The world has forgotten the promise of “Never Again” and the warning signs of the 1930’s that led up to WW2.
The dangers started from within when democratically elected leaders used legislation to centralize and concentrate power by dismantling democracy and civil liberties.
Intolerance and fear propaganda to gain support was a key warning sign. Journalists and the press were called the “lying press”. Books were banned, pulled off library shelves and were burned in public spectacles. Scientific facts That contradicted government ideology were also dismissed as lies,
The installation of party loyalists and ideologues in key government positions where the only qualification was loyalty was emblematic of these governments.
These authoritarian governments received massive financing and backing from wealthy corporations and industrialists. It became hard to tell the difference.
We have all seen the danger signs watching the Trump administration. This couldn’t possibly happen here in Canada, could it? It is.
Fear and Intolerance against immigrants and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, particularly the transgendered community, are being fanned by politicians.
In 2024 Conservatives across the country promoted intolerance and fear against the transgendered. Why?
Transgendered people represent only a very tiny fraction of the population. Why are they a problem now? It was done because Conservatives saw it helped gain more support in the US.
Amnesty International denounced Conservative messaging as “dangerous”.
Books in Canada are quietly being purged from our libraries and schools in the name of protecting children.
Canada’s Notwithstanding clause was designed to be used only under exceptional circumstances. The clause has repeatedly been used by governments to concentrate more power, increasingly being used by Conservative governments to bypass democratic rights and freedoms and keep their far right evangelical and heritage supporters happy.
Across the country governments have installed loyalists in key government positions.
Premiers Danielle Smith, Scott Moe, Doug Ford and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre have all called factual news reporting “fake news”.
Poilievre also called government watchdogs who guard the public interest “fake jobs.”
At the same time these governments have passed legislation limiting access to information. Ontario being the prime example, where Ford’s legislation retroactively banned all freedom of information requests for himself and his ministers.
Corporations are quietly gaining more control over governments with their donor financing,slowly erasing the line between government and the uber wealthy.
The dangers
There are great dangers to our democracy by claims of “fake news,” the installation of loyalists and the legislated secrecy of corporate donations.
Once fake news becomes normalized, accountability loses its evidence fact-based foundation.
Citizens cannot vote against misconduct if every source of verification is condemned as false.
The problem of installing loyalists is when loyalty becomes more important than competence and independence. We lose trained, knowledgeable, skilled, inspectors, civil servants, and watchdogs who can say no.
The Canadian access-to-information problem is critically important. When journalists and citizens have to wait months or years for records, or receive documents so heavily redacted public scrutiny becomes impossible. We still hold elections but Government policy and access increasingly belong to a concentration of wealthy corporate donors.
Why is it okay for the wealthy to be organized but not okay for working people to organized into unions?
The biggest problem is once authoritarian power is gained far worse people can come into power and take far worse actions. The real questions are can Canadian democratic institutions survive when political actors use legal tools to dismantle democracy? Can we survive the political use of wealthy donor networks and their information control to gain excessive power?
We now face an even more existential threat to our economy and sovereignty from Trump. Carney was elected to put his “Elbows Up” against Trump. Now it’s time for another hockey analogy. Now it’s Time to drop the gloves
Much stronger action than retaliatory tariffs are required. The best defense it is said is a strong offence. Americans cannot live without electricity, natural gas, oil and potash fertilizer to grow food. Cut off all electricity, natural gas, oil and potash exports to the US. Danielle Smith will take a hissy fit trying to protect her oil oligarchs who fund and control her. Too bad for her, this is a very serious attack and very serious action needs to be taken.
Trump and his band of billionaires are an existential threat to many thousands of jobs in Canada and our economy. It couldn’t be clearer and Canadians will definitely support those actions. Starting with switching off electricity to the US. Cutting off all energy exports to the US will drive up rates, particularly the price of gasoline, arguably the most politically sensitive issue in the US. Causing the price of gasoline to rise even higher will drive poll numbers for Trump even lower for the upcoming midterms, a smart and powerful thing for Carney to do.
Yes, these are very scary times but we cannot be in denial or silence. Democracy is easy to dismantle and hard to build. We need to do the hard work of rebuilding our democracy to ward off the authoritarian danger from both from the US and from within. Starting with the hard work of abolishing the notwithstanding clause that has been used to take away rights and dismantle our democracy. Not only is it time to go back to elbows up. Now it’s time to drop the gloves.
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