Bernier on trial

The trial for Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada, and dozens of his supporters is now underway in Saskatoon.

Their crime?

Participating in a protest.

Due to the large number of accused, the trial needs to be held at a convention center, rather than a courtroom. In a way, the venue is fitting. The informal setting for this farce helps to formalize the decay of the institutions that are meant to protect, not democracy, but the foundational precepts that allow democracy to exist and thrive.

In the name of ‘public health’, an undercover police officer went to the protest and took pictures of the individuals in question. They were given tickets of up to $2,800 and publicly shamed for daring to exercise a right guaranteed to them by the Charter of Rights, a document that is supposed to be protected by the institution that is currently going to judge them from a rudimentary hotel bench.

The irony is only fitting as later in the year Maxime Bernier’s supporters were also under fire for holding an election night event a couple of days after Saskatchewan enacted a mask mandate. Despite a total of zero cases after the event, the police began to post pictures of attendees on their website's wanted list and the ‘free press’ began to direct people in the province to that list in order to help the police identify these ‘villains’.

For context, currently, the top hits on Saskatoon’s wanted list are for first degree murder, aggravated assault, unlawful confinement…. you get the picture. The police do not usually issue press releases for crimes less dangerous than jaywalking

For further context, the Saskatchewan man who murdered 10 people and injured 18 more in a stabbing rampage had a warrant issued for his arrest a month before the election night event. Despite the man having 125 crimes on record, including *cough* assault with a knife, there were no press releases and the media did not pick up the story. I would be shocked if anyone could dig up his picture on any police website from when the warrant was issued.

While one might argue that the Saskatchewan RCMP is different from the Saskatoon police, both are two peas of the same pod. They would rather dedicate police resources to scope out thought crime than real crime, then later complain that they can’t investigate real crime due to fiscal constraints.

Why?

Because at the end of the day, the crimes that a democracy with weak institutions aim to prevent are those that threaten the instability of those institutions. Because if the institutions were once again strengthened, say, then those that benefit from weak institutions would necessarily find themselves on a police wanted list. And not for jaywalking.