Re: ‘Commissioner: federal government met threshold to invoke Emergencies Act,’ Feb. 23
To the editor,
My understanding when an MP is sworn into Parliament, he/she is sworn to uphold the principles of peace, order, and good governance.
Using that oath as a guideline against the “Freedom Convoy” of January/February 2022, there is some justification in the extreme measures the government took. In a very distorted way, I guess one could see bouncy castles as a severe threat against the peace and order in our nation’s capital. Certainly, the economic boom to the local businesses could constitute a threat to our economic well-being as a nation. The unifying force the truckers brought out across our entire nation was definitely a serious threat to our understanding of who we are as Canadians, or at least who we are supposed to be as Canadians.
In reality, the only threat the truckers represented was to the legitimacy of our federal government, and rightfully so.
The coward we call our prime minister only needed to meet with a representative group of truckers, and hear and address their, and the rest of the Canadians they represent, grievances. That was the clearly-stated objective right from the beginning.
Instead, he opted to seize donated funds, freeze/seize bank accounts, and use intimidation and force to subdue an already peaceful (although admittedly unorthodox) protest. Why were the enforcers unidentifiable by the protesters? Why have automatic weapons and heavily-armoured mounted enforcers to quell an unarmed and peaceful group of protesters? These are tactics used in extreme authoritarian regimes, not in peace-loving and democratic Canada.
You see, the only real justification for the Emergencies Act was in the fact that it was a threat to the security of a questionably legitimate government.
Unfortunately, as Canadians we have wholeheartedly bought into a belief that our governments are primarily benevolent by nature, when in fact the exact opposite has been happening especially over the past eight years. There is no such thing as a benevolent government, only varying degrees of malevolence, and given the willingness to consider instituting the Emergencies Act, let alone enacting it, is a very real indication of just how malevolent our government actually is.
The outcome declared by Justice Paul Rouleau is not surprising, in my opinion, given the admission of anything else would be unthinkable. Mr. Trudeau did uphold the letter of his oath, in that he did enforce peace, order and good governance. However, the implied oath, which I believe we expect from our government, is peace, order and good moral government.
On that oath, Mr. Trudeau failed miserably.
Wayne Baker
2021 PPC Candidate, Perth-Wellington
Wellington North
