Show Notes
By Joe Duffus
Peter Schweizer is back in the office and the podcast topic this week, only coincidentally, is authoritarian regimes.
With the world emerging from the pandemic, more people are noticing the politicians who were foolishly given “emergency powers,” and used them to let their Mussolini flag fly – like Justin Trudeau, Canada’s youthful-looking, left-leaning prime minister.
Trudeau ignored the Canadian provinces that tried to repeal their own mask mandates, instead imposing them nationally. Trudeau crippled the Canadian trucking industry with harsh Covid vaccine regulations on the drivers who supply the goods and services Canada both needs and produces. Then, he responded to their “Freedom Convoy” protests in Ottawa with armed police, beatdowns of protesters, and by encouraging Canadian banks to freeze the accounts of people they suspect have contributed to the truckers’ cause.
The same Justin Trudeau who was asked in 2013 what other country he admired, and replied, “There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China. Because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and saying, ‘We need to go greenest fastest, we need to start, you know, investing in solar.’”
As Eric notes, after the communist dictator Fidel Castro died, Trudeau mourned, “It is with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of Cuba’s longest serving President. Fidel Castro was a larger-than-life leader who served his people for almost half a century. A legendary revolutionary and orator, Mr. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of his island nation.”
Peter says “tyrants operate by ascribing pure motives to what they do. Even Hitler tried to claim his actions were in the name of justice for the German people.”
Only one other Canadian prime minister in history has invoked “emergency powers.” That was Justin’s father, Pierre Trudeau, who invoked the “War Measures Act” in 1970 after two diplomats were kidnapped by a Quebec separatist group. That led to the arrest of nearly 500 people — the vast majority were never charged with any crime — and to thousands of warrantless searches in Quebec.
The “Emergencies Act” that Justin Trudeau invoked weeks ago is the legal successor to the previous law.
The great political philosopher Montesquieu once wrote, “There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.”
Peter says, “The only way to check authoritarian impulses is by being firm and relentless in standing up for your rights.”
