by Richard Martin
I’ve changed my mind. The use of the Emergencies Act for a public order emergency is justified in the particular circumstances we are and have been facing. My change of mind concerning the need to declare a national public order emergency does not mean I have changed my mind about:
a) The need for free, informed consent of all medical and health procedures
b) The right to free speech, free assembly, free association
c) The moral right, and sometimes even obligation, to oppose tyranny through civil disobedience, if that is the only recourse left after all others have been tried
d) The Emergencies Act was not and remains unnecessary to deal with the blockades and occupations at Coutts AB, Windsor ON, and Ottawa.
With that said, there are sometimes imperatives of a higher order. The imperatives of which I speak pertain to national security, national sovereignty, and geopolitical threats. I served for 26 years as an infantry officer in the Canadian Army (R22eR). I take these imperatives seriously.
Rather than assume the worst about our prime minister and his cabinet, I decided to try to see the situation from their perspective, in geopolitical and national strategic terms. From this, I have come to the provisional conclusion that the threat to Canada is clear and specific. It does not come from a few malcontents and a spontaneous outpouring of frustration against all our governments.
Need I point out that almost all of the restrictions and mandates we have faced in the last two years have originated with provincial governments, not the federal government? This is because provinces are responsible for health care and most public health measures.
On the other hand, the federal government has the constitutional and moral responsibility to uphold the sovereignty of Canada and the security of Canadians. This is not just a matter of defending and securing against kinetic, physical threats, but also economic, financial, political, and informational.
The threat is geopolitical and global in scope. This is not about the World Economic Forum, Trump supporters, neo-Nazis, or opposition to mask mandates.
Those of us who have studied military history, strategy, and warfare know that wars involve the physical and moral planes of action. Modern wars are even more complex, and involve the physical plane of kinetic energy, mobility, and technology, combined with psychological and informational struggle in the cybersphere. There can be fighting over the hearts and minds of people, and also over financial systems in cyberspace.
We need to ask ourselves, who could possibly muster the type of resources and know how needed to shut down massive utilities, banking infrastructure, financial channels, and communications networks? The power to do this kind of work is beyond the scope and capability of any non-state actor in the world.
If you ask yourself these questions, you too might have a change of mind and come to see what is happening right now before our very eyes.
#EmergenciesAct #cdnpoli #geopolitics
©️Richard Martin