Police dogs are turned onto protesters by order of “Bull” Connor during a Civil Rights demonstration, Birmingham, Alabama, May 3, 1963

He’s using the same arguments that segregationists did to oppose the ’50s and ’60s protests for civil rights

As someone who was alive during the ’50s and ’60s civil rights protests for racial equality, I’m stunned by the similarity of the anti-democratic tactics Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is using against the trucker’s Freedom Convoy and those of the archetype segregationist and white supremicist Bull Connor.

No, Trudeau hasn’t unleashed attack dogs and fire hoses on the truckers as Connor did in the early 1960s against protestors who were marching against legal racial segregation. But what Trudeau is doing is more sinister, hurtful, significant and possibly long-lasting than Connor’s horrifying attacks.

For the majority of Americans who weren’t around then and the far-left wokesters whose ideas about American historiy are fanciful, Connor’s tactics were so ghastly that they turned the tide of public opinion and cleared the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Like Trudeau, Connor was pissed about a convoy battling for their rights, namely the Freedom Riders who traveled the South demanding enforcement of the Supreme Court’s Boynton v. Virginia that ruled segregated public buses were unconstitutional. Working with the Ku Klux Klan, Connor used violence in an unsuccessful attempt to cement segregation as an American given.

Does Connor’s rationale sound similar in some ways to Trudeau’s excuses for his massive civil rights violations?

As I have said on numerous occasions, we are not going to stand for this in Birmingham. And if necessary we will fill the jail full and we don’t care whose toes we step on. I am saying now to these meddlers from out of our city the best thing for them to do is stay out if they don’t want to get slapped in jail. Our people of Birmingham are a peaceful people and we never have any trouble here unless some people come into our city looking for trouble. And I’ve never seen anyone yet look for trouble who wasn’t able to find it.

In Chicago, I vividly recall the anger aimed at “outsiders” (including nuns) who marched for equal rights, shutting down that Great Street, State Street. Mayor Richard J. Daley ranted against the “outside trouble makers.” Opponents charged that demonstrations were infringing on the rights of others and were endangering livelihoods and commerce. The demonstrations were peaceful until the yippee lunatics descended on the city with their efforts to disrupt the 1968 Democratic Convention.

With all the warnings from the left about how the right is killing democracy, why is it blind to Trudeau’s egregious assault on civil liberties. Trudeau invoked the never-used Emergency Act that allows him to impose virtual martial law to address “an urgent and critical situation” that “seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians”. 

That refers to four possible scenarios:

Espionage or sabotageForeign-influenced activities Threats or use of acts of serious violence for political, religious or ideological objectives Covert, unlawful acts intended to undermine or overthrow the constitutionally established government

The BBC concludes:

It is so far unclear which scenario Mr Trudeau would rely on to justify the use of the Emergency Act – none of these four scenarios have been clearly present in Ontario. 

The prime minister has broad, autocratic-like powers under the act, including deploying the Canadian military against Canadian citizens. (Ask the American Founders what that was like.) Which means, I suppose, that he could do worse damage than freezing individual bank accounts without due process. Or shutting down GoFundMe donations in the millions of dollars given to support the protests.

The left, of course, will accuse the right of being hypocritical for supporting the truckers while condemning the protests supporting Black Lives Matter.

That’s bunk. The truckers’ protest has not degenerated into violence like the summer of love protests did. The truckers haven’t attacked federal facilities, like the antifa rioters did or the June 6 rioters who attacked the Capitol (where most of the protests were peaceful).

In the 60s, the American federal government acted to protect civil rights, including the right to protest. In the 2022s, the Canadian federal government is acting to strip its citizens of their rights.

In Canada, we can witness what actually happens to democracy, instead of imagining it.

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