While recently browsing a used book sale it struck me that pivotal political events from my own lifetime are already relegated to the dusty history section. Indeed it speaks partly to aging. But the already faded book covers make the events feel old, forgotten and irrelevant - like the grainy history films we watched in grade school with bored detachment. Yet the underlying topic they often cover dates back to 500 BC and is an idea at once old, yet entirely modern – that of democracy. And while this word is thrown around by politicians with offhanded casualness, we are increasingly ignoring and abusing it.
Democracy originates from the Greek words demos (people) and kratos (rule or strength), based on the principle that citizens have an active role in the governing of their country through the proxy of elected representatives.
This relies on a basic social contract where we bestow considerable powers on those elected officials with an expectation it will be used for the good of citizens. And that tacit agreement is being severely tested in democracies around the world, including Canada.
Half the world’s countries are now run under a democratic system though democracy in name does not mean the same in action, with examples like the Democratic Republic of Congo and former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). And we further know that citizen voting does not automatically confer democracy, as we see its façade in places like Russia (calling themselves a sovereign democracy).
The United States is the world’s oldest democracy and even it has been under great strain in recent years, no longer at the pinnacle of this coveted form of government. And while many Canadians cling to a notion of democratic superiority we fool ourselves into believing Canada remains a shining beacon, and blind to the implications of it eroding beneath us.
Perhaps as important to note - democracy is no guarantee of freedom, even though we often use those two words interchangeably. And Canada is disturbingly proving this to be true.
Covid exposed how insidiously freedom and democratic processes can be lost.
It shocks many of us that the lockdown of citizens, unilateral shuttering of all but chosen businesses, and forced vaccine injection mandates still don’t register on all Canadians as monstrous affronts to our basic freedoms. And while the Emergency Measures Act (EMA) skates by on the thinnest of constitutional ice, it leaves little dispute for being grossly undemocratic in spirit.
What most don’t know is the governing Liberals attempted an even greater anti-democratic power grab during early Covid days, as they attempted to punch through a bill in March 2020 allowing them nearly two years of unrestricted emergency tax and spend measures without parliamentary debate. Thankfully, the Conservatives opposed this authoritarian overreach. It was shades of the 2001 US Patriot Act when the Bush government leveraged palpable fear after 9/11 to pass the most serious security legislation since the 1947 National Security Act.
History proves repeatedly that fear mixed with savvy messaging can cause even the most steadfast to cower or acquiesce. And each instance of overreach strengthens the precedent for the next time.
Our democracy is pressured not only by domestic forces, but increasingly from unelected, quasi-political international bodies like the UN, WHO and WEF. For example, with still no public inquiry or debate on Covid measures as addressed in Post 29 | Covid Inquiry and WHO Pandemic X Treaty, we are exposed to greater abuse of freedoms the next time. And Canada is about to blithely sign the WHO treaty even as other countries push back against its sovereign overstep.
Meanwhile we are increasingly influenced by the UN as addressed in Post 24 | UN Agenda 2030, and various posts have referenced the outsized influence on Justin Trudeau’s government of the unelected World Economic Forum (WEF). These powerful external bodies have influenced our health, environmental, fiscal and cultural policy to an alarming extent.
The latest uppercut to democracy is the recent bombshell that an undefined number of our MPs and Senators colluded with or enabled foreign governments including China and India for their personal electoral benefit. The word treason has appropriately been levelled.
Be reminded that the 2023 inquiry by Trudeau-appointed David Johnston was to investigate allegations of interference by China, Russia and other foreign states in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections. Johnston’s summary findings declared there was no need for a public inquiry, effectively telling us – There’s nothing to see here, folks.
Nevertheless, a Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions was then set up and led by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue. Her interim findings acknowledged security gaps and the ignoring of foreign interference, but still offered the government a pass regarding intentionality – ignorance being accepted as an excuse outside the courtroom.
Both reports offered platitudes equivalent to we must do better; anything that occurred was unintentional; and nothing changed the ultimate election results. Whew - well at least if China, India and Russia didn’t directly put Trudeau in the PM’s chair, then we should just sit back and relax…?
This further escalated two weeks ago with release of the Special Report on Foreign Interference in Canada’s Democratic Processes assembled by the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICP). The report was provided to Trudeau on March 22, then edited and tabled in Parliament June 3 - another two months’ wasted. It was based on 33,000 pages of classified documents and accepted by all parties and both houses of government, telling a tale of scandalous and treasonous behaviour. And this, despite the committee having been restricted from seeing as many as 1000 unreleased documents.
