AMAC Exclusive – By Daniel Roman
Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the “Emergencies Act” on Monday, which allows the Canadian government to detain, fine, or freeze the bank accounts of anyone alleged by the government to be violating the law without a court order, has rightly been called an act of tyranny. But it is hardly undemocratic—if by “undemocratic” you mean against the wishes of the democratically elected officials or the voters who elected them. The far more significant element of what is going on in Canada is not that Trudeau has resorted to these methods. It is that he has done so under pressure from millions of his voters who demanded that he “crush” their “enemies” irrespective of individual rights. For as much as Trudeau and his deputy, Chrystia Freeland, have been assailed by many American critics for implying that the protestors in Ottawa are “terrorists,” this has actually been the predominate view espoused in large parts of the Canadian media. The truckers-are-terrorists narrative has also been the discourse among liberal Canadians on Twitter.
“Terrorism,” in this sense, is not an entirely inaccurate term, if one adopts a literal interpretation of causing terror rather than the legal definition of “terrorism” as using violence in furtherance of political or social objectives. Without a doubt these truckers and those who have joined them have inspired terror in left-leaning Canadians in Ottawa and across the country. Of course, the truckers have done little to actually justify terror in a traditional understanding of the word. They have not engaged in violence, unlike the Black Lives Matters “protests” of 2020. Yet they instill terror, nonetheless. It is easy for conservatives to call it absurd (and it is), but the problem is that, absurd or not, the terror the truckers have caused is real in the minds of the country’s ruling left-wing elite.
Whether the truckers and their allies have engaged in violence is beside the point for those demanding a harsh response. The merits of their policy demands are equally irrelevant. What instills terror is not the actions of the protestors, but their very existence. The existence of a group of traditionally working-class, mostly male individuals opposing vaccine mandates and the liberal consensus strikes fear into the hearts of those for whom that consensus is their world. For a leftist in the Western world who has spent the better part of a decade occupying a “safe space” where they are ascendent, the world is going their way, they are winning the argument, and their enemies are meeting their just deserts, the presence of these protestors represents an invasion. An invasion of the outside world into Ottawa. An invasion by reality into their carefully cultivated world. Their response is not so much trauma but the violence of their own, a demand for punishment. If the proper internalized response to “wrong think” or “triggering” actions in a workplace or school is for the principal or HR to intervene and punish the offender, then (in the minds of these left-leaning elites) the proper duty of a government is to crush those who would ruin a societal safe space. The problem is that, in 2022, liberals now define the entire world as their own private safe space. And even just existing within that liberal world, which is all that the protestors in Canada are asking to be allowed to do – after all, mandates that prevented them from being able to work, attend school, receive medical care or worship have made it impossible to exist – represents an invasion.
The “Emergencies Act” may be a Canadian law, but the attitude behind it and the rhetoric levied at the protestors should be familiar to anyone who has listened to charges following January 6th that the Republican Party is made up exclusively of “terrorists.” Or the demands that Attorney General Merrick Garland investigate parents who speak up at school board meetings. Those parents are, like the Canadian truckers, “invaders” rather than “citizens,” to be dealt with by expulsion, through force if necessary, and not listened to or accommodated. Trudeau was merely able to follow through more fully on the words Garland issued. Millions of Democrats across the country, and their favored media outlets, would have welcomed moves by the Department of Justice to freeze the assets of groups organizing parents to oppose Critical Race Theory, or protest school closures.
Democrats, and even some self-described Republicans prefer to blame Donald Trump for such division and polarization in society. But Canada provides evidence against this thesis. Canada had no Donald Trump. Justin Trudeau has ruled since 2015, before Donald Trump faced voters for the first time. Yet, based on recent events, liberal Canadian voters have undergone the exact same radicalization as their American counterparts.
That is because what is invading the safe space of liberal elites is not an organized minority of political “terrorists,” but rather reality itself. Shortly after Donald Trump was elected, liberals took to declaring “This is not normal.” As bizarre as the gesture was, it implied not that Donald Trump’s policies were wrong, but rather that the very political debates which were occurring were illegitimate and should not occur. For liberals, it was a statement that there should not be a debate on mass immigration, there should not be a debate on globalization, there should not be a debate on social values (even though the definition of the word “woman” has changed dramatically for those on the left between 2016 and 2022). That a presumed consensus on these issues was so strictly imposed showed that the world had taken a sharp left turn.
