Really?
Marco Mendicino has a lot to say about democracy, and what supposedly threatens it.
Here’s what Mendicino said, following some isolated incidents of people acting in an unacceptable manner towards some politicians and members of the press:
“We are seeing more and more incidents, particularly involving women, involving racialized people, involving Indigenous peoples. And I don’t think this is a coincidence. The threats that we see don’t only impact the individuals, their families and their teams. It represents a threat to our democracy.”
Certainly, intimidation of public officials – regardless of their political stripe – is wrong. And, as much as the establishment press damages the country and does the bidding of the government, the best response to that is to support independent media and help change the media landscape, rather than harassing or threatening individual reporters.
Of course, we already know that the vast majority of Canadians believe that. Most Canadians are peaceful and support change through the political system – as flawed and broken as it is – since we know that the alternative is violence, and nobody wants that.
The Trudeau Liberals however are desperate to make it appear that there is some massive cadre of people who are threatening politicians and journalists, rather than some isolated incidents that should be dealt with through the legal system.
Further, for the Trudeau government to talk about ‘threats to democracy’ is the height of hypocrisy.
And of all the Trudeau cabinet officials, Marco Mendicino may be the least qualified to talk about this at all.
Marco Mendicino repeatedly said that the police asked for the Emergencies Act.
They didn’t.
He lied.
Then, his office tried to pass off the lie as a “misunderstanding.”
Except, he repeated it over and over again, and it’s even on video:
Public Safety Minister @marcomendicino's office is now claiming he was misunderstood when he said police advised the Liberal government to use the Emergencies Act
Here's a clip of him saying exactly that about a dozen times in the House of Commons
What's there to misunderstand? pic.twitter.com/Taf71NEC8v
— Cosmin Dzsurdzsa 🇷🇴 (@cosminDZS) June 8, 2022
Mendicino lied about other things as well.
He claimed that it was Freedom Convoy participants who tried to set an Ottawa apartment on fire.
The police made it clear that was not the case, publicly and repeatedly.
Mendicino said it anyway.
Lying to justify a massive abuse of power
So, let us ask ourselves this:
What is a bigger threat to democracy?
Some angry Canadians yelling at/threatening some politicians and members of the media (which is totally unacceptable of course).
Or, a government public safety minister using lies to justify a massive abuse of government power that led – among other things – to Canadians having their bank accounts seized.
Hmm…
I think we know the answer here.
The actions of the Trudeau government are largely responsible for the level of anger and division we see in Canada today, and their combination of authoritarian governance, economic mismanagement, and total hypocrisy will only deepen the anger many Canadians are feeling.
Spencer Fernando
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