The Authoritarian Left

A consistent theme of these reports over the past two years has been a disturbing trend exposed by the coronavirus -- the authoritarian impulse that runs through all levels of government. 

We've seen it in arrogant school boards, authoritarian governors and at the highest levels in Washington, D.C. But if AOC is really worried about threats to democracy, she ought to be condemning the latest actions of liberal Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Our authoritarian president recently called Trudeau and demanded that he crackdown hard on the Freedom Convoy (protesting truckers). In this case, the leader of Canada apparently didn't mind being "pushed around" by the United States. 

Last night, Trudeau invoked Canada's Emergencies Act for the first time in the country's history. He's now treating the nonviolent truck drivers as terrorists or domestic enemies threatening "the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada." 

That's what Canada's Emergencies Act was intended to address -- threats to the state, not truck drivers.

Canadian civil liberties groups are appalled by Trudeau's dictatorial edict. He's not only threatening to seize trucks blocking roadways, he's now threatening to seize the truckers' bank accounts and to suspend their insurance policies. And he's going even further.

The Canadian government is also threatening the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo. Its donors have now provided financial support to what Trudeau evidently considers "terrorists" and "enemies of the state."

Can you imagine the outcry if Donald Trump had done anything like this during the violent leftist riots in 2020? Can you imagine if he had tried to shutdown the BLM organization and targeted the corporations that donated millions to that radical Marxist outfit?

Meanwhile, GiveSendGo went offline yesterday. It was hacked and the personal information of individual donors was compromised. A video was posted on the site saying the platform funded "hate groups, disinformation and insurrection." 

Who are we to assume hacked the site? Was it Trudeau's government, which just declared a state of emergency? Or was it bitter leftists who hate Christian conservatives? Either one seems just as likely.

There's considerable irony here in that the trucker convoy demonstration is about freedom! Many truckers are simply fed up with the way Canada's leftist government has exploited the pandemic to shrink freedom. 

This protest is not a violent assault on the government. The mayor of Ottawa lost his mind because kids were having fun in "bouncy castles." Does this look like a bunch of violent thugs to you? 

Sadly, it seems "freedom" has become the new "F-word" in Canada.

By the way, Justin Trudeau never invoked this emergency power during the epidemic of church arsons that have swept Canada. The government won't even acknowledge the problem. 

Somewhere Lord Acton is saying, "Told you so." The British historian famously said, "All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely."