Who would have thought that the country that is supposed to have near flawless democracy, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, would go rogue in such a spectacular manner and without almost any international outcry? We are talking of Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act in Canada on Monday, after being unable to deal with the freedom protests that were blockading border crossings and the capital, Ottawa. Calling them “illegal blockades” and accusing the protesters of “harassment” and breaking peace, the Canadian Prime Minister invoked the draconian law. There is a serious financial angle to the implementation of this law, with the intention being to choke the money trail of the protests. Said Prime Minister Trudeau, “Financial institutions will also be authorized or directed to render essential services to help address the situation, including by regulating and prohibiting the use or property to fund or support illegal blockades.” So the Canadian government can freeze bank accounts at will. As mentioned by Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland: “This is about following the money. We are today serving notice; if your truck is being used in these illegal blockades, your corporate accounts will be frozen. The insurance on your vehicle will be suspended. Send your semi-trailers home.” The Trudeau government did not even spare the crowdfunding platforms, that were asked to register with Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, which was asked to “report large and suspicious transactions”. And if anyone was found to have even donated money to the freedom protesters, that person would be under scrutiny, with the authorities having the power to freeze their bank accounts too. This shows the low tolerance level of politicians of the Trudeau variety, apart from their immaturity and incompetence. There was no attempt for a dialogue, there was no mediation. It was all about cracking the whip. If the Indian government had done even 1/10th of what Justin Trudeau has done, there would be an international outcry, with the Western legacy media leading the charge, painting the Indian government as fascist. But there is an eerie silence about Trudeau’s action, except for stray voices.
And to think this is the same man who was lecturing India on how to handle the farmer-protesters, apart from the same media that had started a campaign against the Indian government for allowing the police to erect a few barriers to prevent a repeat of 26 January 2021, when farmers had entered the national capital and spread mayhem. What appalls is Trudeau’s distinctly authoritarian streak. Also, the system of governance was found to be unable to withstand the pressure when the ruler decided to turn authoritarian. The media too is failing in its duty to show the mirror to Trudeau. Instead, some of them are busy catching the “culprits” so that the police can take action against them.
What is troubling is that the instinctive reaction of one of the leaders of the free world when faced with the slightest bit of resistance is to subvert democracy. This is straight out of the Chinese Communist play book. It’s almost as if Mr Trudeau is picking up lessons in governance from the Communists themselves. Perhaps it’s just a matter of coincidence, or perhaps not, that Mr Trudeau has had a deep bonding with Communist China from his childhood, courtesy his father, Pierre Trudeau; and that Canada is used as a gateway to the West by the Chinese Communists. There are innumerable allegations of the Chinese having infiltrated the institutions that make Canada a democracy. It’s equally troubling that his action will be highlighted by Xi Jinping and his comrades as proof that democracy is messy and hinders development—and it is their authoritarian system that works best.
It’s time for Mr Trudeau to do a course correction, for the sake of democracy.