In December of 2020, Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary General, was asked about a farmers' protest in India. Thousands of demonstrators were protesting at the borders of Delhi against three farm laws they regarded as anti-farmer. The protesting farmers were allegedly met with “repressive measures” by the government.
When it comes to how governments should handle peaceful protests, the United Nations bureaucracy from the very top has a double standard. So does Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who lectures other countries about how they should handle peaceful protests but does precisely the opposite himself.
Needless to say, the Indian authorities were not happy
"As to the question of India, what I would say to you is what I've said to others when raising these issues is that people have a right to demonstrate peacefully,” Mr. Dujarric responded, “and authorities need to let them do so." He added, “We want to see people have a voice in their lives.”
However, the Secretary General’s spokesman sang a different tune when I asked him on February 16th for comment regarding Prime Minister Trudeau’s crackdown on Canadian trucker protesters. “I have no particular comment,” he replied. “I say that it’s also every Government’s responsibility to ensure the safety of their citizens through accepted legal framework. And that people also have a right to demonstrate peacefully.” Mr. Dujarric did not add, as he had done with regard to the Indian farmer protesters in December 2020, that government authorities need to let people exercise the right to demonstrate peacefully.
Trudeau was the first foreign government leader claiming to stand up for the Indian farmer protesters. “Let me remind you, Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest,” Trudeau said sanctimoniously back then. “We believe in the importance of dialogue and that’s why we’ve reached out through multiple means directly to the Indian authorities to highlight our concerns.”
Needless to say, the Indian authorities were not happy. India’s external affairs ministry summoned Canada’s envoy Nadir Patel to express their displeasure with Trudeau’s comments, which the ministry considered an “unacceptable interference in our internal affairs.”
A little over a year later, Trudeau is clamping down with what amounts to martial law on Canadian truckers who have been overwhelmingly peaceful in their anti-Trudeau demonstrations. The truckers agree upset with the Canadian government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and other government policies the truckers consider to be overly restrictive of their freedoms.
At first, Trudeau dismissed the protesters as a “fringe” group not worthy of his attention. Then, when he saw that protesters were not leaving anytime soon, Trudeau turned himself into an autocrat.
Trudeau invoked Canada’s Emergencies Act, which was meant to be used only in the most extreme circumstances. He has used the law’s emergency powers not only against truckers blocking bridges between Canada and the United States that are vital for the transit of products between the two countries, but also against peaceful protesters in the Canadian capital of Ottawa.
Support Canada Free Press
It makes no difference to Trudeau that the bridge blockades have ended for all intents and purposes. Trudeau has decided to continue invoking the Emergencies Act against the truckers and their supporters who have decided to remain in the core areas of Ottawa near Canada’s seat of central government power and continue their protest. Trudeau could not tolerate the television and Internet spectacles of dissatisfied Canadian citizens peacefully seeking his removal from office.
The Emergencies Act authorizes law enforcement to severely restrict the movement of individuals and to impose very harsh penalties for public assembly that are considered to be a breach of the peace. This was the first time that any Canadian leader had invoked the Emergencies Act since its passage in 1988. Rampant acts of violence and harassment against Canadian Jews last May inflicted by pro-Palestinian mobs didn’t concern Trudeau nearly as much as the mostly peaceful Canadian truckers’ protests against Trudeau himself.
Recall that Trudeau had boasted back in the days of the Indian farmers’ protest that Canada “will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest.” However, under the Canadian Emergency Act that Trudeau invoked against the Canadian trucker protesters, Canadian citizens could face up to five years in prison for exercising that very same right of peaceful protest in Trudeau’s Canada. Trudeau has also ordered private banks to freeze the accounts of protesting Canadian citizens without any court order. Trudeau has thrown the fundamental principle of due process that characterizes a free society out the window.
As for the United Nations, it should apply the same critical standard against any government trying to repress peaceful protesters. Instead, we are seeing a double standard play out as the UN Secretary General’s office tip toes around Trudeau’s autocratic conduct.
In December of 2020, Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the UN Secretary General, was asked about a farmers' protest in India. Thousands of demonstrators were protesting at the borders of Delhi against three farm laws they regarded as anti-farmer. The protesting farmers were allegedly met with “repressive measures” by the government.
When it comes to how governments should handle peaceful protests, the United Nations bureaucracy from the very top has a double standard. So does Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who lectures other countries about how they should handle peaceful protests but does precisely the opposite himself.
