By David Solway
An American friend writes me that conditions in her country could not be worse. The good are increasingly persecuted and abused by the bad and the ugly. I reply that, yes, Americans think they have it bad — and they do. But if they want to see how far and fast the dregs of the so-called “social order” can rise to the top and the best sink to the bottom, I invite them to visit Canada.
Of course, we all suffer from the same derecho of adversarial forces: Big Government, Big Tech, Big Pharma, and Big Media, as well as myopic and corrupt leadership at every level. But in Canada, there are no provinces (with the partial and insecure exception of Saskatchewan) analogous to the “red states” in the U.S. where sanity and liberty yet prevail and government answers to the people. Residents of “blue states” can decamp for “fresh woods and pastures new,” but we have no such option.
Moreover, the great majority of Canadian voters, unlike their American counterparts, are dutifully complicit with autocratic government ordinances. Witness the recent election in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, which returned the grim and oppressive government of vulgarian Doug Ford with an increased majority. There is scarcely any need here to rig an election.
The evidence for autocratic rule and economic destabilization is everywhere around us. The destruction of Canadian values and economic viability is no accident with little relief in sight. It’s all part of the plan to assert and establish a demagogic regime in what was once a liberal democracy.
A short list:
Censorship: Bill C-261 is now before parliament proposing to convict Canadians of “hate crime” in advance of its commission before they have even broken the law, let alone knowing what the law precisely covers. Bills proposing Internet restrictions are also before parliament. One must go to China and North Korea to find comparable dystopian legislation and practice.