taken the bait. You haven’t responded with violence to quite remarkable denigration and provocation. That’s a sign of tremendous discipline and care. It’s going to get more difficult to maintain as this goes along. So I hope that you’re all able to allow a sufficient victory to be sufficient, to move forward without rancor — to be grateful for the effect that you’ve already had, and the support you’ve received, to move forward to a normative peace and the re-establishment of our country’s economy and our psychological and social wellbeing.[5]
(Also, watch his message to Canadian Leaders).
The present standoff is a time for dialogue and not police violence against protestors whose sin is to honk horns (which some have stopped in obedience to a court order), dance in the streets, and strategically block traffic near the Canadian Federal Parliament. As far as I understand, they left a lane open for city traffic to move through unmolested in the city’s residential areas, though, with certain bridges, they were blocked off as chokepoints (which is wrong). The Ottawa Mayor has also negotiated with the protest leaders to move their protest so as to no longer inconvenience residents and businesses, to which the protest leaders have agreed, according to an article in Canada’s The Globe and Mail:
In a letter to Mayor Jim Watson, one of the organizers of the convoy agreed to relocate some of the roughly 400 trucks away from residential areas, and to concentrate protest activity to Wellington Street, which runs along the Parliament buildings.
“We need some relief for the people who have been put through hell,” said Mr. Watson, who said that, in exchange, he agreed to a sit-down with the protesters.
Where exactly all the trucks will go is still being finalized, Mr. Watson said Sunday. Wellington Street is already jammed for several blocks with tractor-trailers and tents. The mayor suggested one option might involve the group negotiating with private landowners for space and then shuttling protesters downtown to the demonstrate.
Another uncertainty is whether the drivers in trucks lining residential streets will cede to the request to move, although Mr. Watson said organizers believed the majority of them would agree to do so. But he admitted, “now they have to convince their members because they don’t speak for every group. There are many different factions.”
Even if most of the trucks relocate — a process that was to begin Monday and will take days — the agreement will not end the protest, the mayor conceded. “I’m under no illusions. This is not going to solve 100 per cent of the problem.” But, he said, it might take “at least some of the pressure off how we deal with the rest of the issue in the days ahead.”
The agreement, Mr. Watson said, was brokered by a third party, familiar to both sides, who had signalled to the mayor’s office that the protesters might be open to a negotiation. The presence of the trucks has been particular hard on Centretown residents, who have been subjected to long spells of loud honking and the smell of diesel fuel.[6]
One problem is that there are several competing factions and organizers within the Canada Freedom Convoy with differing ideological goals, some beyond merely ending mandates that discriminate against the unvaccinated.
Those factions who oppose individual rights should be rightfully condemned; those leaders and groups who delimit their cause to protect freedom should be supported. It remains to be seen which faction will represent the protest, though, at this time, it appears that the peaceful, more pro-rights faction is winning. A similar problem can be seen in grassroots movements, such as the secular Tea Party movement (“At the end of the day, I’m an Ayn Rander“) during the Obama Presidency, which was “hijacked” and eventually taken over by religious conservatives. This evolution was also seen in the “black lives matter” movement, which morphed into something that had little to do with saving black lives. It became an anti-capitalist, vote for Joe Biden or “you ain’t black,” defund the police movement to empower BLM organizers — leaving millions of black Americans who disagreed with the ideology of the self-proclaimed “trained Marxists” voiceless. The net result was that black homicides rose sharply during the protests, as did the property destruction in black communities, meanwhile innocent black Americans were left without police protection.
There has been a concerted effort by the established government media, namely the CBC and CTV, to paint the protest in a far worse light than it deserves. The Freedom Convoy protest, though not perfect in its respect for individual rights, is a peaceful one compared to past protests de facto approved by governments on issues that they agreed with ideologically.[7]
Watch the below video. Does it look like “a few people shouting and waving swastikas,” as the Canadian Prime Minister insinuates?
