Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s emergency order is a radical violation of the principle of the rule of law.
He ordered Canadian banks and financial institutions to stop serving any participant or supporter of the Canadian trucker protests.
That means they’ll freeze their checking accounts, cancel their credit cards, cut off their insurance and refuse to issue them loans.
Of course the Canadian government was fully justified in making arrests of persons who unlawfully occupied their capital or blocked international bridge crossings.
But this doesn’t justify extreme actions against persons who haven’t been charged with any crime or, in many cases, have not violated any laws now on the books.
The Canadian trucker protest is an example of the uneven enforcement of laws against protesters.
Here in the USA, some kinds of protests are treated very harshly and others very leniently. Sometimes it will protesters will be treated brutally by local authorities and coddled by federal authorities; sometimes it is just the reverse.
In Ottawa, it seems as if the truckers are being treated leniently by the local police, in contrast to the draconian policy of the national government.
I don’t think there will be a civil war in the USA, much less Canada, but if there is, it will have been possible because elements of the police and military support different sides.
I somewhat disagree with the truckers on the merits of their complaints.
The truckers initially protested requirements that they show proof of vaccination upon leaving Canada and and that they be subject to a two-week quarantine if they try to return unvaccinated.
Trying to prevent the spread of a deadly contagious disease is not tyranny. The Canadian government has the right and duty to stop the spread of the virus
But vaccine passports, in my opinion, are not the best way to do this, because a vaccinated person can still be infectious and an unvaccinated person can be free from the disease.
It would be better to ask the truckers to show recent covid virus tests. Or take their temperatures when they approach the border and, if they run a fever, ask them to take a virus test.
Where people stand on the truckers largely reflects where they stand on larger conflicts.
Team Red is largely pro-trucker and Team Blue is largely anti-trucker. Rural people and people who work with their hands seem pre-disposed to be pro-trucker. Urban people and college-educated professionals seem predisposed to be anti-trucker.
I’m not sure the protesters are representative of Canadian working people, or even of truckers as a whole. But I see no particular reason to think the truckers are particularly racist.
LINKS
Banks are moving to freeze accounts linked to convoy protests | Here’s what you need to know by John Paul Tasker for CBC News.
Trudeau’s Money Heist: Emergencies Act Allows Seizure of Bank Accounts, Securities, Crypto of Those Suspected of “Links” to Convoy Members Without Court Order by Yves Smith for Naked Capitalism.
Squad member Ilhan Omar defends Ottawa cafe owner who donated to Canadian Freedom Convoy truckers by Ronny Reyes and James Gordon for The Daily Mail (London)
Why the Left Doesn’t Copy the Truck Protests by Ian Welsh.
What About the Canadian Truckers? by Rod Dreher for The American Conservative.
Thoughts on the Canadian Trucker “Freedom Convoys” by Lambert Strether for Naked Capitalism.
Reality Honks Back by N.S. Lyons for The Upheaval.