Let’s make government misrule illegal instead

Vincent J. Curtis

22 Mar 22

RE: Ontario bill aimed at tackling border blockades.  Holly McKenzie-Sutter, The Canadian Press.

RE: Restrictions set to life at U.S.-Canada border crossing.  Jennifer Moore, The Hamilton Spectator.  22 Mar 22.

The government seems to have no problem with shutting down border crossing whenever they fell like it.  Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of COVID.  It doesn’t matter whose livelihoods they harm, if the government decides to shut down border crossing, that’s okay.

But don’t let anybody else try to do it, like in protest against government misrule.  Shutting down border crossing by truckers in February was in protest against especially ridiculous COVID rules that made no sense to anyone except the tyrants imposing them.  People’s livelihoods were in jeopardy if they didn’t comply with the tyrants commands.  Turn the government’s tactics on it, and suddenly there needs to be a law against it.

Not every protest is Marxist inspired.  Not every protest is simply to spread chaos or let off steam.  What made the truckers’ protests so dangerous to the government was that it was by serious people, for a serious purpose, and it was sustained.  These kinds of protests are the most dangerous to the government because they point unequivocally to government misrule, and misrule is something the government cannot admit to. (How many times did we hear, “They’ve made their point, now they should go home”?  Making a point wasn’t the purpose of the protest; it was to change a government policy, and until it changed, the protest would continue.  That’s called, redressing a grievance.)

The Ontario bill is intended to make certain emergency measures permanent, and that too is a dangerous sign.  Oh, it’s all well intended, until it gets abused.

Cutting off peaceful but effective means of protest precisely because it’s effective isn’t good for democracy.  Eventually, the only effective means of protest left are unpeaceful ones.

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