What the left failed to grasp is that Donald Trump did not convince voters out of the blue that border security might be a problem, or that America’s domestic industry had been gutted. Nor did Boris Johnson or Dominic Cummings convince British voters to question the value of the European Union. They succeeded because they questioned things voters already had serious doubts about. Voters had serious doubts about those institutions because they were already failing.
This can be seen with the issue of crime, where the left desperately tried to rewrite history to imply that crime had not been that bad in the 1980s, that the tough policing policies of the 1990s had therefore not been needed to help reduce it, and therefore that tradeoffs did not exist between the extent of policing and the crime rate. The very violence with which dissent from BLM dogma was crushed in the media, in corporate America, and on universities in 2020 was less an offensive Marxist campaign, and more a defense mechanism to maintain the version of the world the left wanted to inhabit. It was easy to believe that the invaders who threatened it were white supremacist racists, not criminals of all backgrounds.
COVID is the same. It allowed the left to avoid confronting tradeoffs between freedom and safety by creating enemies; namely, those opposed to lockdowns and those who opposed universal vaccine mandates. The left then blamed them for preventing the creation of a magical world where COVID was gone because everyone locked down just long enough and got vaccinated, so Omicron somehow didn’t exist. The irony is that those demanding action against the truckers are just as tired of COVID and restrictions as the truckers. Yet, whereas the truckers have livelihoods which force them to engage with reality, those demanding the suppression of the truckers’ protest have the luxury of scapegoating.
For Trudeau and the Canadian left, this latest action against the trucker protests is another extension of the “rule or ruin” mentality that has gripped the left in the West today. The same pattern can be seen in Democrats’ panicked rhetoric regarding the legitimacy of elections, which betrayed a pathological fear of living in a society they did not rule. For the left today, the only option is to rule the country and its institutions, or destroy them. The problem is that, because the forces arraigned against their rule are not other people but reality itself, rule is not a viable option, as many of the more insightful observers on the left suspect deep down. Hence, they prefer to ruin, to go down in a temper tantrum rather than compromising with the world as it is.
Canada this week showed us a preview of the end state of this mentality. On a policy level, the critics of the convoy have not “won.” Ontario has dropped its mandates early, following most other Canadian provinces. Trudeau’s actions have thus become about “ruining” his enemies as punishment for the failure of policies which cannot work because the real world will not let them. It is an emotionally unhinged decision to wreak havoc on Canadian society, with the power of the state behind it.
Daniel Roman is the pen name of a frequent commentator and lecturer on foreign policy and political affairs, both nationally and internationally. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics.
It appears that Canada’s Justin Trudeau is but a “Junior Version” of DC’s Joe Biden…
Running scared for Trudeau, cant deal with Reality
Trudeau is embodiment of the left gone mad. He cannot reason with people by issuing edicts. He cannot gain cooperation by heavy handed rule. He is now adrift in his own country because he is trying to quash his opponents with the police or the military. The common Canadian voter will rally against this tyrant, whether they are liberal or conservative. They have seen Trudeau for what he is in this mad world of leftist politics…. a fraud.
What a convoluted way to simply state that Socialists have ZERO tolerance for any views, on any subject, other than their own. That they demand complete and total control of all aspects of public discussion and that if they do NOT GET THEIR WAY, they are fully prepared to use whatever means, up to and including an unlimited use of force, to literally crush those that resist their unilateral rule. What they want is conformity of thought and that conformity has to be 100 percent aligned with their views on all things. Anything else is completely unacceptable to them and will be dealt with by whatever means they deem to use.
None of this is new of course, as regimes based in socialism or communism have relied on these same tactics and worse when dealing with dissent since these ideologies first gained power more than a century ago. People are merely unwilling to see the threat for what it is, because they expect to see the old image of a despotic leader dressed in a military uniform, surrounded by his military leadership, and barking orders in a grim tone to tens of thousands of helpless citizens in fear of their lives if they don’t applaud loud enough. The left updated their look long ago to one of a smiling leader dressed in a business suit and surrounded by his loyal Cabinet of leftist officials issuing proclamations to a carefully choreographed audience designed to convey broad-based acceptance for whatever the leader was saying to a largely gullible public that laps it all up. That is until the public realizes what the reality really is and by then, it is far too late to do much about it. The Socialists or Communists are already firmly in control and will literally do anything to preserve their positions and power.
