Written by: Adam Riggio

Prime Minster Trudeau has been a calming reasonable voice, a leader who brings our common responsibilities in the face of the COVID pandemic to the forefront of our response. But not anymore.

On Monday, Trudeau announced that he planned to enact Canada’s Emergencies Act, which would give the federal government extra powers to coordinate responses to the COVID pandemic around the country. This could have been a reasonable proposition if it wasn’t for some very problematic additions throughout the legislation.

Those were provisions, spread throughout multiple parts of the proposed legislation, that would give Finance Minister Bill Morneau the power to levy new taxes and spend money without any upper limit, all without the need to seek approval from parliament. What’s more, the legislation would have extended that emergency power to the federal cabinet until the end of 2021.

I emphasize: The original form of that Emergencies Act bill would have given Trudeau, Morneau, and their cabinet the power to tax and spend without having to seek any approval from parliament as a whole for nearly the next two years.

COVID Crisis Becomes an Excuse to Seize Absolute Power

This is going too far. Every opposition leader said so, from both the conservative and socialist side. Economic assistance to Canadians who have lost their income from mass layoffs as business literally halts for months need not come with the sidelining of parliament for an entire year.

Trudeau and Morneau’s power grab occurs in the context of far more dangerous coups against elected parliaments and democratic institutions elsewhere in the world. It’s no surprise that Hungary’s strongman prime minister Viktor Orbán is giving his office emergency powers with no expiry date at all.

Nor would progressives be surprised to see Benjamin Netanyahu closing Israel’s parliament and entire court system, ostensibly to protect judges and MKs from COVID. Conveniently, this has blocked the winner of the last election, opposition leader Benny Gantz, from taking charge as prime minister, and prevented Israel’s Supreme Court from beginning the corruption trials against Netanyahu and his wife.

Likewise, we progressives shake our heads in sad resignation as Donald Trump continues to consolidate power and transfer billions to the pockets of his family, friends, and the rest of his junta.

Neo-Fascists Promote Confusion and Anger

Our biggest danger as progressives is to critique our government and hold them to account, without becoming useful idiots for a genuinely fascist takeover of our government, as under Hungary’s Fidesz, Israel’s Likud, the UK’s Tories, and the USA’s Republicans. This is the goal of neo-fascist actors and influencers encouraging progressives to boost their memes and arguments as we hold Trudeau to heel.

The extreme nationalist news and opinion website The Post-Millennial has come out against Trudeau and Morneau’s overreach, just as many have on the left. But they are leaders in a community of social media activists who aim to replace Trudeau with nationalist leaders licking the boots of the oil industry.

Extreme nationalists, led by the American president, have even begun to promote ending quarantines as the epidemic continues to escalate. Several members of the Republican party have refused to self-isolate after a variety of exposures to COVID. Some progressives are following this reasoning that the pandemic is not as serious as public health officials and scientists have demanded people recognize.

The otherwise liberal Amanda Marcotte is one writer with a huge platform, who on Tuesday encouraged millennials and younger people to disregard the health risks that the virus poses because they have no obligation to sacrifice their economic security to save the elderly. This, of course, promotes the myth that COVID only kills old people, which is disproven by merely looking at the real-life death toll of the disease.

For example, the first Zimbabwean to die of COVID was journalist Zororo Makamba. He was 30 years old, and picked up his infection in the United States.

Never Love Your Leaders So Much that You Give Them Power Over You

However imperfect an expression of the general public will they are, elections are an important element of any democratic state: a metaphorical sledgehammer to the face of our leaders to keep them in line. When Canadians elected a minority parliament, the messages were clear to Trudeau, Morneau, their cabinet, and the federal Liberal Party as a whole.

Most important for this occasion: Canadians didn’t trust Trudeau to follow through on his most noble ideals and promises. Proposing a massive concentration of power in cabinet when other governments are openly shutting democracy down is no way to gain further trust.

You have no virtue more special than any of us, Mr. Trudeau. Bear that in mind.

Update: Due to public pressure, the Liberals have backed off from attempting to take full control, for the time being.