The Dictator and the Truckers: A True Canadian Folk Tale
Re-Printed without permission.
Gwyn Morgan April 1 2022
It came to pass that, near the end of the year AD 2019, in the city of Wuhan in the province of Hubei in an oriental country called China, a mysterious viral disease struck the people. China’s dictator chose not to tell the world. While he imperiously decreed that his citizens must not travel into or out of Wuhan, he allowed them to continue voyaging to many distant parts of the world, including a northern country called Canada. As the year 2020 dawned, Canadians began to sicken and die from this virus that rapidly proliferated into a global pandemic known as Covid-19.
Protecting China, infecting the world: While Xi’s dictatorship decreed that internal flights from Wuhan be cancelled, as shown on the display board from January 2020 at left, Chinese travellers continued to fly out of Wuhan Tianhe International Airport, evidenced from the photo at right taken the same month. (Source of photos: The Associated Press)Infectious disease experts strove to find vaccines against the virus. By the end of this year of great suffering and woe, a vaccine had been developed by scientists at several companies, including one called Pfizer. Rather than the usual years of testing normally required, the new vaccines were approved for “emergency use.” The fearful people rejoiced at their impending deliverance.
No free choice in the “free” country: Despite Canada’s vaccination rate exceeding 90 percent by late 2021, in the eyes of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau those who declined the jab deserved to be condemned and barred from public places.By the end of 2021, nine out of every ten Canadians had been vaccinated (most of them twice and some three times). The remainder, genuinely fearful of adverse health effects that the short testing period could not reveal, chose to forego vaccination. Justin Trudeau, the nation’s Prime Minister, condemned those law-abiding Canadians as irresponsible and dangerous “anti-vaxxers” and forbade them from accessing public air or ground transportation. Those who worked for his government were terminated. After more than a year of being locked-down, restricted and vilified, these law-abiding citizens had had enough. “Freedom Rallies” attended by many thousands swept across the nation and were held weekly in many cities – even though the local newspapers and television stations seemed reluctant to let city residents in on the secret. After apartheid-like isolation in their own communities, being surrounded by like-minded people brought joyful celebration. The display of uncounted national flags signalled their loyalty to their country, despite enduring the contempt of their government.
Canadian cases rose precipitously for several weeks, before dropping steadily. Many of the most-often cited medical experts professed puzzlement at this strange behaviour. But a few brave scientists boldly ascribed this to a phenomenon called ‘natural immunity,’ an astonishing process by which infected people whose bodies fight off an illness become resistant to it. Tweet
Then it came to pass that, in the summer and autumn of 2021, vaccinated persons began contracting and spreading Covid-19. Soon hundreds of thousands of the so-called “fully vaccinated” were infected. Then as the year 2021 approached its turn and 2022 began, a highly contagious but remarkably mild Covid-19 variant called “Omicron” swept around the world. Canadian cases rose precipitously for several weeks, before dropping steadily. Many of the most-often cited medical experts professed puzzlement at this strange behaviour. But a few brave scientists boldly ascribed this to a phenomenon called “natural immunity,” an astonishing process by which infected people whose bodies fight off an illness become resistant to it. (This had been known to Medieval peasants but, alas, had been forgotten by 21st century science.)
Appreciated by Medieval peasants but not 21st century official science: During Covid-19 “natural” immunity was widely ridiculed; it took the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (director Rochelle Walensky is pictured at right) until February 2022 to acknowledge the obvious.In the second month of 2022, declining case numbers caused Canada’s provinces to signal the impending end of vaccine mandates. After enduring the pandemic for two years, the people greatly rejoiced. It was time for healing the vaccination-status wounds that had divided friends and families.
But the prospect of national harmony posed a problem for the country’s Prime Minister. He had used vicious attacks on vaccine-fearing citizens to help win re-election and subsequently shut down the nation’s parliament, bringing him close to the dictatorial powers he had coveted since expressing admiration for China’s “basic dictatorship” years before. He intensified vilification of the unvaccinated, calling them “misogynists and racists” – considered possibly the most fearsome denunciation of the early 21st century, a double-curse of such power as to brand the bearer as irredeemably loathsome.
