Canada, Covid-19, and Cold Hard Cash
Canada, Covid-19, and Cold Hard Cash
What started out as a few protesting truckers turned into millions of Canadians and people around the world, putting their vocal and financial support behind the Freedom Convoy.
Some of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make.
-Lord Farquad, Shrek
Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
-Wesley to Princess Buttercup, The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
We’ll have another pandemic. It will be a different pathogen next time.
-Bill Gates at Munich Security Conference 2022
You may be wondering why an article about Canada, Covid-19, and Cold Hard Cash would start with quotes from fictional characters, followed by Bill Gates. Allow me to explain.
Last post I highlighted the Freedom Convoy in Canada – truckers going to Ottawa to peacefully protest in front of Parliament for the removal of all Covid mandates – specifically the vaccine mandate for truckers. What started out as a few protesting truckers turned into millions of Canadians and people around the world, putting their vocal and financial support behind the Freedom Convoy.
There was no violence or vandalism during the three weeks the truckers blocked central Ottawa, with thousands of Canadians joining them on foot to protest each weekend. There were no attacks on police, no cars burned, no windows broken in businesses, no burnings of city blocks, no theft, no assaults, no attempt to enter the adjacent Parliament building, no crime. Just parking violations, honking horns, and a general “Canada Day” atmosphere. Also, there was no attempt by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, or even by Mayor Jim Watson of Ottawa, to meet with the truckers and discuss their concerns. No, instead on February 14 a frustrated Trudeau instituted martial law by invoking the never before used 1988 Emergencies Act, formerly the War Measures Act.
Trudeau said it was necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act to “strengthen and support law enforcement agencies at all levels across the country.” Right. Because grandmas delivering muffins, children giving truckers flowers and thank you cards, truckers shoveling snow, and citizens fueling trucks are really, really dangerous. Over the previous weekend law enforcement had already reopened blocked border crossings along the Ambassador Bridge and other locations, mostly without incident.
One of Trudeau’s “temporary measures” was to begin tracking crowdfunding platforms and cryptocurrencies as part of Canada’s anti-money laundering and terrorist financing measures. But Finance Minister Chyrstia Freeland said legislation to make that change permanent would be introduced.
“The scope of these measures,” Trudeau said, “will be time limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are made to address…This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting people’s jobs, and restoring confidence in our institutions.” (Interesting to note that Trudeau and the truckers seemed to have the same goals, but Trudeau apparently doesn’t fathom that his government’s Covid mandates are undermining all three.)
Trudeau said the Emergencies Act was not being used to call in the military, override the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, limit freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, or the right to protest legally. “We are reinforcing the principles, values, and institutions that keep all Canadians free.”
“Big Brother is watching you. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.” (Now seems a good moment to use a few slogans from George Orwell’s 1984.)
Trudeau was not content just to bring in scores of police in full riot gear and begin smashing truck windows, beating protestors and journalists, and hitting them with pepper spray and rubber bullets. Apparently people carrying Canadian flags were targeted. Checkpoints were set up so protestors could not come into Ottawa by vehicle or on foot. Tow truck drivers who had refused to remove trucks, were compelled to assist the state against their will.
Trudeau gave the federal government power to cancel insurance on the trucks, and cancel their license plates and registration. But the most frightening of all, Trudeau instructed banks to immediately freeze the accounts of those involved in the protest, and of anyone who assisted the protestors.
The protestors were a nuisance and Trudeau thought they expressed “unacceptable ideas,” so he squashed the opposing voices, as any good tyrant in a communistic country would do. Think Tiananmen Square, itty bitty style.
But since Canada isn’t a communist country, it didn’t go quite like Trudeau planned. For one thing, his Orwellian 1984-style assurances of how Canadians should feel safe in their Charter rights didn’t comfort people, and it undermined confidence in banks, with people making massive withdrawals. Five major banks went offline on February 16, two days after Trudeau’s Emergencies Act, preventing customers from using e-Transfers, online banking, and mobile banking services.
The interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell announced on February 20, five days after the Emergencies Act was invoked, “If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges….You have my commitment that the investigation will continue and we will hold people accountable for taking our streets over.”
So much for the right to peaceably assemble, the right to free speech, and the right to protest. Oh, and the right to carry a Canadian flag and sing the national anthem, which the peaceful protestors did – a lot.
The House, dominated by Trudeau’s party, approved passage of the Emergencies Act on February 21, but rumblings were the Senate was not poised to approve it. Senator Pierre Dalphond, a Trudeau appointee and former judge, announced on February 23 that he would be voting against the Emergencies Act because he believed it to be a violation of sec. 8 of the Charter’s guarantee of the “right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.”
On February 23, nine days after invoking the act, Trudeau revoked the Emergencies Act, stating that the situation was “no longer an emergency.”
Too late. Canadians have now realized that the federal government, without due process, can reach right into their your life and shut it down. Supposedly the frozen bank accounts were just those of truckers, but multiple Canadians who had donated small amounts to the truckers, contacted their representatives in Parliament because their accounts had been frozen. When questioned, Finance Assistant Deputy Minister Isabelle Jacques said, “We had to take extreme measures to freeze the accounts to basically discourage people to fund illegal activities.”
Perhaps Trudeau’s and Freeland’s visible takeover of peaceful protestors’ bank accounts unwittingly trod on the toes of someone working on a bigger picture.
Back on January 30, 2019 Neil Parmenter, then President of the Canadian Banker’s Association (CBA), gave a speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto. Parmenter talked about “convenience through technology,” and the need for a “Federated digital ID system between government and the private sector.”
Following is a video released by the CBA, with Parmenter as spokesperson. Parmenter explains, “A federated digital ID ecosystem – developed in collaboration with Canada’s best and brightest talent from our banks, telecommunications companies, law enforcement and government” would have the “power and security to store every Canadian’s electronic identity and attributes” in one place. Parmenter promotes the digital ID as, “A fast, easy and secure way to bank, signup for government services, renew driver’s licenses or health cards, shop, travel, and more.”
Parmenter states that the World Economic Forum agrees that banks and financial institutions should “lead the path forward for digital ID,” because “banks are highly regulated and trusted.”
Maybe not so much now, as far as that trust part goes in Canada.
It’s interesting to think about concepts like trust, privacy, freedom, and security in relation to who has access to all our personal information. I believe that some citizens in Canada trusted that they could safely assemble to peacefully protest the Federal government’s handling of the Covid response.
On February 23, the same day Trudeau revoked the Emergencies Act, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, under the direction of Gov. Doug Ford, hit 39 trucking companies with seizure orders. The orders revoked the companies’ authority to conduct business in Ontario, due to their participation in the Freedom Convoy. The Ministry didn’t release the truckers’ names “in an effort to preserve future police investigations.” Great. The owners of the companies haven’t even been charged with anything, but their authority to conduct business in Ontario is revoked. Just think what Ontario could have accomplished if only all those truckers already had their World Economic Forum approved digital IDs. If all your information is stored in one place, all it takes is one “click” to shut it all off. Sounds a bit like the Chinese Social Credit system, if you ask me.
So to return to the quotes at the beginning of this post. The political and financial dealings surrounding the Covid pandemic response are overwhelming. The merger of medicine, Big Pharma, Legacy media, tech companies, and government is not pretty, and is not safe. The willingness to destroy the lives of millions of people, in order to achieve “Zero Covid” through lockdowns, masking, restrictions, and vaccines, has enriched many looking for power, influence, and profit.
The pandemic is essentially over, but the harms caused by our pandemic response will carry on for decades. Unless people recognize that we were manipulated and lied to throughout these past two years, we are vulnerable to similar violations by our governments now and in the future.