Canada left the ranks of liberal democracies last weekend and became a dictatorship under its Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. At his order, police called in from throughout the country crushed an up to that point entirely peaceful protest against his COVID-19 vaccination mandate, forcibly removing the truckers from the capital of Ottawa. In the United States, the press have devoted little coverage to the trucker protests. Yet the Canadian response to these protests should be deeply troubling to the citizens of its closest neighbor.
The self-styled Freedom Convoy, consisting mainly of Canadian truckers, had been protesting in Ottawa for three weeks against Trudeau’s mandate that they receive COVID-19 vaccines. The organizers have repeatedly stated in interviews that they intend to remain peaceful, and this had been the case to date, as no one had been physically harmed by the truckers. According to the Washington Post, the scene reflected more of a block party complete with bouncy houses—a far cry from the “mostly peaceful protests” that have been seen here in the U.S. over the past few years. In sworn affidavits filed to support one of the lawsuits challenging Trudeau’s actions, multiple Ottawa residents have described the protests as peaceful, one even describing how they have helped feed the homeless of Ottawa. The only violence that did occur was a car attack on the protest that was swept under the rug more quickly than the attack on the Waukesha Christmas Parade, and likely for similar reasons, as Andy Ngo uncovered that the attacker was a known Antifa militant.
Despite the peaceful nature of the protests, Trudeau decided that the “occupation” of the capital had gone on for long enough. Truckers honking their horns between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. while blocking streets in the national capital were a threat to the security of Canada . On Feb. 14, he invoked the Emergencies Act, formerly the War Powers Act, giving him additional emergency powers so that he could stop the “illegal blockades” that were “endangering public safety.”
What has Trudeau’s invocation of emergency powers led to? Among other things, the government can now seize bank accounts without a court order, cancel vehicle insurance, and remove and fine those within the government-declared “restricted zone.” The deputy prime minister made clear that it is the government’s intention to freeze the personal and corporate bank accounts of protestors, as well “broadening the scope of Canada’s anti-money laundering laundering and terrorist financing rules so that they cover crowd funding platforms.” In an ominous warning, Trudeau told protestors: “It’s time to go home — especially if you have kids with you.” The Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa, akin to child protective services, followed up on this thinly veiled threat, informing parents that they should find alternate care arrangements for the children, “should they become unable to care for their children following potential police action.” For good measure, the fate of any pets in the convoy was also thrown into the balance, Ottawa’s animal shelter tweeting that “If you are unable to care for your animal as a result of enforcement actions, your animal will be placed into protective care.”
Finally, on Feb. 19, riot police moved into the protest. In a surprisingly frank (and subsequently edited) New York Times report, the situation was described as follows: “Canadian police officers advanced on trucks sometimes at gunpoint, smashing truck windows and arresting protesters in front of the country’s Parliament building, an aggressive escalation in the government’s effort to finally end the protests that have roiled the nation’s capital for three weeks.” Videos criculating online appear to show police officers beating protestors, and police have opened at least one internal investigation after a disabled woman was one of many trampled by mounted riot police in the course of making nearly 200 arrests. Despite clearing the streets of Ottawa of everything but police checkpoints, Trudeau has insisted that emergency powers are still needed. Monday night, after the protest had been cleared, Canada’s parliament was finally able to weigh in. Parliament granted that extension in a vote along party lines.
Despite using a declaration of an emergency to use police to violently remove peaceful protesters, freeze their bank accounts, and threaten to take their children, the U.S. State Department has not issued any denouncement on Canada’s actions. No member of Congress has introduced a bill recommending sanctions. President Joe Biden has not issued a statement decrying the actions of Trudeau as incompatible with human rights. The scary reason why is also the simplest: there are some who would seek to do the same in this country, using the same justifications. A Rasmussen poll of likely voters found that a majority of Democrats would support fining or putting under home arrest the unvaccinated, and only slightly less than a majority of Democrats would support internment camps or digital tracking programs for the unvaccinated. Twenty-nine percent would even support removing parents’ custody of children over the parents’ vaccination status. Another poll showed that while a slight majority of all Americans disapprove of Trudeau’s handling of the protests, the split is strong along party lines: 88% of Republicans and 75% of independents disapprove, while 66% of Democrats, fully two-thirds, approve of his actions.
The current presidential administration appears all too willing to use the label of domestic terrorist against political opponents, whether it be the Department of Homeland Security’s bulletin listing the number one risk contributing to the heightened risk for terror “false or misleading narratives regarding COVID-19,” or the Biden Department of Justice using the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division against parents protesting at school boards based on a now withdrawn letter from the National School Boards Association commissioned by the secretary of education. The other coercive elements of Canada’s approach are also in nascent form in the U.S. GoFundMe has repeatedly shut down fundraisers, including for the Freedom Convoy itself, for ideological reasons, Mike Lindel, the founder of My Pillow, has been “de-banked” for his claims surrounding the 2020 election, and at least one U.S. mother has had her custody revoked by a judge based on her vaccination status.
In the end, it seems, the Covid restrictions and mandates have at their heart not a dispute over what the right policy ought to be, but who ought to be making policy: the people, through their elected representatives, or unelected government doctors and bureaucrats, whose wisdom and motivations shall not be questioned by the people. The matter has been decided, at least for the near future, in Canada. Americans should be vigilant, lest the same tactics be tried here.