A dictator is in the house. (Source of tweet: Canada Proud/@WeAreCanProud)Still, Trudeau needed to attack a more specific target to retain his coercive power. With the cunning of a jackal and the shamelessness of a hyena, he selected transport truckers – the same hard-working, dedicated Canadians he had earlier praised for “keeping food on the country’s tables.” Truckers who, before vaccines were even available, risked their health driving deep into neighbouring America to bring back essential goods.
Now, just as the provinces were ending restrictions on the unvaccinated, the Prime Minister proclaimed that returning unvaccinated truckers would be required to “quarantine” for two weeks, a condition that would be impossible to meet. After two years of safely serving their country, the truckers were to be thrown out of work – cast aside like unneeded accoutrements following one of the Prime Minister’s celebrated costume events. This they could not abide.
Showing his true face at last: Prime Minister Dress-Up has worn many costumes, but his disguise of empathy and kindness was discarded during the truckers’ protest, when he used the Emergencies Act to crush them. Might he even have hoped to make this “emergency” rule permanent? (Source of bottom photos: The Canadian Press)And so it further came to pass that “Freedom Convoys,” each made up of hundreds of heavy trucks from across the nation and cheered on by thousands of flag-waving supporters lining roads and overpasses, drove along thousands of kilometres of wintery roads to converge upon the nation’s Capital to protest in front of its Parliament buildings. The atmosphere was peaceful, even celebratory. Some had brought their families. As their children played on inflatable toy castles, barbecues were fired up to serve everyone, including the local homeless people. The Capital’s core, though boisterous, remained peaceable, with less crime than normal.
While a few convoy members expressed unruly ideas, the leaders soon declared that their singular objective was to have the quarantine edict repealed. The Prime Minister and his apparatchiks embarked on a renewed vilification campaign, aided by a small number of troublemakers who habitually seize on such events to sew discord and incite violence. They denigrated national monuments and falsely claimed the trucker’s objective was to overthrow the government. Rather than interviewing the truckers and their families, the compliant mainstream media – which by now were financially dependent on alms disbursed by the government upon them – focused on the troublemakers – or, when these were difficult to locate, invented acts that never even occurred. The Prime Minister used this as an excuse not to meet with the truckers.
Much to the Prime Minister’s distress, his charade of championing human rights abroad while violating them at home did not go unnoticed when he journeyed to a city called Brussels to speak to the Parliament of European countries, where a member from a country called Germany accused him of ‘violating human rights and the rule of law.’ Tweet
Many years before, Canadian parliamentarians had passed a so-called “Emergencies Act,” to be used only under the most dire of circumstances: when the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada was threatened. Implementing the Act gave the Prime Minister complete authority to act as he pleased, including to violate fundamental rights of the kind that separated Canada from repressive dictatorships. Those peaceful truckers were now accused of being dangerous nation-threatening miscreants. Massive numbers of police, drawn from across the vast nation, invaded the truckers’ encampments, seizing trucks and arresting their leaders. Funds donated by the country’s citizens to support the truckers were seized and the donors’ bank accounts were “frozen,” preventing them from buying food and other goods needed by their families, indeed, all-but preventing them from functioning altogether in an advanced “digital” economy.
Among the most cynical of his acts, Trudeau followed on his crushing of the truckers with a European tour to lament the war in Ukraine, deliver lectures on what should be done, and signal his virtue. While the Canadian media swallowed the act, the Europeans largely saw through it and a few openly lambasted Trudeau. (Source of top photo: The Associated Press/ Efrem Lukatsky)The Emergencies Act was to expire within 30 days, but many believed the Prime Minister would find ways of extending it until he could amend the Act to make his dictatorial powers permanent. The integrity of Canada was indeed in peril, but in a way never imagined by his predecessors. But, just as the constitutional freedoms of Canadians seemed about to be permanently sundered, the nation’s Senate – like the Roman Senate of Ancient times, a somewhat decayed institution derided by much of the nation that, occasionally, would rouse itself to action – signalled its intention to reject implementation of the Act.
