Labelling dissenters as domestic terrorists endangers democracy in Canada and the US

Feb 18, 2022 by Jill

by Kurt Mahlburg, MercatorNet:

Two organisers of Canada’s peaceful Freedom Convoy, Chris Barber and Tamara Lich, were arrested today, after the Trudeau government earlier this week invoked the Emergencies Act, formerly the War Measures Act.

As part of its crackdown on mandate critics, Canada has also expanded the definition of “terrorist financing” in order to freeze bank accounts and seize the property of protesters and donors.

Canadian civil rights groups have strongly denounced the move, arguing that the high threshold for an emergency has not been met and that the use of these powers must not be normalised. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has announced that it is suing the government over Trudeau’s effective criminalisation of peaceful dissent.

Meanwhile, south of the border, President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security has issued a “National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin”, suggesting that if a citizen opposes mask and vaccine mandates, they may be a “domestic violent extremist”.

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