What Justin Trudeau s Extraordinary Move Means | City Journal
The ongoing saga of Canada s Freedom Convoy took an extraordinary turn this week. In response to protests in Ottawa and blockade actions at some Canada U.S. border crossings, the Canadian government invoked the Emergencies Act, giving itself exceptional powers to try to end the nearly three-week-long protests. It s difficult to overstate the legal and political magnitude of this decision, which is undoubtedly among the most controversial in Justin Trudeau s tenure as prime minister and will be the subject of debate for years.
Evidently, it’s just the latest emergency decree declared by Canadian governments. There have been local emergencies, provincial emergencies, all sorts of emergencies, all stemming from this pandemic. Many of them temporary, and you know what that means. How long will this national emergency drag on for? It’s all rather shocking to American eyes. Make me glad to an Amurican, by gum. Indeed, it reminds me of what I disliked so much about some of the urban Canadians I have known, a distressing class-orientedness, like what one imagines an old colonial type from the Raj might display. The truckers are first and foremost working class, who should just do what they’re told, in the view of the Liberals. I hope they don’t, but Trudeau seems more than willing to crush them, or try to, if they step out of line, as they have been doing.