Justin Trudeau’s Managing the Trucker Strike in Canada

Great coverage on the All-In Podcast of how badly Justin Trudeau is managing the trucker strike in Canada (mid Feb 2022) from 1:43 – 25:25 min, by going into what he is doing, why it is wrong and what the consequences of these actions means for people’s liberties in a democracy.

Highlights from the conversation

• Trudeau invokes emergency powers to try and stop the trucker’s protest, at the tail end of a pandemic.
  
• First of all, all the Canadian provinces are removing Covid mandates anyway, which makes the whole issue moot.
  
• You can’t conflate having an enemy with having a different view. Historically, Canada has only invoked emergency powers three times previously: during World War I, World War II and during the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) crisis (a domestic terrorist organization fighting for a separate homeland). This non-violent protest from the truckers is clearly not at the order of these previous instances.
  
• Trudeau is freezing the donations given to the truckers and freezing the bank account of anyone who donated, basically persecuting anyone who tries to aid or support them. There are already laws and statutes in place as part of the RICO act that can be enforced, if applicable, to do so. Thus, no need to invoke emergency powers.
  
• In this case the Canadian Government has not exhausted the current body of law. Then, why is this example OK? Usually, it would require an act of espionage against the country or an act of “serious” violence to invokes emergency powers. Neither of those are the case in this situation.
  
• The idea that you can de-platform one of two parties only for having a different view, or fire them from their job, or prevent them from having access to the money that they have earned, or preventing other people from donating money, that is setting a really low bar. When you normalize this kind of behavior, it’s a very slippery slope. Then this approach can, and most likely will, be used in many other cases as well, which is counter to what liberties a democracy stands for.
  
• Invoking emergency powers is basically a get-out-of-jail-free-card which allows you to do whatever you want, without any oversight, which is completely uncalled for in this case.
  
• Trudeau has not even tried to open a conversation, to listen and reason with them. Rather he first said that the protesters were racist and misogynist, then said their views and actions were unacceptable to him, and then like a totalitarian dictator invoked the emergency measures act that allows him to do whatever he wants without any oversight. Why should this be allowed to happen in a democratic country, against democratic norms, against people who has not done a shred of violent behavior?
  
• Trudeau immediately escalated this issue, rather than looking for ways to de-escalate.
  
• The sad thing is that the general public in Canada does not seem be aware of the full extent of the situation and its ramifications and is applauding Trudeau mismanagement and dictatorial actions of the situation. Ref. Senator Padme Amidala in Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of Sith “So this is how liberty/democracy dies…with thunderous applause.”