Trudeau should listen to Dr. Peterson’s advice (as should the truckers) rather than setting up conditions that could result in Canada’s own version of Tiananmen Square. Instead, Trudeau imitates the methods of fascists and communists, using overly broad “emergency” government powers to seize the savings and imprison his ideological enemies. He also intends to go after those who have donated money and provided aid to support the Canada Freedom Convoy. According to statements by Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister, as part of the Emergencies Act, they are broadening Canada’s “Terrorist Financing” rules to cover crowdfunding platforms and cryptocurrencies:
“These changes cover all forms of transactions, including digital assets such as cryptocurrencies. The illegal blockades have highlighted the fact that crowdfunding platforms and some of the payment service providers they use are not fully captured under the proceeds of crime and terrorist financing act. Our banks and financial institutions are already obligated to report the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada or FINTRAC. As of today, all crowdfunding platforms and the payment service providers they use must register with FINTRAC, and they must report large and suspicious transactions to FINTRAC.”
In other words, the Canadian Convoy Protests are an “act of terrorism.” As the popular saying goes, “Never let a crisis go to waste.”
Trudeau’s Dehumanizing Rhetoric to Defend His Fascist COVID Policy Failures
According to liberal pundit Bill Maher, Trudeau’s rhetoric dehumanizes those who oppose him, making the Canadian leader sound like National Socialist Adolph Hitler.
https://youtu.be/JWU8Bi8FqQg
Former Newfoundland premier Brian Peckford, [a]member of the group that drafted the Canadian constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the equivalent of the U.S. Constitution, the highest law of the land), [8] made a similar observation:
“When I heard … Trudeau call the unvaccinated ‘racists,’ ‘misogynists, ‘anti-science’ and ‘extremist’ and his musing ‘Do we tolerate these people?’ [9] it became clear he is sowing divisions and advancing his vendetta against a specific group of Canadians,”
Listen to this speech from Brian Peckford at the Freedom Convoy protest in Victoria, British Columbia. Is this man a ‘racist,’ ‘misogynist, ‘anti-science’ and ‘extremist’?
In January 2022, Peckford filed a lawsuit via the Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms against Trudeau’s Federal government for violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provisions.[10] In a statement, he said:
“It is becoming more obvious that being vaccinated does not stop people from getting Covid and does not stop them from spreading it….The government has not shown that the policy makes flying safer—it simply discriminates.”
In a recent poll, two-thirds of Canadians were ready to drop COVID-19 restrictions:
The survey, conducted by Maru Public Opinion for Postmedia, revealed that 64 per cent of respondents believe that unless hospitals and intensive care units are affected by a sudden surge of COVID-19 patients that compromises the care of other people, governments should lift pandemic restrictions.
…According to the poll, 56 per cent of Canadians say the unvaccinated should not be pressured into getting the shot. The majority believe that if someone has not gotten it by now, they won’t, and pressuring them is creating backlash that is “worse than living with them in our communities.”
On the topic of who precautions should be determined by, 53 per cent of respondents believe that it should be left up to them to choose what measures they take to protect themselves and not the government or health-care officials. This view is held by the majority in Alberta (62 per cent) and Quebec (62 per cent) and the minority in British Columbia (41 per cent) and Atlantic Canada (44 per cent).[11]
Yet when confronted with this lack of scientific backing and the social failure of his policies, Trudeau double down on his tyranny rather than reverse course – as several Canadian states have chosen to do by eliminating/reducing vaccine mandates. As Freedom Convoy supporter Elon Musk has observed in a Tweet, “Freedom is being stripped away one piece at a time until it is gone.”[12]
Canadians Need To Embrace Individual Rights (Freedom)
Sadly, many Canadians do not understand the meaning and importance of individual rights, observes Professor Jaana Woiceshyn:
A majority of Canadians welcome government control of their lives because they have never accepted the principle of Freedom: that the government must not coerce them to do anything (except in retaliation for initiating force against others).
…Such a rejection of the principle of Freedom has morally sanctioned the government’s increasing violation of that principle. Yet, the government’s coercive intrusion in our lives during the pandemic never achieved what it claimed: prevent deaths and protect us from the virus. The Covid outcomes are no better here than in countries (such as Sweden) that never imposed harsh restrictions. Instead, the restrictions have been the cause of most of the pandemic misery….That is because we need Freedom to live.
…Freedom matters because it creates the conditions for a flourishing life. The role of the government is to protect our Freedom against coercion, not to violate it.
