First Australia, Now Canada, Where Next?
Omerta-like silence from Western leaders is more than troubling
I signed off my last substack post almost three weeks ago with the hashtag #KeepOnTrucking. Well, things have got ugly. Following a disturbing pattern (c.f. Australia back in October), it is now the turn of Canada to play host to the latest depraved authoritarian outrage.
Oliver May at News Uncut describes events here; Jessica Rose speaks from the heart. I should add a disclaimer: warning, be prepared to be shocked.
All this in what I previously – naïvely – assumed to be a bastion of the free world: state-sponsored violence and embezzlement. Oh, and the end of free speech (reporters threatened) and the right of peaceful protest rescinded.
And, as it did when the state’s paramilitaries were enforcing the long arm of the law on the streets of Melbourne last year, the rest of the G7 keeps schtum.
Why? How? In frustration at the spineless lack of commentary on this from both the polity and the 4th estate of Western nations, I brusquely bashed out this question into the twittersphere in the early minutes of Friday morning:
The tweet seems to have struck a chord. Study the responses.
If these events were happening in a banana republic or, heaven forefend, a country that has been deemed ‘bad’ by our dear leaders such as, say, Russia, you can rest assured that the BBC would be trotting out one hand-wringing global leader after another, tut-tutting about human rights and all that.
One is reminded of the hectoring tone of a missive from the summer of 2020:
“Covid-19 must not be used as an excuse to restrict citizens’ fundamental freedoms. Freedom of the press, of opinion, of expression, and of assembly are all universally recognised human rights and are guaranteed by the Zimbabwean Constitution. The government also has a responsibility to investigate and prosecute those responsible for violating human rights”.
Who wrote these words? The Heads of Mission of Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
Well.
Do as I say, not as I do.
I have been a sceptic on draconian state overreach since the sudden switcheroo enacted by (most) Western governments back in March 2020. It was obvious from the start that this was a massive mistake and would have terrible consequences, but the majority didn’t want to know. Oh, it’s necessary. Better safe than sorry. Oh, it was just a bit of a cock-up.
Since September 2020 I have been documenting these crazy times, partly to put down a time-stamped record (“what did you do in the great madness that unfolded from 2020, Daddy?”), partly to distil arguments, partly an attempt to change minds, most of which has probably been futile, but – to twist a misused phrase from two years ago – if I changed one mind…
And I will continue to try. Yes, I’m angry:
But we are going to have to pull ourselves together, think clearly and make it clear to our so-called enlightened leaders that we cannot keep excusing the inexcusable. Whether or not they are in in the pockets of crony capitalists, militant communists or worse, they should serve the people, not the other way round.
There are small stirrings of disquiet in the mainstream news networks, but the almost watertight news blackout tells its own story. One exception, Ella Whelan, writing in the Telegraph, chillingly points out that:
“Deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland smiled and chuckled as she told reporters that the law change allowed banks to freeze the accounts of protesters without any need for a court order, adding that vehicle insurance for anyone involved in the convoy could also be suspended. The interim police chief in Ottawa told a press conference last night that the police were working with social services to “remove” children from the area – as many of the truckers are accompanied by their families (pictures of trucker-installed bouncy castles and play areas were circulating over the weekend).
In short, the Canadian government has granted itself the power to strip citizens of their money, their transport and their kids. Several organisers have been arrested, despite the fact that bar a few fringe incidents, the vast majority of the thousands-strong convoy has maintained a peaceful (if disruptive) approach to getting their voices heard.
Just imagine the uproar that would ensue if Trump had taken children from Black Lives Matters protesters who took to the streets after the murder of George Floyd, or Boris Johnson had used the banks to starve out the costumed climate-change obsessives who took over Trafalgar Square before the pandemic”.
Where is democracy in all this? Suspended. Yes – so that the police and associated goons can do Trudeau’s dirty work, the establishment has determined that the people’s representatives may not meet.
Your leaders are susceptible to bribery, threats (or actual) violence or just the weaknesses of the flesh. The phrase ‘power corrupts’ didn’t emerge out of a vacuum. Simply put: “society needs checks and balances to avoid the state ‘going bad’ – modern history refers”.
As Whelan goes on to say:
“Whether or not you agree with the truckers’ aims, the hysterical response from Trudeau and his so-called liberal cheerleaders is the real threat to democracy”.
‘Democracy’ here is a shorthand for a ‘free, Western democratic society’:
A democracy where the leadership has granted itself the power to strip citizens of their money, their transport and their kids is not a healthy democracy as we envisage it, but a sick, twisted simulacrum of the same.
Spread the word. Not in our name. Tell your family, tell your friends, tell the newspapers, tell the BBC, tell your MP. And do not let our current political leaders – and those who might be calling the shots behind the scenes – mess things up any further.
UK readers, note that the government wants to ram through changes to the Human Rights Act. You might want to sign this petition and respond to this consultation before 8 March 2022. You may find Amnesty International’s guidance notes helpful.
And be prepared to take to the streets. Peacefully.
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