Canada's Prime Minister to Invoke Emergencies Act

The Prime Minister is too scared to talk to the truckers, whom he regards as such a threat that he is invoking these extraordinary powers for the first time in Canadian history. This act replaced what was previously called the "War Measures Act." 

Whatever one thinks of the position of the truckers on vaccine mandates, their core complaint has been the way in which the democratic legislative branch has been stripped of its lawmaking function in favor of executive assertions of 'emergency powers.' This complaint was fully justified even before this move: last week honking became an arrestable offense, and parking in a proscribed area a felony punishable with a year in prison and a hundred-thousand dollar fine. No legislature considered these updates to the motor vehicle code: they were asserted by bald executive privilege. 

Now the Prime Minister is going for what amounts to wartime powers to crush a peaceful, if robust, domestic protest movement. 

Options for resistance to this abuse of authority are significant, however:


These options are nonviolent, but it is not clear that the Canadian government can defeat them. Even if they take to shooting blockaders, they still may not be able to move the trucks. 

UPDATE: Emergencies Act invoked. Anyone supporting the truckers, or being a trucker, is to have their bank accounts seized without warrant or court order; banks immunized against any damages they cause. The legal excuse for this is "counterterror laws," i.e., perfectly peaceful (though effective) protests are now terrorism in Canada. 

1 comment:

ymarsakar said...

Sun Tzu's the Art of War. Hit them in the logistics. Starve and blockade the cities. Cut off all access and let them die on the vine.

This is the most efficient way to wage war.

At least it reduces allied casualties to a minimum during the siege.