Emergency powers, threats to freeze the finances of peaceful protesters, and smearing critics as terrorists—it has to be China, right? It’s actually China, our neighbour to the north and a man with bad China envy. A panicky Justin Trudeau Prime Minister is throwing a fit over the protests against restrictive Pandemic Policy. It’s a display of how rapidly an established democracy can become jaded. It is a public advertisement for the benefits of cryptocurrency, and other methods of escape from the financial police.
Canada’s problems stem from the fact that it has seen very few people protest government actions. Officials and members of the general public have become irritated by what might cause others to shrug.
According to the global standards for mass protests, downtown Ottawa’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ is considered a nuisance. The New York TimesEditorial board Last week was highlighted. “The protestors, which numbered around 8,000 at its peak, were relatively small. There have not been any serious injuries or altercations. The truckers stopped honking their horns after residents obtained a temporary injunction.
The government of the country doesn’t see it that way. After the first going into hidingWhile making snarky comments about “unacceptable viewsTrudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to stop Freedom Convoy protesters from opposing vaccine mandates or lockdowns. Trudeau did this for the first ever time against people he had not too long ago called a “small fringe minority.”
Trudeau: “The continuing blockades, occupations pose serious challenges for law enforcement’s effectiveness in enforcing the law.” announcedFebruary 14, 2007. “Because thereof, the federal governments invokes the Emergencies Act for additional provincial and territory capacity.”
The successor to the War Measures Act invoked by the father of the current prime minister in 1970 actual terroristsIt is the Emergencies ActThe government can compel individuals to provide services to the state. It may also control public assemblies with harsh fines or prison sentences for those not in compliance. The Parliament can bypass the public inquiry by submitting a request within 60 days. CTV News asked David Lametti, Justice Minister, for clarification. Why legislators were not allowed to have any say.
Lametti:Legislation is an option. But how long will it take to pass? Particularly in the House where the main opposition party, their main goal is just to frustrate any piece of government legislation of whatever type and in which many people in the opposition actually support—
CTV News But look, sir. The Emergencies Act isn’t necessarily justified if there are problems with the democracy in minority governments. There must be an emergency. This is not about the frustration of minority governments. That’s what I meant.
Lametti: We believe, as I have said, that this is a crisis that needs special attention, that there were normative gaps—this is one of them. The Emergencies Act permits us to immediately declare the problem and have the parliament scrutinize it.
Canadian Civil Liberties Association ArgumentsThe federal government does not meet the requirements to invoke the Emergencies Act. This law sets an extremely high standard, and for good reasons: The Act gives government the ability to ignore ordinary democratic processes. “This standard was not met.” This statement also states that the normalization of emergency legislation is not a good idea. This threatens both our democracy, and civil liberties.
Lametti suggested that funding is the central motivation of Canada’s government.
“It’s about following the money,” Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister specified. This is about stopping illegal blockades’ financing. Today, we are notifying you that your company accounts will be frozen if your truck is used for these protests.
Specifics about the Government order “require any financial service provider to determine whether they have in their possession or control property that belongs to a person who participates in the” protests. Bloomberg ReportsFinancial institutions that suspect they are serving demonstrators should “frost their accounts” and notify the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (or Canada’s intelligence agency). Canadian authorities responded to the US, Canada and other countries that sent funds to the protesters via crowdfunding and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Officials are not surprised that cryptocurrency is evading their control over payment platforms and banks, although it’s unclear if there is much that they can do.
The biggest problem in crypto, according to me, is self-custody. It is pure peer-to–peer. You wouldn’t be able to report on it, would you? Ryan Clements at University of Calgary is the chair for business law and regulatory. TelledThe National Post. You would have to regulate Bitcoin in order to achieve that.
The original intention of Bitcoin and the analogues was to de-intermediate. Fintrac [Canada’s financial intelligence agency]He said that rules are applicable to intermediaries.” He added, “What happens if intermediaries are not available? It’s literally like handing cash.”
Balaji Srinivasan (entrepreneur, venture capitalist) says “Bitcoin’s fundamental value propositions is seizure resistance.” succinctly observed. “As crucial in Canada as in Venezuela.”
Srinivasan may have been more accurate in comparing Canada with totalitarian Venezuela. Trudeau got into trouble in 2013For praising China’s ability to act rapidly under the Emergencies Act. Pierre Trudeau was his father and may have passed on the sentiment to him. He also invoked the War Measures Act but Thugs openly and admirably admiredFidel Castro.
Mark Mike, 2018: “We observe evidence of the Trudeau Family’s long love affair the world’s Autocrats and Tyrants,” Mark Mike wrote in 2018. Maclean’s magazine piece.
This sentiment is common among democracies’ politicians. The last president had a soft spotOpen-air prison camp leaders. All people should consider these warnings as warnings about the inability of the chosen creatures to be patient during the election process.
However, Canada will not slip into authoritarianism soon. Freedom Convoy certainly demonstrates a love for liberty. And even those Canadians who were unhappy at the demonstration are not likely to give up elections or their rights to critique officialdom. The current excesses by the government suggest that a liberal democracy is fragile. In order to fully exercise liberty, those who wish to do so in the coming years might be more comfortable keeping their assets out of the reach of the state and using crypto and cash to exchange them.