On Feb. 23, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise announcement – Canada’s emergency against the Freedom Convoy was over, shocking most that he would capitulate so easy. So what was the new and secret intelligence to make such a sudden U-turn?
Consider this: in politics, timing is everything and Trudeau was just handed a golden opportunity to bury his vitriolic past and mistakes. He received word that Russia was beginning to invade Ukraine, and voila – time to make his announcement.
Normally, given that the Senate was still debating the merits or need of such an emergency and that Trudeau was hearing from his co-opted bankers that people in large numbers were afraid of him and his dictatorial stance and were now taking their money out in droves, that civil liberties groups were gaining traction in their assertions that this fake emergency was trampling on people’s rights, and that his bought and paid for friends over at the NDP were beginning to get cold feet in supporting such measures, it might seem odd that he would capitulate instead of doubling down with more hate speech against those he does not like, as he normally does.
Nope, none of that mattered anymore.
In my expert and learned opinion, Trudeau’s backroom handlers told him in no uncertain terms that he was to immediately call a press conference, to get in front of the Canadian people and tell them that he had now determined that the emergency was over and that we could go back to pretending it was real and no longer valid. You see, he was told that by doing this now, in a few minutes the biggest news story of the year would be that Russia was now attacking the Ukraine, and by the next morning any news story about his persecution of Canadians would be banished to the back pages and soon forgotten by his friends in his media.
How prophetic and, as sure as death and taxes, come the next morning, try to find a story about Canada’s fake emergency when the world is watching the Ukraine declare a real emergency as the Huns were now at their door. And, I don’t think they needed to debate theirs.
I’m sad for Ukraine with its real emergency, and sad for Canadians that Trudeau once again sidesteps telling the truth. But it isn’t over, it just remains to be seen if he and his backroom machine can now co-opt the Parliamentary inquiry. An inquiry dominated by Liberal and NDP members blocking any real discussion, not that we will ever hear about it as all is completed in secrecy and only Trudeau’s version can be released.
There will also be a public inquiry within a year but given the propensity of the Liberals to block, drag out, and otherwise obstruct anything meaningful and/or of value to Canadians, we may likely never hear from that one until Trudeau is long gone and we have had another election.
Now that I have time to reflect on this sordid affair, what else is of note or importance?
Do reports of Tamara Lich’s presiding judge being a former candidate for Trudeau’s Liberals have anything to do with her still being in jail on mischief charges when axe murderers can be back on the street before the police can finish the paperwork?
Are the reports that the police never gave a list of convoy donors to banks and asked their accounts to be frozen mean anything, when the banks were given a list of accounts to freeze and told that all money directed toward those accounts could also be frozen? Doesn’t it only take a minute for banks to search their databases and gather such information, and given their release from all liabilities, then forward such info back to the police?
Will any of the millions raised in support of getting dissenting voices to Ottawa ever be given back to their respective donors, or directed to those intended to receive such largess?
Will Ottawa businesses and residents sue their city for falsely claiming the downtown was dangerous and that all business should be closed? Will Ottawa council ever admit it could have erected fences around any building and across any street they so chose and without Trudeau’s blessings?
Will we ever hear from former Ottawa Police Chief Sloly why the politicians would not use a “political” solution to end the impasse, rather than police resorting to clubs and threats of bullets?
Will we ever know what Trudeau promised Jagmeet Singh to have him play along in the game of charades?
Will we ever find out if the swastika flag bearer was a plant or not?
How long will it take for our national media to recognize and come to grips that this was Canada’s largest act of civil disobedience that resulted no buildings or police cars being torched, not a single business looted, not a single police person injured, and, until directed otherwise, police were able to freely talk, discuss, and negotiate with “protesters” with no threats of violence or intimidation and no requirement for guns drawn or clubs raised?
Will the average Canadian who watches the same national news source, morning and evening, ever wake up to understand that what they saw was a carefully scripted narrative that broadly supported Trudeau’s unsubstantiated assertions and mandates that portrayed all protesters as extremists, supremacists, annoying people that do not belong, misfits, etc., etc.?
Will the majority of Canadians who openly hated and advocated for extreme measures of persecution of the unvaccinated ever come to grips that expressing hatred to fellow Canadians is not cool? Will they ever accept that this misdirected hatred was at the express pleasure and direction of many of our political leaders and public health authorities?
Can we expect that late some Friday afternoon a civil servant will post on some obscure website that Canada has finally created a plan to end the persecution of the unvaccinated in Canada and that we will now all be allowed to resume our normal lives and rights as Canadians, while Trudeau simultaneously announces that all guns he has confiscated will be sent to the Ukraine to help in their efforts to defend their country?
Finally, will we ever accept that all effective protests do involve the disruption of fellow Canadian’s normal lives? Will we remember what women did to make their voices heard and then achieve the right to vote in Canada?
And I’m still waiting for an all clear to give in support of the defence of our truckers who went to Ottawa and are now paying the financial price for advocating for rights for all fellow Canadians.
Evan Saugstad lives and writes in Fort St. John.