The Prime Minister’s dream of dictatorship had failed. In revenge, he refused to remove the restrictions that had thrown the truckers out of work and prohibited the unvaccinated from travelling. And so, the Freedom Rallies continued across the country. And much to his distress, his charade of championing human rights abroad while violating them at home did not go unnoticed when he journeyed to a city called Brussels to speak to the Parliament of European countries, where a member from a country called Germany accused him of “violating human rights and the rule of law.”
This is not yet the end of the tale. But I see the fire has died down and the embers are fading. There will be more to tell another night.
Gwyn Morgan is a retired business leader who has been a director of five global corporations. Sources of photos used in main image: (left and center) The Canadian Press, (right) Shutterstock.
Part 2
The next paragraphs recount Part I of The Dictator and the Truckers to set the stage for the following sequel: By late 2021, nearly nine out of every ten Canadians five years and older had been vaccinated against Covid-19. The remainder, genuinely fearful of adverse health effects that the short testing period could not reveal, chose to forego vaccination. Justin Trudeau, the nation’s Prime Minister, condemned those law-abiding Canadians as irresponsible and dangerous “anti-vaxxers” and forbade them from accessing public air or ground transportation.
In early 2022, declining case numbers and low fatalities motivated Canada’s provinces to signal the impending end of vaccine mandates. After enduring the pandemic for two years, the people greatly rejoiced. It was a time for healing the vaccination-status wounds that had divided friends, families, workplaces and organizations.
To strengthen his hold on power after a divisive election, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau (top) needed a new target to attack; he chose truckers – hard-working, dedicated Canadians who had kept the economy moving during the worst of the lockdowns. (Sources of photos: (top) The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld; (bottom) Andrei Filippov/Shutterstock)But instead of bringing him joy, the prospect of national harmony posed a problem for the divisive Prime Minister who had used vicious attacks on vaccine-fearing citizens to help win re-election and had subsequently shut down the nation’s Parliament, giving him the near-dictatorial powers he had coveted since expressing admiration for China’s “basic dictatorship” years before. He intensified his vilification of the unvaccinated, calling them “misogynists and racists.”
To strengthen his uncertain hold on power – he after all led a minority government that had won fewer votes than his main opponents – he needed to attack a more specific target. With the cunning of a jackal and the shamelessness of a hyena, he selected transport truckers – the same hard-working, dedicated Canadians of all races whom he had earlier praised for “working day and night to make sure our shelves are stocked.” Truckers who, before vaccines were even available, risked their health driving to the U.S. to bring back essential goods.
Trudeau now proclaimed that unvaccinated truckers crossing the border would be required to “quarantine” for two weeks, a condition that was impossible to meet for truckers whose jobs required them to keep their cargoes moving. After two years of safely serving their country, unvaccinated truckers and the many who stood in solidarity with them would now be thrown out of work. In late January 2022, massive “Freedom Convoys” of truckers and supportive Canadians from across the country converged on Ottawa.
The Sequel
The truckers’ foremost request was for a meeting with the Prime Minister to express their concerns. But having caused the convoy to form in the first place by throwing the truckers out of work, that was the last thing he wanted to do. What apparently was on his mind was finding an excuse to use the federal Emergencies Act to give himself long-coveted authority to violate the fundamental individual rights that separate Canada from repressive dictatorships. A carefully crafted successor to the previous War Measures Act used in 1970 by the dictator’s father, the Emergencies Act specifies that it is to be used only in a crisis that “seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada.”
It’s hard to imagine how this petite and soft-spoken woman could ‘intimidate’ anyone, but Tamara Lich soon found herself handcuffed between two towering federal police officers and taken to solitary confinement in a dungeon-like cell with a tiny window 16 feet overhead. The next day a judge decided she was criminally responsible for organizing what was, in fact, a peaceful protest. Tweet
There’s no doubt the at-times boisterous protesters were an inconvenience to some locals. But how could these peacefully encamped truckers possibly be considered nation-threatening pariahs? That mattered not to aspiring Dictator Trudeau. In mid-February, he invoked the Emergencies Act.
