The nice thing about having a mask on

Trudeau rescinding the Emergencies Act changes nothing. Just as him invoking the Emergencies Act meant nothing.

That may seem like a strange argument to make given the last few days, but all the same, the Act caused me little concern. I saw it as purely a public opinion move, an attention grab, and a chance for a vote of confidence in Parliament. Frankly, the freedom convoy has embarrassed Trudeau, not only in the eyes of Canadians, but on the world stage. By immediately labeling the convoy participants as unacceptables (why not deplorables, Justin?), Trudeau backed himself into a corner where he had no choice but to continue doubling down on idiotic policies that a large number of Canadians are tired of. After Trudeau’s initial dismissal of the convoy, the protests could have only ended in two ways: either in a vote of no confidence against our little aristocrat or in a fiery government overreach.

It was my presumption that, in the absence of further government overreach, all provinces would eventually open up and leave Trudeau holding the ball on the entire pandemic debacle, despite the fact that all the premiers participated in the last two years of insanity. We got about half way there before Trudeau decided to pull his Emergencies Act stunt.

The stunt served a dual purpose for Trudeau, he wisely planted the idea in people’s heads that the vote on the Act was about confidence in his ability to govern. This most certainly had little or no effect on the vote. Most Liberals would lock-step either way and Jagmeet Singh and the NDP have lacked scruples since Jack Layton passed. But it served as a useful propaganda piece for Trudeau’s bought and paid for media outlets. Because, you see, invoking the Act was truly about inspiring his base. He needs them to think of him as a strong, competent leader, who has the full confidence of the government, but he also needs to make it look like he is taking action and punishing the unbelievers.

His base will ignore the fact that he has destroyed the reputation of Canadian banks both at home and abroad. Banking is a business that relies entirely on trust. People are literally giving their life savings to strangers when they use banks. If those strangers are willing to refuse a person access to their own money, then who in their right mind would want anything to do with them? Banks do not even freeze money for high crimes like murder or rape. There are very few instances in which intelligent people would accept a bank acting in the way they have and these protests were not one of those instances.

Yes, some people may have been in favor of the bank freezes, but I bet even some of the people that wanted the protesters to be part of some cruel form of collective punishment wound up pulling their money out of Canadian banks. Trudeau, for his part, probably did not understand the ramifications. Strangely, Freeland who is smart enough to know better, spearheaded the move. She may have done so because she is smart enough to know better yet is ruled by ulterior motives.

Whatever the case, Trudeau circled back on that decision incredibly fast; whether it was due to pressure from the banks or the realization that even Canadian courts would be unlikely to uphold bank freezes on single mothers is besides the point. The damage done to consumer trust is as irreversible as the vaccine. But as I said, his base probably loved him freezing accounts and using the Act. These are the same people that swear there have been no rights violations at this point.

But I digress, the Act is of little concern. In reality, it provides the Trudeau government with little in the way of expanded power because they have been violating the Charter of Rights without any push-back for two freakin’ years. Does anyone truly believe a government willing to act with reckless abandon for that long gains any extra powers by going through some arbitrary legal show of power? Need I remind everyone, the entire purpose of the freedom convoy is because the government has been acting far outside the bounds of the law for such a long time.

As for Trudeau rescinding the Act shortly before it would have died in the Senate, it allows him to declare victory while avoiding questions from his base about whether he made the right choice. The absolute contempt that the Trudeau government has shown for the process is best exemplified by Trudeau appointed Senator Marc Gold taking questions during today’s debate. When asked if he would like to continue taking questions (on the Emergencies Act), he continually replied “with great pleasure”.

Senator Donald Plett of the opposition, in a statement that is contextually perfect, pointedly noted, “That’s the nice thing about having a mask on, Senator Gold. You could not say that with a straight face, ‘with great pleasure’”. One does not have to think hard about why the Trudeau government might prefer wearing masks. It saves them a trouble of having to lie with straight faces.