Kentucky Senator Rand Paul issued warnings about the emergency powers the Canadian government has recently invoked against the peaceful Freedom Convoy.
He believes that those same powers could be used in the United States.
During an appearance on the BASED politics podcast, Paul declared that the order Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked was “very, very dangerous.” He added that “We have the same sort of statutes here, and I have long-time been an opponent of these.”
“We actually have in the United States an Emergency Act that allows the president to shut down the internet,” Paul continued.
Paul brought attention to how he attempted to cobble together a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans to scuttle any emergency power legislation proposed during the Trump administration.
“[Sen.] Mike Lee had some reforms that he put forward on the Emergency Act, and it’s something we should look at, because these things go on and on,” Paul asserted.
He continued, “There are some emergencies in the U.S. that have been going on for many, many decades. And the president can just renew them every year. There’s no real stopping him.”
“And so the emergency edict that Trudeau has done in Canada allows him to do some horrendous things, allows him to stop travel, allows him to detain people without trial. Now we don’t know that he’s going to do that, but it is very, very worrisome what he might do,” Paul observed, referencing Trudeau’s brutal crackdown measures.
One controversial part of the Emergencies Act is the freezing of assets. This move was specifically designed to target supporters of the Freedom Convoy demonstrators.
On February 25, 2022, Trudeau eventually revoked the Emergencies Act after determining that the trucker protests no longer constitute an emergency. This move was perhaps motivated by the level of domestic and international outrage that Trudeau’s original emergency order provoked.
While it appears that the Canadian government’s authoritarian actions seem to be dying down, the Kentucky Senator is correct in warning about the danger of Canadian-style tyranny making its way to the states.
After all, Canada is a supposed liberal democracy but it has a dark history of being a trendsetter for multiculturalism. The policies that are implemented in Canada are generally exported abroad.
Americans should always remain vigilant of these trends and understand that America is closely entering a post-American phase where tyrannical acts are being proposed left and right. The US is no longer “exceptional”, especially after going through a century of non-stop government growth without any significant rollback of state overreach.
So it will be susceptible to any of the same forms of state infringements that other countries are being subjected to. Liberty conservatives must be ready to stand up against tyranny, while working to craft broader campaigns to actually roll back state intervention in the long-term. Robust planning and dedicated activism is needed for liberty-lovers to come out victorious in the long-term.