Then came terrible scenes: massive numbers of helmeted police (many themselves unvaccinated, thanks to favourable deals negotiated by police unions) on foot and horseback, armed with batons and firearms loaded with rubber bullets, forcefully invading the encampments, seizing trucks and arresting their leaders. A photo of a fallen woman being trampled by a horse came to symbolize the callous violence of Canada’s once-hallowed law enforcement agencies.
Callous violence: The Emergencies Act enabled Trudeau to take severe punitive measures against the Freedom Convoy; mounted police moved in, seizing trucks, arresting convoy leaders and trampling protestors. (Sources of photos: (left) Michel Elzo/Shutterstock; (right) @TheTorontoSun/Twitter)
The Emergencies Act also allowed government officials to seize funds donated electronically, totalling at least $10 million, by the thousands of citizens who supported the truckers’ quest to reclaim our country’s constitutional freedoms from the dictator’s grasp. Even more contemptibly, the donors’ bank accounts were frozen with the willing participation of Canada’s big banks, preventing them from paying rent, buying food or procuring other goods needed by their families.
Besides cracking down on the truckers and their financial supporters, the Prime Minister unleashed his apparatchiks to maliciously persecute a woman who had journeyed across the country to serve as organizer and spokesperson for the truckers. Tamara Lich, an Indigenous grandmother from Alberta, was arrested and charged with the indefinable crimes of “mischief, obstructing police, and counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation.” It’s hard to imagine how this petite and soft-spoken woman could “intimidate” anyone, but Lich soon found herself handcuffed between two towering federal police officers and taken to solitary confinement in a dungeon-like cell with a tiny window 16 feet overhead.
Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich, an Indigenous grandmother from Alberta, was charged with the indefinable crimes of “mischief, obstructing police and counselling others to commit intimidation;” she soon found herself in solitary confinement. (Source of photo: The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)The next day a judge decided she was criminally responsible for organizing what was, in fact, a peaceful protest. Lich spent two weeks in jail and was then released on bail with orders not to communicate with anyone associated with the convoy. She was rearrested after attending a Freedom Rally where she was photographed near another person associated with the convoy. After serving another 30 days in prison, she was again released on bail after a different judge ruled that there had been no significant interaction.
As this B.C. Prosecution Service information sheet explains: “Persons who are charged with an offence are constitutionally entitled to be released from custody unless Crown counsel is able to justify their continued detention…including consideration of the background of the accused, and the risk to the public.” It is inconceivable that under Canada’s current bail system, Lich could be considered a public risk. Her constitutional rights to the presumption of innocence and to timely access to bail were clearly violated – and this seems to have been deliberate.
Meanwhile in Ontario, Randall McKenzie, a habitual offender charged with weapons violations and assaulting a police officer, was last June set free on bail. In contrast to the oppressive bail conditions imposed on the entirely non-violent and non-threatening Lich, and her immediate rearrest on the flimsiest of pretexts, McKenzie was released without major conditions other than periodically reporting to his parole officer. While out on bail, McKenzie then is alleged to have cut off his ankle monitor and committed a slew of additional crimes, culminating just after Christmas in the ambush and murder of Ontario Provincial Police Constable Greg Pierzchala.
Rights for some but not others: While Tamara Lich suffered 30 days in jail and oppressive bail conditions, repeat offender Randall McKenzie (left) was released on bail and went on a crime spree ending in the murder of Ontario police officer Greg Pierzchala (right). (Sources of photos: (left) cambridgetoday.ca; (right) OPP West Region)Lich’s trial on her original “crimes” is set for later this year. There’s no doubt the Prime Minister’s henchmen want to teach her and all those who support her a lesson. Incredibly, the Crown prosecutor on her case has stated publicly that he will seek a prison sentence of ten years, something imposed only for very serious violent assaults by habitual criminals – if then. A cornerstone of democracy – and one of the clearest points of distinction from dictatorship – is the prohibition of government interference in the judicial process. Tamara Lich’s treatment takes a jackhammer to that cornerstone, moving our country closer to Trudeau’s vision of a “basic dictatorship.”
