More On the Canadian Disease
What is happening in Canada right now is shocking:
The disease destroying Canada right now is liberalism in general – and Trudeau in particular. The despicable treatment of the freedom convoy there by various leaders tells us all we need to know about liberalism – it is not only a mental illness, but it is a kissing cousin of fascism.
When you have heavily armed militia with fingers on the triggers of their assault weapons staring down toddlers playing on jumping castles, you know we are seeing the end of democracy and the rise of full tilt tyranny. When governments can freeze the bank accounts of peaceful freedom marchers, you know we are seeing the end of democracy and the rise of full tilt tyranny.
When the state can take pets away from the protesters and have them destroyed, you know we are seeing the end of democracy and the rise of full tilt tyranny. When you have leaders calling lovers of liberty a fringe minority of terrorists and white racists, you know we are seeing the end of democracy and the rise of full tilt tyranny.
When police use pepper spray, horses and clubs against unarmed protesters, you know we are seeing the end of democracy and the rise of full tilt tyranny. When you have Trudeau telling the convoy that they are interrupting people’s normal lives and stopping everyday business, when he has been doing exactly that to the Canadians for the past two years, you know we are seeing the end of democracy and the rise of full tilt tyranny.
When you have the government preventing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell from bringing in pillows to the truckers, you know we are seeing the end of democracy and the rise of full tilt tyranny. When you have people being forced out of their jobs because of Statist dictates, you know we are seeing the end of democracy and the rise of full tilt tyranny.
Or to paraphrase one social media post, when ‘we have the names of the people who contributed to the trucker’s convoy, but not the names of Ghislaine Maxwell’s customers,’ you know we are seeing the end of democracy and the rise of full tilt tyranny.
Never in my long life have I seen Western democracies so rapidly and so decisively descend into the stuff of dystopian novels. This is utterly shocking to behold. It is as if we never had Germany in the 30s and 40s to learn any lessons from. It is as if the past two years have appeared in a vacuum, with nothing in the past to give us any hints as to what might happen, and how we might proceed.
Yesterday I penned a piece by two commentators asking why the churches have been so silent on this plunge into dictatorship. Today I want to feature two more articles that also raise some very important points. Owen Strachan has said this:
Before there were the Canadian truckers, there were the Canadian pastors.
In case the preceding sentence is strange to you, here’s what has been happening in Canada lately. Truckers from across the nation streamed into Ottawa a week or two ago. They did so in order to peacefully protest the loss of liberties. Under the guise of COVID policy, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has altered the very nature of citizenship in Canada. Vaccine mandates, forced closure of all manner of institutions, and vaccine passports have meant that Canadians have suffered tremendously as they watched their freedoms dwindle. In the name of fighting a (real) virus, a once-great nation has fallen to its knees.
But it has not stayed there. The truckers have fought back. They have shown that the light of the West — freedom for the individual — has not gone out. Putting their livelihoods on the line, the truckers have acted as men must in the face of massive civilizational threat: boldly. They have not torched Ottawa or anywhere else. They have not caused violence and mayhem. Unlike the riots of the summer of 2020 — riots fomented by Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and the mainstream media’s coverage, the winter of 2022 has featured protest of a peaceful kind. The truckers have given the world an example of how to advocate for liberty and defy tyranny — tyranny of a distinctly Trudeauian kind.
Call it “champagne tyranny,” for although Canada’s foremost political leader projects a cosmopolitan air, if you look beneath the half-smile and the flowing locks, you see an emerging totalitarian. The truckers have defied “champagne tyranny.” They were not the first to do so in Canada, however. Starting in the summer of 2020, Ontario pastor Jacob Reaume saw that he could not fail to gather his people for congregational worship. The flock of Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo needed the Word and the gospel. Sermonettes on Zoom and text messages to one another would not cut it. Reaume’s conscience told him that remotely gathering over Zoom was no substitute for the gathered church (Hebrews 10:25). Reaume knew instinctively what John MacArthur has proclaimed: “There is no such thing as a Zoom church.”
He concludes:
Men like Mike Hovland, Steve Richardson, Aaron Rock, Joseph Boot, Samuel Sey, and Steve Bainbridge have put themselves on record as those who will not bow the knee to champagne tyranny. Still others, like Artur Pawlowski — a Protestant of a different religious stripe than the aforementioned men — have also paid a heavy price for defending religious liberty.
Yet here is something remarkable: the American church has been largely silent about the plight of the Canadian church. Rarely has so much communicative power gone so untapped. Very few pastors, theologians, and religious leaders have supported the persecuted and suffering Canadian church. In America, blessed with huge organizations devoted to the cause of religious liberty and freedom more generally, precious few have spoken in defense of the faithful leaders and congregations of Canada. In fact, over the last couple of years, when Americans (and some Canadians) have spoken up at all about the suffering Canadian pastors, they have done so to oppose them, nitpick their arguments, and generally discourage their bravery.