If anyone had paid any attention at all to the Trudeau family, they would have seen the entire family going all the way back to his father and mother were nothing more than entitled leftists that all adored despotic leaders like Castro, Mao and now Putin and Xi. That should have tipped you off as to how they would run their administrations, if they were ever put in positions of power. Instead far too many Canadians focused on how photogenic and “presidential” the Trudeaus appeared to be. A decision that has now come back to bite the Canadians in spades. Not unlike what we are currently experiencing here in the United States. We just haven’t gotten to the invoking of Marshall Law quite yet, but that is no doubt being planned for.
he NEEDS A BULLET
Trudeau is an imitator of Adolf Hitler……my way or I’ll crush you !! This is the way of liberal democrats and the Left !! It is the blinded SHEEPLE and those who want someone to make their decisions for them that make up the Democrat party !!!!
DISCUSSTING!!!!!
status quo muist be preserved at any cost and price that’s what the house of cards stands on
God bless those truckers. Coming from someone who knows that industry personally – this is pure, unadulterated evil!! Please pray for our truckers here in the US. Pray for the world to have good responsible leaders who will stand up to this tyrannical behavior – wherever and whenever it raises its ugly head – crush it!!
WE. THE. PEOPLE. MUST. STOP. THIS!!!!!!!!!!
Why won’t Trudeau just simply sit down with the truckers and have a talk with them ? Does he not care what his constituents have to say ? T he only responses i’ve seen or heard from Trudeau have been extreme . Trudeau appears to be taking the quick way out by simply threatening the truckers with heavy fines , arrests , and confiscation of their savings accounts , and perhaps more . All this could be avoided if he simply met with the truckers and asked them what their beef is . Is Trudau a chicken ? Canada is a parliamentary type of democracy . I understand that in such systems , other Members of Parliement can call for a “confidence” vote . So, why haven’t we heard of any such move ? Can Canada impeach Trudeau ? Canada should consider just throwing the bum out .
I am curious what the average Canadian thinks about this situation.
In the end, this will probably be looked at as the big mistake Trudeau made that opened the door to sane and freedom embracing governance.
trudeaus are a family notorious for all of their thinkinga
and speaking coming from the lower half of their bodies.
There is that brief, however transient feeling of the quiet before the storm; (lasting maybe, twenty-four hours at best.) FEAR slightly abated. Stock Market down, yesterday up; in anticipation of ‘war drums’ coming from the Ukraine. FEAR building as the legislature plans on orchestrating a War With Russia. The democrats have a problem with delusional behavior. Yes, the above author has a good perspective of the FEAR FACTOR. Calling it the “rule or ruin mentality”. Yes, the democrats want us to feel firstly FEAR GLORIOUS DIAPHORETIC FEAR; with sweat running down our faces. Most of all they want us to sacrifice our very grandmothers so that we can be SAFE! Rule anyway you can; by destroying Our Constitution, Our First Amendment, demonize our police forces, Cancel Culture, bury our history, brainwash our children, take away choice from doctors and patients, demonize medical professionals, demonize lawyers, and strip the country of our historical sites… Ad Infinitum! Taking away our right of worship was already accomplished. Most of us have not been to church in over two years! (Unless, you count attending by watching ZOOM!) So, the ‘democrats’ have done quite a job. They have either taken away our history, our statues, our worship, Our Constitution, and Oh Boy, have they taken Our First Amendment! What has this got to do with Trudeau and Canada? All we have to realize is that if Trudeau can take away rights on the premise of making Canada safe; what can happen here? Martial Law? Freezing of bank accounts? What would a war with Russia look like? The very Democrats/Communists who are offering ‘safety’ through repression; are really offering totalitarian repression. For every right given up; there is actually LESS SAFETY; NOT MORE! That is why Patrick Henry was so adamant: “Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!”
This clown looks like the typical liberal that should be a girl. Put on a dress and take a hike. It’s the typical move by the typical liberal joke. I hope those people run rough shot all over his gay a$$
Freeze bank accounts. ??? Welcome to Socialism. Kyle L.
Why dont Canada just pull away from England. ???
He hits the nail on the head by saying trudeau is well supported by at least half of the canadian electorate. Same situation here. Its no longer 1980 with a reagan in the wings ready to turn things around. The way forward is clouded by this stark fact.
Another politician out of control with power mad tyranny he thinks he can get away with. The reality that for the last 6 years or so the left has been out of control with power, Trump was impeached twice by power mad congressmen who didn’t even have real charges. Common sense was used to win over their outlandish charges. Biden could be impeached with a real charge of ignoring our Southern border allowing an invasion into our country. Let’s see how that happens if the Republicans take charge in 2022.