By declaring the Emergencies Act, the Prime Minister succeeded in removing the truckers, freezing the funds donated to support them, preventing the donors from accessing their personal bank accounts and persecuting their leaders, obliterating the very freedoms they sacrificed so much to preserve.
The ‘elephant in the room’ unmentioned in any of those 2,000 pages on the Emergencies Act is that the Prime Minister had prompted the truckers’ protest by maliciously imposing vaccination mandates he knew would throw them out of work if they failed to comply. Thankfully, the judge’s ruling is only administrative and doesn’t bind Canada’s courts. Tweet
This lamentable episode in Canada’s history started with the imposition of vaccination mandates. But evidence has steadily emerged vindicating those who chose to remain unvaccinated due to the risk of adverse side effects. Unlike previous vaccines that were subjected to five-to-ten-year, multi-phase testing, the Covid-19 vaccines received U.S. “Emergency Use Authorization” after just a few weeks of testing.
Two years after introduction of these purported pharmaceutical wonders, vaccinated young athletes are suddenly dropping dead of heart failure from a condition called myocarditis. There has also been an increase in the frequency of pericarditis (heart inflammation). Other serious conditions reported are blood-clotting disorders, Bell’s Palsy, Guillainé-Barr Syndrome and anaphylaxis. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a publicly available database, shows a cumulative total of 1,494,382 adverse events as of December 30, 2022 – including a shocking 36,849 deaths, 37,685 life-threatening events and 64,493 permanent disabilities – associated with receiving the Covid-19 vaccines.
The many “rare” side effects: Official U.S. data show that serious adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccines keep piling up, including more than 36,000 deaths. (Source of table: CDC/VAERS)Despite this U.S. experience and a recent statement by Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Theresa Tam, that Covid-19 has reached a “steady state,” provincial health authorities continue to urge multiple booster shots, claiming the health risks from contracting Covid-19 are higher than the so-called “rare” side effects. Most worrisome is the push to vaccinate children as young as five, with no way of determining the vulnerability of their young bodies to DNA-altering drugs.
That brings us back to Justin Trudeau’s vindictive and medically baseless attack on unvaccinated truckers that ignited the Truckers’ Convoy in the first place.
The Emergencies Act requires a judge be appointed to hold hearings and determine whether the “sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada” were threatened when the Act was invoked, i.e., whether use of this repressive law was necessary and justified. After conducting extensive hearings and writing a 2,000-page report, the investigating judge “reluctantly” determined that it was. That comes as little surprise since the Act, perversely, specifies that the judge be selected by the Prime Minister – the very person who chose to impose it.
Justice Paul Rouleau “reluctantly” determined the use of the Emergencies Act was justified, hardly surprising since the Act specifies the judge picked to review its use be chosen by the Prime Minister – the very person who imposed it. (Source of left photo: The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)
The “elephant in the room” unmentioned in any of those 2,000 pages is that the Prime Minister had prompted the truckers’ protest by maliciously imposing vaccination mandates he knew would throw them out of work if they failed to comply. Thankfully, the judge’s ruling is only administrative and doesn’t bind Canada’s courts.
Separate applications to the Federal Court of Canada have been filed by the Canadian Constitution Foundation and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, organizations whose mission is to defend the fundamental freedoms of Canadians. It will be those judges – and, perhaps ultimately, the nine justices of the Supreme Court of Canada – who will determine whether the Prime Minister’s declaration of the Emergencies Act met the legal conditions of a threat to the “sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada.”
And whether the Prime Minister’s divisive, dictatorial agenda will prevail.
Gwyn Morgan is a retired business leader who was a director of five global corporations. Source of main image: The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld.