For the first time in history, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to crackdown on what he has described as an attack on democracy itself in Canada. While civil libertarians in Canada have condemned the move as threatening core free speech and associational rights in the country, the American media and legal commentators have largely supported Trudeau in the use of these extreme measures. Indeed, I triggered a tsunami of criticism in stating that Canada could have used such powers to cut off donations for the Civil Rights Movement and arrest Martin Luther King today for such protests. This was due to the distortion of my comments on MLK being arrested (as opposed to being subject to arrest under this law). However, there was also an objection that there is no equivalency between the truckers and the Civil Rights Movement. Again, that is not the point of the reference: the comparison was to the type of civil disobedience used in protests. The concern is that the Canadian government could declare such an emergency to crackdown on any group engaging in civil disobedience through blockades or occupation protests. It could even happen to Dr. King today if marchers sought to repeat historic marches in Canada. Without meaningful limits under the law, they could also be unilaterally declared threats to Canadian “sovereignty, security and territorial integrity” by Trudeau for acts of civil disobedience.
With the emergency powers, Trudeau can now prohibit travel, public assemblies, conduct widespread arrests, and block donations for the truckers. This also includes freezing bank accounts and ramping up police surveillance and enforcement.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association objected:
“The federal government has not met the threshold necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act. This law creates a high and clear standard for good reason: the Act allows government to bypass ordinary democratic processes. This standard has not been met. The Emergencies Act can only be invoked when a situation ‘seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada’ & when the situation ‘cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.’”
Such voices have been drowned out by media demonizing the truckers as racists or insurrectionists.
As civil libertarians, it is less important what people are saying as their right to say it. That includes people who speak through their financial support or donations. Millions in such donations were blocked by GoFundMe or the Canadian government in this crackdown.
It is often tempting to ignore the implications of such extreme measures by focusing on your disagreement with a given group. To understand the scope of this law you can simply look to how widely revered movements could be treated under the same provisions. For example, the Civil Rights marchers also engaged in civil disobedience in shutting down bridges and occupying spaces. As I stated on Monday,
“Now, when you put all of that together, you’ve extinguished the ability of thousands, perhaps even millions of people to express themselves through a form of civil disobedience. And according to Prime Minister Trudeau’s definition, he could have shut down the Civil Rights Movement. He could have arrested Martin Luther King. He could have arrested any number of figures that we now celebrate today as visionaries.”
On Tuesday, I returned to that same point and noted that Canada could easily use the same law against the marchers and Dr. King today. Trudeau’s government could cut off all funding for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) while arresting figures like Dr. King. I noted that “I thought [the use of the Emergency Act] was quite excessive. This is an act of civil disobedience. That is a standard tactic of groups going back to the civil rights movement and even earlier to block bridges and streets, to do what was referred to as — quote — ‘good trouble.’ By this rationale, they could have cracked down on the Civil Rights Movement. They could have arrested Martin Luther King.”
The “they” is clearly the Canadian government in its use of these emergency powers today — not a reference to arrests in the past in the United States.
As is evident from the entire interview, I was referring to how the Canadian government could use these powers against an array of different groups for similar acts of civil disobedience. I was not saying that Dr. King was never arrested. Of course, he was. I have previously discussed those arrests, including in recent columns (here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here).
To critics in our hair-triggered political environment, it did not matter that I have routinely discussed the record of arrests of Dr. King in past columns and interviews. It also did not matter that I was clearly referring how the Canadian government could make such an arrest today in shutting down contemporary marchers. The point is that it is not just truckers who can be the targets of such Canadian emergency powers. The sweeping language would allow Trudeau to shutdown a contemporary civil rights movement and a leader like Dr. King as easily as he did the convoy. Yet, even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined in.
The second objection, however, is more interesting. People objected to any analogy of these truckers and their cause to Dr. King and the fight for civil rights.
Brooke Binkowski@brooklynmarie
Turley here is simultaneously conflating human rights advocates such as Martin Luther King with a bunch of assholes shitting up international borders because their disinformation handlers told them to and telling racists that white people get the worst treatment.5:17 PM · Feb 15, 2022·
Of course, I was not saying that the truckers are the like of MLK. I doubt the truckers would say that. Rather, I was comparing forms of civil disobedience. The protection of forms of protest should not depend on whether we support or oppose the underlying message.