This “man” is a Marxist tyrant (redundant?) who was quoted as saying Covid is/was a perfect opportunity to advance the Leftist agenda. He is simply an enemy of freedom. In a sane world, he would be ousted and tried for treason. Then again, the Canadians get what they deserve for voting this idiot into office.
Thank you. The question is “why did the Germans follow Hitler? and why didn’t the Jewish people fight back?” When your government turns into a dictatorship slowly with a lot of “fear of an enemy” and lots of propaganda the people become brainwashed. Covid has given these global persons the right to label, force, and break you into compliancy. They say the truckers are closing down the country’s economy while at the same time, the government closed countries all over the world, ruin may of lives and killed a lot of people. Hundreds of ships outside of ports waiting for permission to unload. Does any one out there think that Biden is for the USA?
The only reason why we are not living today under a devastating, global nazi regime is because America and our allies had people with guts, determination and an astute understanding of right and wrong. It so sad to me now as I watch our own freedoms and our allies degrade down the same path of unhinged tyranny. Thankful that there are people still willing to stand up for freedom.Thank you for the great article.
As far as I could see, there was exactly ONE swastika flag at ONE event. And, of course, we don’t know WHO flew it. If Canadians are like us, chances are it was a MARXIST masquerading as a trucker! Trudeau, who has posed multiple times in blackface, is a PUNK like Terry McAuliffe and even Senile Joe.
All hail King Justin Trudeau! Bow to kiss the ring! Don’t tolerate any person that goes against your rule. KING GEORGE OF ENGLAND sound familiar?????
The lefties are in full battle cry. The Canadian confrontation is about true freedom. The lefties are much more strong than you may imagine. They expect the downfall of Freedom in place of Socialism. The cry of “No More” is heard. He won’t meet with the demonstrators because he has no answer/response to the TRUTH. THE DANGER IS HERE. THE FIGHT IS JUST BEGINNING. WE MAY HAVE TO RESORT TO MEASURES THAT YOU MAY NOT WANT TO CONSIDER.
the man is a true d****ad
It seemed inconceivable that there was an idiot worse than Biden running a country JT has proven me wrong. If he keeps insulting legislators the trucker may need to worry about him.
Stupid dumbassed people who refer to others as Nazis really don’t know history unless they are talking about ex Virginia Governor Ralph Northam when he articulated keeping the baby “comfortable” while mother and doctor discussed post-birth abortion.
One world government tyrants–all of them.
Quite simply put, it is Hitler’s SS and Stalin’s army FORCING their insanity on others.
Denying reality IS the very definition of insanity.
well canada you voted liberal you got liberal. good job on the disaster of your own making.
learn from your failure.
BEAUTIFULLY PENNED Sir….I wish our entire nation could read your wisdom in words.
Ok, the Canadian government just declared war on its citizens, it’s the progressives and elites vs the working class people. Trudeau and freeland just raided and confiscated all bank assets and all other forms of money, crypto currency’s, everything they could in one fell swoop. Anyone who donated even$10 to the truckers peaceful and orderly protest were just financially wiped out by the tyrannical Canadian government, huge bank run all depositors withdrew everything from the banks overnight. Guess this is how these Marxist new world order thieves are going to punish anyone who dares interfere with their takeover of everyone and everything.
Freeze Trudeau’s bank accounts; $$$ from corrupt dealings and money his Daddy’s gave him. And why is he so often in black face? Another politician in over his head, he cannot govern. Trudeau is incompetent, WOKE, and so foolish. He is as bad as our president Biden. He must step down!!!
A petty TYRANT just like his REAL daddy, fidel castro.
Nothing going on in Canada that isn’t going on here. “Parents are terrorists” “Whites are racist” and soon our government will be doing similiar stuff!
The ‘terror’ these protesters instill in average people on both sides of the border is the prospect of empty store shelves a la Communist USSR during the cold war!
The Canadian Trucker situation is a test case. What will the globalist masters do and how far will they go? Well, they have no problem killing tens of millions if it furthers their One World Goal. History records that, although they’re trying hard to erase as much HIStory as they can. The question really is: What will people do? How many will step up to be Sheep Dogs rather than sheople? Tyrants are opportunistic pushy bullies. They are always cowards. Less than 15% of a young nations population formed a rag tag militia and kicked the most powerful military into defeat. King George signed a treaty declaring every America equal to the king. Never before, and not since has that happened.
Use your GOD Given power, and your fortunate American birthright and bring in a Great New Age.
Got something better or meaningful to do?
Excellent article and so true
just my feelings on the matter;????