Those who never recognized the principle of Freedom and the government’s role in protecting it, as well as the rest of us, are now facing the consequences, such as shortages of goods and services (including health care), escalating excess deaths from mental problems and untreated health conditions unrelated to COVID, and the upcoming economic misery from the ballooning public debt that will perpetuate the government-created economic devastation.[13]
As the Canadian-born philosopher Leonard Peikoff, author of Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand, has observed, the Canada Freedom Convoy have sparked a fire lighting the way towards freedom against the forces of tyranny. [14] While we are still free to speak, it is vital to give the Canada Freedom Convoy moral support and condemn the actions of the Trudeau regime before that fire is extinguished. But to do so, one must discover the meaning and value of freedom before it’s too late. [15]
Do you hear the people sing?
Notes
[1] “There is a rumor that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the son of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Trudeau’s resemblance to the deceased communist dictator is remarkable. This “conspiracy theory” is probably false. Still, Trudeau’s rhetoric to demonize the Canada Freedom Convoy and invocation of The Emergencies Act is the greatest tribute a “son” could make to the deceased Cuban dictator.”
See Leibowitcz, Karen. “Of Course Fidel Castro Is Justin Trudeau’s Dad. Nobody Has ‘Debunked’ Anything.” Medium, Medium, 9 Jan. 2022, https://medium.com/@leibowitt/of-course-fidel-castro-is-justin-trudeaus-dad-nobody-has-debunked-anything-4db6fc8a9042.
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60381096
[3] Press, Associated. “Canada’s Trudeau Invokes Emergency Powers to Quell Trucker Covid Protests.” New York Post, New York Post, 14 Feb. 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/02/14/canadas-trudeau-invokes-emergency-powers-to-quell-protests/.
[4] https://twitter.com/cancivlib/status/1493383579983917057
[5] Peterson, Jordan. Message to the Truckers. Jordan Peterson, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_yGvI81Oj8.
[6] Anderssen, Erin. “Ottawa Mayor Says Deal with Convoy Protesters Could Clear Residential Streets in Downtown.” The Globe and Mail, 14 Feb. 2022, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ottawa-mayor-says-deal-with-convoy-protesters-could-clear-residential/.
[7] In comparison, observe that in the months leading up to the 2020 U.S. election, the de facto government “approved” protests (which had little to do with the color of anyone’s skin) were anything but peaceful. In these “peaceful protests,” violators of pandemic restrictions were given a free pass (the “BLM, woke” card); property in the tens of millions of dollars was looted and destroyed; and innocent people were harassed, assaulted, and murdered in cold blood. Due to the anarchy that prevailed, more black lives ended than in previous years. In the 21st century “woke” world, some lives and protests matter more than others. See The White George Floyd and The Hypocrisy of the ‘Black Lives Matter Organizations and Why I Support Justice For George Floyd But Oppose The BLM Organization.
[8] The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was a bill of rights for Canadians entrenched in the Constitution Act of 1982.
[9] Commenting on an interview with Trudeau from September 2021. https://tnc.news/2022/01/04/clip-resurfaces-of-trudeau-calling-unvaccinated-extremists-misogynists-racists/
[10] “Last Living Signer of Canadian Constitutional Charter of Rights Sues Government over Covid Travel Ban.” New York Post, New York Post, 27 Jan. 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/01/27/last-living-signer-of-canadian-constitutional-charter-of-rights-sues-government-over-covid-travel-ban/.
“The Charter’s Only Living Signatory Sues Canada over Travel Mandates.” Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, 1 Feb. 2022, https://www.jccf.ca/the-charters-only-living-signatory-sues-canada-over-travel-mandates/.
[11] Mundie, Jessica. “Two-Thirds of Canadians Ready to Drop Covid-19 Restrictions.” Nationalpost, National Post, 14 Feb. 2022, https://nationalpost.com/news/two-thirds-of-canadians-ready-to-drop-covid-19-restrictions
[12] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1486822755546845187
[13] Woiceshyn, Jaana. “Why Canadians Embrace Lockdowns and Mandatory Vaccinations by Jaana Woiceshyn.” Capitalism Magazine, Capitalism Magazine, 23 Jan. 2022, https://capitalismmagazine.com/2022/01/why-canadians-embrace-lockdowns-and-mandatory-vaccinations/.
[14] Peikoff, Leonard. “Leonard Peikoff Salutes the Canadian Freedom Truckers by Leonard Peikoff.” Capitalism Magazine, Capitalism Magazine, 14 Feb. 2022, https://capitalismmagazine.com/2022/02/leonard-peikoff-salutes-the-canadian-freedom-truckers/.
[15] For some book recommendations, see the book list at capitalism.org