People objected to the very notion that the Civil Rights marchers could be viewed as akin to the truckers. But that is the point. The law does not have any distinction. It could be used today against Dr. King just as it was used against the truckers. Indeed, Dr. King was accused of being a communist and a traitor by government officials during the crackdowns and arrests of the period. The Canadian law, however, would allow the federal government to use such claims to freeze funding and order arrests under the Emergencies Act today, including a figure like Dr. King for acts of civil disobedience.
We should be outraged by the use of such measures against either civil rights marchers or the Canadian truckers. As the Canadian Civil Liberties Association correctly noted, there is no limiting principle in Trudeau’s use of these powers. Trudeau simply declared that the convoy “seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada” without any substantive support for that finding.
These are sweeping emergency powers that could be used against some of our most celebrated figures and shutdown some of our most revered causes. Under this law, the only thing preventing Trudeau from shutting down movements — even historic movements like the Civil Rights marchers — is his affinity for the cause as opposed to the underlying conduct.
Is “literati” a fancy pants way of saying “Leftist Loons”?
MLK sought equality and justice….simple notions contained within our very Soul as a Nation.
He went about it in a peaceful manner encouraging his followers and supporters to do so as well and enduring attacks and assaults but winning by sheer strength of being right in standing on principle.
There is nothing in the Woke Movement, BLM, or todays’s Equity agenda that embraces MLK’s noble stand for freedom and equality under law.
That is why he was right and won…..and why they are wrong and shall lose.
One should be very careful which side One takes in a debate…..and remember what Professor Turley teaches……”The Honest Man Principle” which too many of you on the Left fail to live up to in your comments.
I have seen that demonstrated in real life…..while standing in a Police Line separating two opposing sets of Protesters where our function was to protect both equally and did so out of a sense of duty.
A lot of people made the same argument about MLK at the time that you are making now about BLM and the woke movement, particularly a lot of cops.
Which side do you think you would have been on in the 1960’s?
The BLM movement is more akin to the White Aryan Resiatance.
Ralph Chappell: In fact, the BLM movement is a repudiation of MLK’s message, and they have actually said as much publicly. They despise all constitutional terms, like “equality,” and have substituted their own doctrinaire socialism instead. “Race” is the Trojan horse through which socialism will rot this country from the inside-out.
“That is why he was right and won”
If winning is being assassinated and having the Supreme Court eventually undo everything he accomplished with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Republicans actively suppressing votes wherever they can in the present. It doesn’t seem like much of a victory.
How soon before Trudeau deletes his 2012 tweet?
https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/205322201187106816
Justin Trudeau
@JustinTrudeauOfficiel du gouvernement – Canada
When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern -Harper in 2005
11:40 AM · May 23, 2012·Twitter for iPad
Does Turley imagine that MLK wasn’t subject to made up rules everywhere he went? He wrote his, “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” after Birmingham made up an injunction to prevent him from protesting, Martin was persecuted by the FBI, his group was infiltrated by the COINTELPRO program, authorized specifically by Hoover and the Assistant Director Clyde Tolson. The FBI wrote him letters urging him to kill himself. They sent pictures and audio tapes to his wife. He was assaulted by police multiple times, He was arrested 29 times including once in Alabama for perjury on his state income taxes (nobody had previously been tried on that charge) though he was acquitted after 3 and 1/2 minutes. The mere supposition that if America had powers like Canada’s Emergency Act, then MLK might have been prosecuted isn’t worthy of Turley. The Civil Rights leaders were treated worse than BLM, they labeled them as Communists, un-American, and self-serving,; the exact playbook used on every group from the NAACP to Black Lives Matter. People that lived through that era are acting like they loved MLK then when it was the opposite. King knew he would be killed young, Black people knew he would be killed young, the only question was who would be “patriotic enough” in the eyes of many to do it?
