Is Canada’s Government Still Legitimate? - Granite Grok

Is Canada’s Government Still Legitimate?

In all the Canadian government’s furor over the truck driver protest, one event is missing: any reports of clear-cut violence committed by the truck drivers or their supporters.  I have been scouring American, Canadian, and international news sites to find a verified report – any report – of a Canadian truck driver who has physically attacked anyone else.

So far, neither the Canadian truck drivers nor their supporters have broken store windows, firebombed police stations or court houses, physically assaulted or shot anyone, and have not robbed businesses.  They seem remarkably well-behaved.

This cannot be said about Canadian “leadership”.  Canadian truck drivers have been threatened with everything from massive fines to confiscation of their trucks and being thrown in prison.  At one point, there was a report that the authorities might use firearms against the protesters to force them to vacate the roads and allow traffic to flow again.

I read a report that spoke of a government threat to use violence against peaceful protesters who only want the freedom to go about their lives without government-based restrictions.

When I read that report, I immediately thought of Tiananmen Square.

For those who may have forgotten, Chinese students went on a multi-month protest in Beijing in 1989.  The students wanted government concessions: personal freedoms, political reforms, reduction and prosecution of corrupt officials, and other economic freedoms.  China’s government, a communist dictatorship, pushed back against the student protests.  That push-back eventually resulted in the death of hundreds (maybe thousands – nobody knows) of student protesters.

With all the news coverage about a “student revolt”, one image remains as the symbol of resistance against dictatorship: a lone person standing on a bridge in front of a line of tanks.

Even China’s leadership knew that killing that individual, whether by firearm or running over with one of the tanks, would have sent the message that the Chinese government valued control over lives – rather than the lives under its control.  It’s axiomatic: the death of hundreds in a crowd is far less impactful than the death of one person standing alone in a street.  The worldwide reaction would have been swift, severe, and long-lasting.

The Canadian truck drivers are reminders of this symbolic stand against tyrannical authoritarianism.  The truck drivers are the single man on the bridge, waiting for the government to make the next move.

Pundits here and abroad have been analyzing statements by both Trudeau and the other provincial leadership.  There has been one common thread: the truckers have been accused of insurrection against “legitimate” government.

But how can a democratically elected government be legitimate if it turns its power against those who elected it?

It is true that Covid-19 killed (possibly) millions of people around the world.  It is also true that governments did not use whatever (possible) therapeutics that could have reduced the death toll.  The reasons are unclear: I won’t speculate here.  That discussion is for a different column.

One thing is clear, however: democratically-elected governments used “emergency powers” to shut down economic and social activity.  The goal was to “get control” over the infection rate.

Those same democratically-elected governments are now refusing to relinquish those “emergency powers” as the voters are demanding.  Instead, they are tightening their control over those who elected them, thus proving that “absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  They are also proving the adage that “you can vote yourself into socialism, but you have to fight your way out”.

The Canadian truckers are merely the first to show resistance against these democratically-elected tyrants.  The average Canadian does not fully support blocking trade, but is in full-throat support of the trucker’s demands: return freedom to the people.

Meanwhile, as other pundits have noted, Trudeau and the other provincial leaders are revealing their political impotence.  They have forgotten that Canadians voted them into power.  They are now speculating that maintaining that power, against popular support, may require the use of arms.  Instead of backing down, they are becoming more and more truculent.  The situation is becoming volatile.  The pot may soon boil over.

The question is now: what happens when someone in the Canadian government fires the first shot at a peaceful Canadian protester?

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President* Biden needs to watch the Canadian situation very carefully.  Although many states are dropping mandates in preparation for an election (don’t fool yourself – that’s the reason), they are not taking actions to eliminate “emergency powers” laws.  As long as those laws stay in place, those mandates could be put back in place at any time.

Americans are also peacefully protesting against Covid restrictions.  If there is a similar large-scale protest against coercive mandates here in the US, any action taken by the US government to use force could result in serious blow-back: Canada doesn’t have a 2nd Amendment.

 

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