Not long ago, I wrote a piece highlighting the arrival of a new form of political control, namely governments’ authorization of banks—without due process—to freeze the bank accounts of members of their citizenry. I noted that this was a form of coercion that had existed in China for some years now, and had recently been adopted by Russia, but I emphasised that it had also been deployed by the Canadian government against a minority of its population—those who participated in the ‘truckers’ protests’—with zero uproar from Canada’s allied nations. I feared that UK parliamentarians had been silent over this tyrannical quashing of the late Queen’s subjects across the Atlantic because, as I wrote then, they were likely “looking over at this innovative model of political control and thinking, ‘Golly, what a clever idea!’”
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told a secret cabinet meeting that Canadians with bank accounts frozen under the Emergencies Act should be denied their money unless they first reported to police. “Banks were pleased,” said confidential minutes.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says Canada will not agree to include language calling for the phaseout of all fossil fuels in the final agreement at this year’s United Nations climate talks in Egypt.