There is a great more to say about all this. Yet what we should not miss is this: courage is having an effect in Canada, a tremendous effect. It always does. Courage is how movements advance; freedom is what comes from the gospel of Christ, freedom of many kinds. God has done something unprecedented in Canada in recent days, and a nation falling under the shadow of tyranny has awoken. The truckers show us this, as does the massive cross-country opposition to Trudeau’s champagne tyranny.
Truly, at this hour, Trudeau is alone. He is not bolstered by a wave of popular opinion. He who has done so much to mask and muzzle the Canadian people is well and truly unmasked. In his common grace, God has let the world see — in Canada and across the world — the totalitarian nature of modern leftism. It is not “live and let live” as an ideology; it is “do what I say or suffer.”
Here is the story on the ground, then. Canada is not fallen — not yet. Amidst much travail and real suffering, the true Canada is rising. Long may it rise. We ask not for violence or destruction but a return to liberty, human flourishing, and justice. If it is brave truckers who have lately led the way here, know this: before there were the Canadian truckers, there were the Canadian pastors. Man may oppose them, but God is behind them. What is the emblem of the Christian faith, after all? Light has come into the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5). And, we may rightly say, it never will. https://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20220217/brave-truckers
And then this piece discusses some brave Canadian church leaders who are speaking against all this champagne tyranny:
A coalition of Canadian church leaders hammered Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in an open letter earlier this week over his treatment of the Freedom Convoy protesters and handling of COVID-19. Liberty Coalition Canada (LCC), an activist Christian group covering “the breakdown of liberty in Canada” put out an open letter to Trudeau urging the prime minister to drop COVID-19 vaccine mandates and “restore the constitutional freedoms of the people.”
Here is part of that letter:
As such, we as Christian pastors condemn in the strongest possible terms your unprecedented invoking of the Emergency Powers Act (1988) with the intent of bringing unaccountable state power to bear on peaceful citizens – “men women and children” – who have been stripped of their fundamental freedoms for two years and who have in many cases lost everything as a result of your government’s mandates. There is no national emergency and to invoke one to crush peaceful political dissent is a totalitarian act of repression displaying weakness not strength. These tyrannical actions are exposing this government and people to the judgment of God, and we are deeply concerned that you do not appreciate the significance of God’s wrath upon a rebellious and lawless nation. https://www.dailywire.com/news/faith-leaders-hammer-trudeau-you-are-dividing-a-hurting-and-broken-nation
The American satirist and libertarian commentator P. J. O’Rourke, who passed away this week, once put it this way: “At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child — miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of snivelling brats.” One can’t help but think that he presciently had Trudeau and Co. in mind.
[1575 words]
Thanks Bill. Your article starkly points out the rapid descent into the satanic darkness of governance that is worse than anything we’ve seen in the West in our lifetimes, including all the left wing governments who have broken economies and inched their way towards greater and greater government control. This goes far beyond all of that. Canada may be another test case, much like Victoria with leaders who show complete disregard for human life and the misery they’re inflicting on the people. Now is the time for the church to seek God and be strengthened in the Word of God, prayer and obedience. God has much for us to do to be lights in the darkness and showing the only hope that this world will see. Onward Christian soldiers!
Amen Deanne.
Dear Bill,
Thank you for the article.
I heard that a run on the banks in Canada has already started.
Also Archbishop Vigano, the former Vatican envoy to the US has put out a statement supporting the Canadian Truckers but not one word from Pope Francis.He also mentions the Great Reset etc.
As for Biden he seems more interested making sure that a war breaks out with Russia than what is going on on his own doorstep. A deliberate diversion if ever I saw one.
Thanks Patricia.
Hi Bill. I was wondering if it would be OK with you if I glean a few points from your Canadian disease article to do a podcast to address the Silence of the Church in comparison with the truckers, obviously excluding the leaders who have stepped up. Obviously I will mention you as the source. I’m asking you Bill for the sake of conscience. No worries if that’s not OK.
In Christ. Nigel Mohammed
Yes feel free Nigel.
There is a video on LifeSite News of the picture depicted on the post. The lady in red appears to have come off some sort of disability scooter, she is fortunate not to be trampled to death. The reckless police on horseback barging through a crowd are a disgrace and should be prosecuted as they have endangered human life.
Quite right John.
I wish people would make up their minds, you say it is liberalism leading to fascism and, at the same time, Christians like Trevor Loudon say it is communism. One could become thoroughly confused!
