Americans have often looked down their noses at the authoritarian ways of other nations and thought, “that will never happen in the United States.” But after enduring our own governmnet’s overreach throughout the pandemic, I wonder how many folks are still sure about that. I can only speak for myself, but every affront to liberty around the globe now seems a potential scourge for the U.S. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau provides the latest example. His illiberal response to the Canadian trucker protests breaks new ground for Democratic countries looking to infringe on their citizens' basic freedoms.
Last week, despite a conspicuous lack of violence on the part of the Canadian truckers protesting COVID-19 restrictions, Trudeau invoked the Emergency Act to freeze the bank accounts of any individuals linked to the protests without the need for a court order. The Canadian government also broadened “Terrorist Financing” rules to target cryptocurrencies and crowdfunding sites used to donate to the protestors. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland confirmed that “the names of both individuals and entities as well as crypto wallets have been shared…with financial institutions, and accounts have been frozen…”
Canada ranks 6th out of all countries on the Human Freedom Index. It’s a democracy that ostensibly champions pluralism. Its Prime Minister is a so-called liberal. Yet there, free speech is under attack, political dissenters are seeing their bank accounts frozen, and peaceful protestors are being likened to terrorists.
The U.S. has experienced its own share of authoritarianism throughout the pandemic, with vaccine mandates and attempts by the White House to push platforms into censoring what they claim to be COVID-19 misinformation. Our government hasn’t attempted the same financial censorship as the Canadian government, but to think this form of suppression won’t make its way across the border is naive. Afterall, every inch given only emboldens politicians to take more.
Moreover, as long as governments have broad emergency powers, they possess an ability to manufacture crises to justify overreach, placing our freedoms at constant risk. For example, in Canada, the only legitimate justification for the use of emergency powers is a threat to national security, as defined by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act. To get around this, the Canadian state said the protests were part of a plot to overthrow the government.
The claim is dubious at best. These protestors are merely dissidents, individuals that are fed up with the COVID-19 restrictions in their homeland. Trudeau has sought to display them as something more to justify his tyrannical response to their criticism.
The new authoritarian wave that has swept the globe started small: “15 days to slow the spread.” That simple lie pushed us down the slippery slope to draconian mandates and authoritarian actions by supposedly free governments.
Thankfully, in January, our government did not act against the peaceful protestors marching against vaccine mandates in Washington, D.C. But what’s going on in Canada should still be a bold reminder that freedom is delicate. As President Ronald Reagan once famously said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same…”
To protect our freedoms, our system of emergency powers needs to be reformed. States of emergency and unjustified COVID-19 restrictions have been in effect far too long in certain areas across the U.S. Emergency powers, to be clear, are necessary, as swift government action can be valuable in crises that pose threats to our freedom in the long-run. But, as we are seeing each day, politicians have a proclivity to overestimate or manufacture emergencies and overreach with their emergency powers. They must be better restrained, or we risk welcoming executive tyranny akin to that of Justin Trudeau.
Benjamin Ayanian is a Young Voices Contributor and a student studying philosophy, business law and political science at the University of Minnesota. He has also been published in the Star Tribune and the Wall Street Journal. His Twitter is @BenjaminAyanian.