The Government is totally out of alignment, as we all know , if we wanted dictatorship we know where to move to, ,several countries have it…we the people can make our own decisions, you like to make yours don’t you Mr Stephens….of coarse you do…????.there will be a lot of …shall we say…” buttering up” to the peoples by leaders, re…(Biden in news 2/17,) but to no avail , we really need to clean house to clean our country up for the sake of the people. …don’t you think. Then these type things won’t come about.
Ps. You could do gardening/hunting in seasons , load the freezer of your yummies,
personal items…have a extra on hand just in case..you know..
The paragons of the left are spoiled children throwing temper tantrums. They are not the grown ups they pretend to be. May God Almighty greatly upset their safe spaces and disturb their hearts and consciences until they submit to Him or are made irrelevant by the true working people who make the world actually function. May the pressure against the left be increased a thousand fold. Long live the Canadian truckers!
The “Prime Miniature” (props to Greg Gutfeld), will be responsible for unleashing a bigger push back than he imagined. We can only pray for (and support) those patriot truckers in the U.S.
Just another commie! Go truckers!!!
This PM is simply a little boy bully who got handed “power”. And to think, Canada used to be a place I aspired to retire to! HA!!!
It is my heart felt wish that tyranny would be quelled where ever it raises its ugly head, no elite self important D B can be in the elite class without the plebs that make it possible. Its not to much to ask for all to have liberty and enjoyment in their life.
He took Canada to a place the entire country never wanted to be. There is only one answer for both sides. Trudeau will be removed.
It appears that Canada’s Justin Trudeau is but a “Junior Version” of DC’s Joe Biden…
Running scared for Trudeau, cant deal with Reality
Trudeau is embodiment of the left gone mad. He cannot reason with people by issuing edicts. He cannot gain cooperation by heavy handed rule. He is now adrift in his own country because he is trying to quash his opponents with the police or the military. The common Canadian voter will rally against this tyrant, whether they are liberal or conservative. They have seen Trudeau for what he is in this mad world of leftist politics…. a fraud.
What a convoluted way to simply state that Socialists have ZERO tolerance for any views, on any subject, other than their own. That they demand complete and total control of all aspects of public discussion and that if they do NOT GET THEIR WAY, they are fully prepared to use whatever means, up to and including an unlimited use of force, to literally crush those that resist their unilateral rule. What they want is conformity of thought and that conformity has to be 100 percent aligned with their views on all things. Anything else is completely unacceptable to them and will be dealt with by whatever means they deem to use.
None of this is new of course, as regimes based in socialism or communism have relied on these same tactics and worse when dealing with dissent since these ideologies first gained power more than a century ago. People are merely unwilling to see the threat for what it is, because they expect to see the old image of a despotic leader dressed in a military uniform, surrounded by his military leadership, and barking orders in a grim tone to tens of thousands of helpless citizens in fear of their lives if they don’t applaud loud enough. The left updated their look long ago to one of a smiling leader dressed in a business suit and surrounded by his loyal Cabinet of leftist officials issuing proclamations to a carefully choreographed audience designed to convey broad-based acceptance for whatever the leader was saying to a largely gullible public that laps it all up. That is until the public realizes what the reality really is and by then, it is far too late to do much about it. The Socialists or Communists are already firmly in control and will literally do anything to preserve their positions and power.
If anyone had paid any attention at all to the Trudeau family, they would have seen the entire family going all the way back to his father and mother were nothing more than entitled leftists that all adored despotic leaders like Castro, Mao and now Putin and Xi. That should have tipped you off as to how they would run their administrations, if they were ever put in positions of power. Instead far too many Canadians focused on how photogenic and “presidential” the Trudeaus appeared to be. A decision that has now come back to bite the Canadians in spades. Not unlike what we are currently experiencing here in the United States. We just haven’t gotten to the invoking of Marshall Law quite yet, but that is no doubt being planned for.
he NEEDS A BULLET
Trudeau is an imitator of Adolf Hitler……my way or I’ll crush you !! This is the way of liberal democrats and the Left !! It is the blinded SHEEPLE and those who want someone to make their decisions for them that make up the Democrat party !!!!
DISCUSSTING!!!!!
status quo muist be preserved at any cost and price that’s what the house of cards stands on
God bless those truckers. Coming from someone who knows that industry personally – this is pure, unadulterated evil!! Please pray for our truckers here in the US. Pray for the world to have good responsible leaders who will stand up to this tyrannical behavior – wherever and whenever it raises its ugly head – crush it!!
WE. THE. PEOPLE. MUST. STOP. THIS!!!!!!!!!!