At the end of the day Julia there is little practical difference between fascism and communism. Both are secular left tyrannies fully at odds with the Judeo-Christian worldview. Jonah Goldberg’s 2008 book Liberal Fascism explains this further. See here for example: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2008/03/27/new-books-of-note/
I forgot to add the name of another Canadian pastor who is not mentioned here – Pastor James Coates.
By the way I wonder how many realise that only 30% voted for Trudeau, his opponent gained more but the archaic voting system meant Trudeau got in, sounds familiar doesn’t it?
“Trudeau is alone. He is not bolstered by a wave of popular opinion.” Can this be verified? I hope so, but tyranny is popular.
The sad part is we HAVE seen this before yet even mentioning that is controversial. So many Jews balk at bringing up Nazi Germany, even a piece one Friday by Dr Brown, because Canada and other governments haven’t killed millions over the vax. Yet of ALL people they should know that Nazi Germany can be divided into two phases preparation and execution, pre holocaust and holocaust. We are not comparing Canada etc to holocaust Germany the execution phase of the Nazi era but PRE holocaust Germany the preparation phase of Nazi Germany. If we can’t warn people about the preparation phase only the execution phase well it is too late to warn then.
It is good to see people stand up but this is a marathon not a sprint how we respond to the governments response will be important. They didn’t grab all this power over night we won’t take it back over night either. That is the next big test are we, in whatever country we’re in, in this for the long haul??? Many people want to fight but when things drag on find they aren’t as willing as they thought.a resistance movement can start quite large but when faced with real and prolonged opposition only those truly committed stay on. The tide for the moment seems to be turning in the favor of the protesters but tides change quickly.
Thanks Bill, for these quotations and your own comments.
One matter, indeed, one word, I want to focus on in this and so many other connections is the word “controversial”. It has become a hackneyed, journalistic cliche, because for journos and TV anchors nothing is ever “wrong”; even the worst excesses, like we see now in Canada, are only ever “controversial”. I saw over the weekend journalistic hacks on CNN and MSNBC saying that Trudeau had not gone hard enough, soon enough, and that if an election were held now Trudeau would romp home by a landslide. Wow! Talk about being a cheer squad for a dictator! Yes, they conceded, his invocation of the Emergency Act was for some “controversial”, but not one among them could ever say it was flat out wrong and a violation of the most basic of rights.
Similarly here: all of Daniel Andrews’ measures were for the media “controversial” at most; never blatantly wrong. The only ones who are “wrong” and even “dangerous” are the “far-right anti-vaxxers” (whoever they are). Then there is the apparent use of acoustic weapons (LRAD devices) at the big Canberra rally: these sinister devices can, and it appears have, caused considerable injury and suffering, possibly permanent, to participants; but there again, for the elites their use is merely “controversial”.
I am utterly sick and tired of this cliche. Let’s stop using it or even conceding it. If what Trudeau, or anyone else of the leftist mould, including their media acolytes, are doing is immoral, and incurring God’s wrath, then let’s us with clarity call it out for the Satanic evil that it is.
Thanks Murray.
When governments think they have the right to control private money based on politics I believe we are very clearly in the realm of the Beast of Revelation:-
https://www.theepochtimes.com/and-now-its-economic-warfare_4287075.html
Plus Murray what if Trump or a conservative politician did ANY of these things??? They would have gone nuclear with the ILLEGAL word. Not to mention the words fascist, dictator, Hitler, Nazi, and more.
We live in a world where the correctness of one’s actions lies in one’s political opinions. Since truth has become fluid right and wrong are simply categories simply labels and as such are not specific to actions or ideas but specific implementations of those actions or ideas such that sometimes the actions are right and sometimes they are wrong. Once you remove God from society anything can become justified even situationally.
God’s laws are fences he puts up to protect us from the harm beyond but too often humans have the grass is greener syndrome and are convinced the fence is put up to KEEP us from something really good. We confuse a fence meant to protect US with a fence meant to protect something FROM us. A fence around a nuclear waste pit it to protect US while the fence around Fort Knox is to protect the gold FROM us.
Some fences in life do come down and new ones erected as we grow up. We first may only be able to move about in 1 room then we get a bit older we may have a few rooms, soon the whole house, then the yard too. Eventually we can include neighbors yards and eventually the neighborhood etc. At each stage we have a temporary fence to protect us and at the right time it is removed and a new fence put up. But some fences don’t come down. They aren’t meant too. We accept that graffiti tagging, hacking, and public urination are wrong yet we somehow think God’s fences are too much.
Thanks Bill for this cogent summary of events in Canada. I’ve had recent interactions with various Facebook friends over the last 24 hours, some Christian, some not. When one person mentioned praying for Canada, another one piped up, “Why not pray for the Ukraine?” as if somehow it’s not possible to pray for both. There is such blindness regarding Trudeau.
Yes quite right Steve.