Having humiliated himself on Fox News last night and gotten righteously dragged on social media for it, our host, the Legal Laughingstock of Langley, is in damage control mode. “Of course that’s not what I meant!” He mewls, mealy mouthed and pitiful as you like. It was a pathetic display of false equivalence from a formerly respected teacher and legal scholar who frankly should know better. Turkey is like a lot of right wing grifters in the media who used to be respectable. He posts unresearched partisan lunacy 6 days a week and then acts incredulous when no one gives him the benefit of the doubt or takes him cereal.
Dirt
What an ugly post.
Says more about you than about Turley.
Dirt McGirt says:
“It was a pathetic display of false equivalence from a formerly respected teacher and legal scholar who frankly should know better.”
Turley joining Fox News was his undoing. You cannot proclaim your condemnation of “our age of rage” while appearing alongside of rage provocateurs Hannity, Carlson and Ingraham! Turley cites rage from everyone but his Fox colleagues. It is abject hypocrisy, and one of these days, he will appear in a forum where someone is going to confront him on his patent inconsistency.
His only defense will be: I work for Fox News; of course, I am not going to bite the hand that feeds me. What do you expect?
enigma:
Yes, to our shame, white America treated MLK horrendously.
But his treatment shows how tyrants will use any tool to destroy their enemies.
Confirms Turley’s point that we have to guard against all tyrants.
I listened to the interview on Fox. Turley may have been trying to make a point against tyrants but completely rewrote history while doing so. He does that often.
If Turley truly believed in the importance of guarding against all tyrants, he’d have spoken out about Trump being a dictator-wannabe and how dangerous Trump remains in his control of the GOP and his Big Lie.
Trump recently lied about a “spying operation” (which is not what Durham has alleged) and said “Those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution. In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death.” You can bet that this will lead to death threats.
By the way, former Trump Admin employee Kash Patel is one of many Republicans who knew about what Trump falsely describes as a “spying operation.” Should Patel “be subject to criminal prosecution”? Or should we instead be a country of laws and not follow tyrant Trump’s urging?
It was painfully obvious from the beginning that this is just who Trudeau is, partly simply *given* who he is. As for the rest of the global left, they have gone from their former lockstep as a party and are now firmly entrenched in the goose step. That too, has been clear for some time, particularly with younger voters. On that note, I guess people, if they even noticed, thought it was a phase because, ‘MY kids would never.’. I’m sure Patty Hearst’s mom felt the same way.
I suspect a lot of people who were watching you on FoxNews had no idea that MLK was ever arrested. They support everyone’s right to protest anywhere, anytime, no matter how much it disrupts society and commerce – as long as they stand for the national anthem at NFL games.
The really sad thing is that he had to write this piece at all, defending his comments from those who either cannot read or lack any critical thinking skills.
Well done, Professor
You seemed on your Fox appearance to be making some point about MLK that if this act had been in place in the US when MLK was around then MLK might have been treated pretty badly. The point your critics are making is that MLK was treated pretty badly without this particular act – arrested 30 times – so your analogy does not hold.
You were trying to bring in MLK as an example of someone who protested and was not treated as badly as these truckers are being treated and that is the point Fox wanted its viewers to hear. And no, many of your Fox viewers do not know much about MLK except there is a holiday named after him so they bought your analogy.
Explosive Martin Luther King document amid JFK files
Published 4 November 2017
BBC
One allegation, that King had a mistress in California with whom he fathered a child, was attributed to “a very responsible Los Angeles individual in a position to know”.
Among its other accusations are that:
Dr King was surrounded by advisers with strong links to the Communist Party USA
His statements were always subject to approval by the alleged communist sympathisers
He was a secret supporter of communism, “a whole-hearted Marxist”
His organisation, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, set up a “tax dodge” to raise funds for its activities
Dr King took part in “drunken sex orgies” and coerced young women to participate
He had love affairs with at least four women, including folk singer Joan Baez
The list of alleged indiscretions would likely have been deeply problematic for the civil rights leader if it had been made public in 1968.
Trudeau has made Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum proud.
His loyalty is to the WEF and the Great Reset, Build Back Better agenda.
