A friend from America writes to me that the conditions in her country are worse than she had hoped. The poor are being persecuted more often and they are being abused by both the good and the bad. I respond that Americans believe they have it bad. They can visit Canada to see the extent to which the “social order” can drag them down to the bottom.
We all suffer from the same derecho of adversarial powers: Big Government, Big Tech, and Big Pharma as well as corrupt and myopic leadership at all levels. Canada has no provinces, with the exception of Saskatchewan, that are comparable to the “red” states in the U.S. in which sanity and freedom still prevail and the government is accountable to the people. We do not have the option to allow residents of “blue” states to leave for “fresh woods or pastures new.”
Contrary to their American counterparts, the vast majority of Canadian voters are complicit in autocratic government regulations. The recent election in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, saw an increase in the support for the oppressive and grim government of Doug Ford. It is not necessary to rig an electoral election.
All around us is evidence of economic instability and autocratic rule. There is little relief from the destruction of Canadian values, economic viability, and other ills. This is all part of the plan for a demagogic regime to be established in a once liberal democracy.
Here’s a short list:
Censorship: Bill C-261, which is currently before parliament, proposes to convict Canadians for “hate crime” before the commission. This would be before they have broken the law or even known what it covers. Parliament is also considering bills that would restrict Internet access. To find similar dystopian legislation, and practice, one must travel to China or North Korea.
Parental rights: Bill C-4 makes it a crime to practice “conversion therapy,” which is the act of affirming a child’s birth gender. The bill gives the state the power to remove the child from their home in order to “gender reassignment”, chemical or other, and allows them to act in loco parentis.
Gas prices, et al. I filled it up at the nearby gas station yesterday. I paid almost $11 for a gallon, converting from liters. This is an indicator of the extent of inflationary pressures. For most products, services, and comestibles, real inflation is between 20% and 50%. My Starbucks coffee sachet, which cost $7.95 two months ago, is now $10.95. A regular shopping trip costs approximately twice as much.
Canadians are being robbed by their government. Inflation has been greatly influenced by absurdly ineffective carbon taxes. They are expected to continue to rise over time. Particularly the farming sector has been affected. “The carbon tax stresses margins all up and down the food chains.” A tax on capital gains is a brutal tax for a free market nation. A home equity tax, currently under discussion, will severely impact home purchases and retirement planning. Citizens are becoming selectively poor.
Masks: For many government departments, businesses, and venues, face coverings are still required. The airports are like holding cells. A plane is like a group of bank robbers en route to a conference.
Vaccines: Rav Arora, in The Epoch Times of Canada’s ongoing authoritarian COVID-19 reply, writes that vaccines “have not been carefully tested, distributed as a vital, life-saving preventive measure, but as an abhorrent pledge of citizenship and virtue to everyone regardless of age, health and risk factors.” The unvaccinated are in prison in their country. Federally, they are deprived of the Charter right of travel and even to leave the country. Canada is one of the few countries that has not abandoned its federal vaccine mandates.
Assets: It is possible that assets are frozen if one participates in a protest or demonstration against government policies, such as Truckers Convoy. Many banks are willing to join the cause and there is no need for the courts to be involved. This was done during the recent Invocation of the Emergencies Act. It is not certain that these assaults will not occur again.
Double standards: Bruce Pardy, Queen’s University’s law professor, writes that “Double standards of speech and conduct have been ingrained in our current political system.” While burning churches and blocking trains are acts of support for social justice, peacefully protesting vaccine mandates is considered a public emergency. The prime minister invoked the War Measures Act to stop a legitimate protest. This is unprecedented in Western democracy. Pardy says, “The hypocrisy in our authorities is no accident.” They make deliberate and calculated choices.” This is true for both a paid-for press and other insidious leftwing platforms.
Privacy: The digital surveillance of citizens is becoming more widespread.
Michel Walsh of The Pipeline has a right to write that Canada is now “completing its post-Covid descent towards a fascist dictatorship.” He also cites the fact that Canada has imposed flood coercive measures such as travel restrictions, vaccine mandates, and punitive carbon tax.
With the support of a majority of the uninformed and supine public, the executive, legal, and juridical elite now have complete control over national affairs. He is even more dangerous because, unlike the American president, the Canadian prime minister is fully in control of his faculties. He is not insane. He is clever, duplicitous, and brazen. His totalitarian tendencies are easily discernible. Cuba is his star, Venezuela his destination. Social pariahs have been Constitutional adherents and civically responsible citizens.
The fact that we Canadians may have it worse than Americans doesn’t give us bragging rights — unless, of course, like certain valetudinarians and hypochondriacs, we like to compete against others with the severity of our ailments. Canadians have always felt they are better than Americans, and in this regard alone, they probably are.