While many details are withheld in this publicly redacted version, it moves beyond the charge of foreign governments meddling in our elections to a certainty that some elected members colluded with them, accepting money or favours in return for information. The 92-page report states that some MPs or Senators are, “in the words of the intelligence services, ‘semi-witting or witting’ participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in our politics.” And it acknowledges that confidences betrayed and information provided was done “knowing… that such information will be used … to inappropriately pressure them”. In the carefully scrubbed world of government nothing-speak overseen by the PMO and PCO, these are monstrous charges.
It appears this will now be punted back to Commissioner Hogue for further investigation. Expectations are exceedingly low that it will lead to names and misdeeds being disclosed. Key information will be withheld under the guise of national security and Cabinet privilege, either restricting or permitting witnesses to say little of value. Presumably the RCMP will be involved but doubtful charges will ever be laid.
Like all past scandals it will cost millions over months or years only to fade into more dusty history books, though its corrosive effect on democracy will continue eating away. That the government is refusing to make available the names of the implicated members under the guise of confidentiality and due process is defendable at some levels - were it not for our utter lack of trust in the governing Liberals to be doing anything more than protecting their self interest at the expense of Canada.
More poignantly, I note the same courtesy was not extended to the 280 Trucker Convoy participants and supporters whose bank accounts were frozen without judicial order or due process and whose confidentiality was not protected. Meanwhile, key organizers continue fighting against years of potential jail time. All this because a group of people - called hardworking Canadians by politicians only when it suits them - pushed back loudly and demonstrably on nonsensical and anti-democratic mandates. Because you may not have liked the cut of their jib or their non-effete methods is quite beside the point. They did what so many of us did not…fight for their basic democratic rights.
Meanwhile our overpaid, coddled and protected political class are treated with kid gloves. The double standard is grating.
The scandalous collusion by elected officials is plenty galling. But three other points must be made.
The first is to note how little most Canadians seem to be worked up about this – whether through ignorance, disinterest or fatigue. It seems almost quaint to now recall the 2004 Sponsorgate scandal and resulting Gomery Commission investigating a few million dollars in funds being illegally shuttled to the Liberal party. It had the country atwitter. Or the public outrage at MP Bev Oda’s entitlement as she expensed $16 for orange juice in 2011. In contrast, we now regularly look past tens of millions in outright abuse, billions in mismanagement and will surely now yawn through the most willful security breach in our country’s history – perpetrated by the very officials empowered to protect us.
Meanwhile, Canadians will continue tsk-tsking at the United States’ challenges with democracy and applaud their most recent abuse of political and judicial power to perp walk a former President to the whipping post – while taking little note of the worse offenses in our own country.
The second is to note the breathtaking entitlement of our elected representatives. The question of why they act with such impunity and carelessness is answered simply. Because they can. They have learned that actions lack consequences, emboldened by a leader who has taken entitlement and scandal to heights never seen in Canada. Give them an inch and they take a mile, has been a charge regularly levelled at children. Well the old school cure to this was a spanking…if only.
The third and most important point is to note that we may one day be given some names - whether they be traitors, useful idiots or sacrificial lambs. But that will obscure the bigger issue - that foreign states are actively involved in Canada. Put plainly our sovereignty and national security has been and continues to be imperiled, and leveraging some elected dupes is only one doorway in.
Long gone are the days when only military forces landing on our shores in Red Dawn fashion would be considered an invasion. Access through telecommunications networks, influence through social and other digital media, control of our natural resources, infiltration of financial networks, university research affiliations, influence by quasi-political organizations and powerful lobbies are now only a few of the means by which foreign actors put their fingers on the scales in Canada.
Added to our poorly funded and wokified military, undefended Arctic border and hobbled global standing we are sitting ducks at so many levels.
Our government has not only neglected and allowed the weakening of our sovereignty and security from foreign influences through willful negligence, but actively degraded our fundamental democracy and freedoms through domestic measures. If this doesn’t make Canadians passionately angry at the need for proper leadership, then goodness knows what will.
President Emmanuel Macron in France just called a snap election three years early because his party has drastically lost public support to the point of being nearly ungovernable. Meanwhile in Canada, the fact that the Liberals refuse to call an election or the NDP to force one, is feeling as treasonous as the actions of those currently unnamed MPs who betrayed our country.
Stay tuned and stay pragmatic.
Another great piece. I read this anonymous post this morning that may describe our behaviour as Canadians …
The Lie said to the Truth, "Let's take a bath together, the well water is very nice.
The Truth, still suspicious, tested the water and found out it really was nice. So they got naked and bathed.
But suddenly, the Lie leapt out of the water and fled, wearing the clothes of the Truth.
The Truth, furious, climbed out of the well to get her clothes back.
But the World, upon seeing the naked Truth, looked away, with anger and contempt.
Poor Truth returned to the well and disappeared forever, hiding her shame.
Since then, the Lie runs around the world, dressed as the Truth, and society is very happy..... because the world has no desire to know the naked Truth.
We remain Anonymous