He has no moral authority to lead the country of Canada. The people of Canada despise you right back, Trudeau.
You are now the Canadian Mooselini.
Is there anyone more despicable than this smug, condescending, entitled, nothing-but-a-former-high-school-drama teacher, soyboy, abusing his power so he can crackdown on the people of Canada who are peacefully protesting HIM? Oh, the drama you’ve created, eh Justin?
Justin, the Spineless Dictator of Canada. With emphasis on ‘Dick’
The WEF? Why would anyone be loyal to the World Economic Forum? It’s just a talking shop for academic economists; they don’t have any power over anyone. Davos is just a bunch of people giving speeches and going to cocktail parties and stuff like that- think ComicCon or something but for the private jet set. Do you mean the IMF or something?
Anon,
‘Canadian Mooselini’…good one, lol.
We live in sad times where people excel in twisting people’s words for the purpose of attacking them. Language serves communication. The sender of the message is responsible for formulating accurately, and the receiver for translating accurately by reading the message within its context. Shaviro, Turley’s new colleague, commented in a Tweet on Biden’s limiting the SC choice to a black female candidate. He did not select his words carefully and was viciously attacked, although what he meant was clear from the context. Turley, although he was not careless but precise in his wording, is nevertheless attacked on arguments derived from purposefully ignoring the obvious context and putting words in his mouth and thoughts in his head. Remember Debbie Wasseman Schultz, when she was a spokesperson for the DNC, she excelled ar twisting words of opponents. If somebody was asked about the weather and answered that it was sunny all day until 3 in the afternoon and we then got regretfully rain, she would declare that person to complain that it was raining all day, followed by an attack on its inaccuracy (which was non-existent and created by Wasserman herself). Schiff and Swallwell come from the same training school and always twist a person’s word for use of attack to the point that they themselves don’t seem to be able distinguishing truth from falsity, and fiction from reality. It makes national debates impossible, undermines democratic deliberation, and divides the country.
Trudeau is a former high school teacher and his response to the truckers is that of an arrogant and ignorant snotnose. He could have talked to the truckers and use that to wisely terminate his unscientific mandates. Instead, he refuses to talk and now dug himself a political grave. He cannot lose face now by talking to the truckers, so he tries to break them through oppression. Hopefully, it will backfire, otherwise politicians elsewhere, including in the US, may follow the example.
Double Dutch: Spot on. The left uses every rhetorical trick in the book when it can’t honestly debate or refute an argument. They know exactly what Turley meant — and it was an apt analogy — but they are experts in the devious, so they twist words, pull them out of context, assign erroneous meaning to them, and deny reality just to make their pathetic points. Then, they have the presumption to make ad hominem attacks on this blog. We’re not dealing with “rocket scientists” here — after all, how much intelligence does it take to respond to a well-thought out analysis with childish name calling!
Giocon1 says:
“after all, how much intelligence does it take to respond to a well-thought out analysis with childish name calling!”
You mean like Turley’s calling Trump a “carnival snake charmer?” Or Trumpists here calling me a “troll” and “a whoopie cushion,” etc?
I don’t expect your reply since there is no defense of this name calling.
Trudeau is a fascist. It is abundantly clear after these actions. The west riding its high horse during protests elsewhere is shown in poor light here!!!! The handsome poster boy of the liberatti has turned out to be a fascist that calls democratic protest illegal. While this happens else where he supports it. India experienced similar protests crippling, India showed the world how to deal with it peacefully. The leadership backed down. YET the WEST calls MODI a fascist. Look in the mirror fellas!!!
A good test of whether you would have been on MLK’s side during the Civil Rights protests of the 1960’s is whether you support BLM these days or whether you speak disparagingly of a woke mob.
That you see MLK and BLM as similar is enough to make me completely discount your opinion on anything.
Please show us where and when MLK burned down cities, destroyed BLACK businesses and tore down statutes of Lincoln and others.
