Lessons from Canada

Without getting into the political aspects, the events unfolding in Canada carry vitally important lessons for those of us interested in preparedness.

First, the changes that they are making to their Terror Financing Laws under the Emergencies Act Declaration are draconian and PERMANENT. In other words, as Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said, even when the Emergency is over, the new measures REMAIN. These measures include freezing the assets of ANYONE who is involved in “unlawful activities”, including traffic violations like blocking a road. Those assets can then be seized.

Another permanent feature is the regulation of crowdfunding. The new powers will allow the Government of Canada to immediately force crowd funding sites to disclose to them anyone who donated to any fund they determine is related to “anti-government activity” and will consider those people to be financing terrorism. They can immediately freeze and then seize those funds.

I know, you’re thinking, what does that have to do with me? Simple, I guarantee you Merrick Garland is watching this closely. Certain lawmakers in America are cheering these moves on. It’s just a matter of time.

Some of you are thinking: But I’ll use Crypto. Wrong. Freeland also issued herself authority over crypto, claiming it is being used to “fund white supremacy”. Sure, she can’t take it, but she ordered all “payment processors” to report any crypto transactions, which will lead to charges and seizures, and you need a payment processor to convert your bitcoin to gasoline or food at this point.

If you think that problem is local to Canada, I warned two days ago that the US would use the same playbook and this morning there are news stories (probably untrue) about people using crypto to buy racist NFT’s of George Floyd. Understand this: They are weaponizing claims of racism. If you claim something is racism, any measure is on the table to stomp it out and any opposition to those measures mean you must support racism.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

Of more immediate concern to us, however, are actions taken by police BEFORE the Emergencies Act was invoked. Three specific actions, which were unlawful under Canadian law.

First, the order that no person would be allowed to bring gasoline, food, or water into the protest zone. You can’t establish that gasoline will be used for any unlawful purpose, so it’s impossible to justify. Nevertheless, we saw police officers seizing gas cans and cases of water. What government says that there is any circumstance in which you cannot provide food to hungry people? While this was in Canada, we saw similar actions in the US during the Summer of 2020.

Second, once the Supreme Court of Canada ordered the police to return the unlawfully stolen gas (make no mistake, the police stole that gas), people put the gas in their vehicles, and then the vehicles stopped working. Thousands of dollars of damage was done. The Ottawa Police, when asked, admitted that they sabotaged the gas to disable vehicles. There was no legal basis for this.

I’m not attributing malice in these acts; I’m sure the police thought they were “restoring order” for the greater good. The point for us is this: These police easily justified breaking the law because they wore a badge. Never forget that.

The third incident is even worse. Members of the RCMP in Coutts approached a farmer about some earth moving equipment on his property, He told them he gave the owners of the equipment permission to park them on his property. These vehicles HAD NOT been used in the protest at all. The farmer agreed to an RCMP request to move the equipment out of view of the road, thinking it was over a safety concern. The RCMP then snuck onto the property that night, removed all the fuel filters, cut gas lines and wires, and filled the engine compartments with foam.

The next morning, when the owners found the damage, they called the RCMP who smugly reported that they did in fact sneak onto private property to disable the vehicles to prevent them from being used in the protest. These vehicles cost over a hundred thousand dollars each and they disabled three of them, without a court order, on a third parties property. This is equivalent of the police arresting you in case you MIGHT start selling drugs. Be aware of this.

You might think this would never happen in the US with our 4th Amendment, right? Well, Canada has a similar provision. Also, I’ll point out that the courts ruled that the initial shootout between Randy Weaver’s group and federal agents that left a US Marshal dead was LAWFUL self-defense because the US Marshal Service unlawfully snuck onto Weaver’s property and there was testimony that it was a standard USMS practice to illegally enter rural properties.

Like a muddied spring or a polluted well are the righteous who give way to the wicked.

Proverbs 25:26

The lessons for us are this: The law enforcement agencies at all levels exist to protect government interest, not the citizens. You might think that’s extreme, but it’s actually from a US Supreme Court decision which said that the police have no duty to protect anyone. This is why we are seeing police throw parents out of school board meetings for disagreeing with the government position.

We prepare to be self-sufficient, not take any particular side. Therefore, we must realistically realize that the more polarized society becomes, whichever party is in charge gets to use the police to enforce their will on the others. It’s wrong no matter which side does it, but for US, the effect is the same.

We must rely on ourselves for security and understand that badges don’t automatically make one virtuous or right. There is a video today of a police officer in Ottawa striking a woman for filming him. There is horrendous video of horseback officers running over a woman using a walker on Friday.

These actions in Canada increase the risk of civil conflict and civil disorder. We must prepare to deal with those effects and continue to observe what new powers increasingly desperate governments give themselves.

What sounds like defending democracy can often actually be creating tyranny.

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