The trucks have left Parliament Hill. The sleepy Canadian capital of Ottawa is quiet once again. But for three weeks something happened outside the seat of the national government, a movement that shook the benches of that austere body and led to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealing himself as an enemy of basic democratic freedoms.
Over the weekend Ottawa police, apparently acting under the directive of Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, swept through the crowd of protesters, injuring some, and ending a demonstration that became a global symbol for those ready to abandon Covid restrictions and get life back to normal.
The truckers can claim victory on at least two significant levels. First, the roughly 21 days that they set up camp in Ottawa saw an enormous number of Covid measures relaxed. Ontario Premier Doug Fiord, among others, ludicrously claimed the relaxation had nothing to do with the truckers, but if so it’s quite a coincidence.
The second, and maybe more important victory the truckers gained was to expose Justin Trusdeau, his party, and the sycophantic, state run Canadian news media as authoritarians more than willing to lie in order to tighten their grip over the lives and minds of the people. Those lies included falsely painting the protesters as “white supremacists.”
Let us not forget that at the beginning of this movement, Trudeau laughed it off as a small fringe group of racist yokels, a small fringe that soon had him invoking the Emergencies Act for the first time in history. And what did he accuse these truckers of? These men and women who had been our heroes not long ago? He accused them of holding “unacceptable views.”
By the end of last week these peaceful protesters with the unacceptable views would be smeared not only by Trudeau and his disdainful cabinet, but by Ottawa Police, who tweeted out allegations that they were engaged in “assaultive behavior.
Amazingly, in this day and age, there is no video evidence of this supposed “assaultive behavior.” What there is video of is mounted police trampling Canadian citizens protesting for their God given rights. And it isn’t just horses hooves that these concerned citizens had to fear, the police have their hands in these people’s bank accounts too, promising financial retribution for demonstrators.
This is the true crux of Trudeau’s dastardly and ludicrous emergency powers. Powers he laughably promises are temporary. For all intents and purposes he and his lackeys have installed a social credit system, a form of manipulation that China would admire. You want to criticize the government? Go ahead, but don’t be surprised if your bank account is frozen. Oh, and not just if you physically protested, but also if you took the “dangerous” and now illegal step of sending the protesters a few bucks for food or fuel.
The problem for Trudeau, to quote an old protesting adage, is that the whole world is watching, and unlike Canadian news media, most of the world doesn’t work for him. Even American progressives, who crave Covid restrictions like geraniums crave water, are a bit shocked by the actions of the little dictator with the expensive blow out.
In Canada itself, most conservative politicians, to the extent such people exist by American standards, started off very critical of the Freedom Convoy. That was disappointing, but when Trudeau went nuclear with the Emergencies Act, the conservatives, under new, hopefully more aggressive leadership, pounced, embarrassing a floundering Trudeau in Parliament with withering speeches about his egregious overreach.
In the end, this band of truck drivers in Ottawa, who never amounted to much more than a few hundred souls, notwithstanding the thousands who would join them for weekend dance parties, sent a horn blast heard throughout the world. And the world is listening, as almost everywhere Covid restrictions fall away, promising, finally, maybe, our ability to move on from the pandemic.
But for Justin Trudeau and his neoliberal cheerleaders, who seem to wish they ruled in a system like China’s rather than a free democracy, this episode ripped open the false facade of their so-called liberalism, revealing an authoritarian monster at their core.
Make no mistake. The truckers won. They may pay dearly, as some have at the hands of aggressive police, and others have and will through outrageous financial penalties. But they went head to head with their government and made their government look like fools. And for that, every lover of freedom should be grateful.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.