To equate the times of MLK and today is banal, juvenile and unintelligent. Of course the civil rights movement was a necessity, as was the woman’s movement and the movement for gay rights. But people like MLK Was The Leader… offer not one ounce of justification for how blacks are discriminated against today. Will he say because of arrests? Well, please just look at crime stats. Poverty? Please look at rates of single parent homes. Hiring? Under Trump black unemployment was the lowest ever. It is the Democrats that want to keep minorities on the plantation through government giveaways and a completely open border.
People like this person want to compare smash and grab with needing baby formula, as AOC just did. They want the media to ignore mass robberies, as NHJ just did. They want to call truckers racist without one scintilla of evidence of any racial component in the protest.
History is repeated as farce and that’s what the letter above is…a farce. People like this missed the protests of the 1960s and they want their times to be important too, even if they have to make a fool of themselves to do so.
I actually concur. Those battles were fought without them so they manufacture personal crisis to give vapid modern lives meaning. It’s really as simple as that.
@anonymous MLK troll:
And that is less ignorant than the wokesters’ perspective how, exactly? If you honestly believe that, you are either legitimately racist or need to read some more. I suppose you could also be a paid troll testing the waters for *either* side. Not appreciated.
MLK Was The Leader of the Woke Mob: Seriously? Do you think MLK would have applauded the arson, looting and murders that BLM and their Antifa buddies unleashed across America for a year? Would he have supported the blatant anti-white racism that has creeped into every aspect of American culture? Then there’s his “judge a person by their character, not by the color of their skin” comment that BLM violates every day in every way. MLK had a righteous cause that culminated in laws to rectify systemic racism. Today’s woke mob acts as if MLK and those laws never existed, and America is back in the days of Jim Crow. Using hyperbole, lies and twisted history, BLM and socialist leaders have conned liberal America into a race war that never needed to happen. But “chaos” is the means by which extremist minorities think they will gain power, and “race” is the Trojan horse through which socialism will become systemic.
And those of us who have lived longer than others, and supported the Christian minister and peaceful activist Dr. King, yet do not support the anti-Christian, anti-family, violent and racist BLM?
Civil disobedience of a peaceful nature, as Professor Turley points out, is common to both Dr. King’s protests and the Canadian truckers’ protests. But there is nothing peaceful about BLM. Did you not see that a prominent Kentucky BLM member, candidate for office and supposedly vehemently anti-gun, tried the other day to fatally shoot a Democratic candidate for mayor of Louisville?
TRUDEAU is a Globalist he serves the interest and leadership of the Globalist/Davos/World Economic Crowd. He serves on the World Economic committees. He grabbed power, as a Dictator, like Castro, who he admired, refer to his comments on Castro. He wants to eliminate his opposition, like a Dictator. Even the Liberal Canadian Newpapers, Toronto Star, say it was wrong. Opposition is growing against this power grab, at least 4 major Canadian Provinces have spoken up against, Quebec stated its not going to happen in Quebec. Their are reports that if Trudeau goes to the Canadian Military for help with the protestors/truckers they will refuse, just like New Zealand in recent days. Trudeau is on his way out, No Confidence Vote, his own party will remove him. Canadian Public by a large majority is against Trudeau move.As respects to the Canadian Civil Liberties group, good for them to speak out our ACLU is silence.
Pappy Castro would be proud, that’s for sure.
https://gummibear737.substack.com/p/deep-dive-is-fidel-castro-the-father?
When Ben Franklin went to Parliament in 1765 ( as in London, not Ottawa!) regarding the proposed Stamp Act he said: “You will not find a rebellion (in the Colonies) but you may indeed create one.” Seems that principle might apply to the Prime Minister. But maybe not. In the wokeness of this era the literati ain’t very literate and certainly seem to miss principles behind an argument. But maybe they’re more interested in principals than principles!
I have heard Anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers comparing their struggles to the leaders of the civil rights movement repeatedly. That is because the civil rights movement was about people being treated differently than others. The objection of the anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers is that they are being treated the same as everyone else. There is simply no comparison.
MLK was disliked by many in the population at the time but over time his popularity has grown because people see him as on the right side of history. Generally, Americans do not look back at Conservative protests in history with the same fondness; conservatives today would have stood with Bill Connor in MLK’s time.
Bull, etal
This is not about MLK and his legacy. This is about govt abuse of power.
Your logic is so scrambled as to make your omelet unrecognizable. Bull Connor and his ilk were all democrats. Woodrow Wilson was a “progressive” yet an avowed racist who really set the tone for Jim Crow. FDR was a progressive but did virtually nothing to advance civil rights and failed to integrate the armed forces during ww2. It took Truman to integrate the armed forces. It took a republican Chief Justice (who wanted Japanese-American citizens in concentration camps) to preside over Brown vs Bd Of Education. JFK did little to advance civil rights but the conservative LBJ who got the voting rights act and the civil rights acts passed with Republican Help because the racist democrats in the South blocked those acts. Having been around for near 74 years I have heard racists comments, conversations and worse among progressives, liberals, moderates, conservatives and others. A word to the wise, you can have all sorts of political positions and tendencies and still be a racist. And you can also be a person who has all the same positions in politics and not be a racist. It is not exclusive to any political party.
“Your logic is so scrambled as to make your omelet unrecognizable. Bull Connor and his ilk were all democrats. Woodrow Wilson was a “progressive” yet an avowed racist who really set the tone for Jim Crow. FDR was a progressive but did virtually nothing to advance civil rights and failed to integrate the armed forces during ww2. It took Truman to integrate the armed forces. It took a republican Chief Justice (who wanted Japanese-American citizens in concentration camps) to preside over Brown vs Bd Of Education. JFK did little to advance civil rights but the conservative LBJ who got the voting rights act and the civil rights acts passed with Republican Help because the racist democrats in the South blocked those acts. Having been around for near 74 years I have heard racists comments, conversations and worse among progressives, liberals, moderates, conservatives and others. A word to the wise, you can have all sorts of political positions and tendencies and still be a racist. And you can also be a person who has all the same positions in politics and not be a racist. It is not exclusive to any political party.”
Bull Connor and his ilk were Democrats, absolutely correct. Though the process started after the armed forces got integrated, within 10 years of Bull Connor attacking peaceful protesters in Alabama on national television, most of them became Republicans after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Brown v Board was toothless given the “all deliberate speed” provision which left most schools segregated for decades afterward and some today. We could talk about the laudable origins of the Republican Party but they started straying in 1877 and never looked back. Democrats began as the most racist Party, maybe of all time. They are nowhere near perfect and only get the support they get from Black people because the Republicans of today are that much worse. I’ll agree with you racism isn’t exclusive to any political party, yet the Republicans of today are running on who can be the most racist, homophobic, and misogynist.
Any rational person would have read and understood the correlation about civil protests. The Democratic National Communist Party member and their propaganda arm are not rational. When you are over the target of their tyranny you will be targeted!!!
Trudeau has gone too far.
The grammar police have asked that I tell you the possessive needs to be removed from the Post title.
Bottom line Trudeau has taken the power to decide who can protest and who cannot. As long as he supports your cause as he did BLM….then you can block all the streets and bridges you desire with support of the Government.
Government should never pick winners and losers in business or in social protests.
The American Media, Corporations, and the Biden Administration are doing exactly the same thing….without glorifying their actions by declaring an emergency.
Watch how they treat the upcoming American Trucker Convoy…..and see if there is a Dime’s worth of difference in the end result to that of Trudeau.
Biden has already tipped his hand by calling Trudeau and telling that weasel to play hardball with the Canadian Truckers.
Sadly, it appears Trudeau has taken Biden’s counsel.
To get away from the core argument. It is essential to understand that the stripping of rights is in pursuit of govt mandates that have no effect on the virus.
But then it exposes the lie.
This has never been about public safety. It has always been about stripping people of their rights and ratcheting up the absolute power of Government.
Prof, you are so absolutely on point.
The question the leftists cannot fathom, is, would you support your enemy wielding these powers?
For me there are new rules. BLM operated under those rules, and now the left is forced to defend those rules. Or they are just hypocrites with zero core values. They stand for nothing.
Their hypocrites.
The worrisome thing is not the criticisms being stupid, it’s that they parallel the thinking of the DC elite, “journalists”, etc.
The Idiots Have Won…
Not yet!