Canada is playing fast and loose with the rule of law to suppress the Freedom Convoy. Where's the outrage?

Justin Trudeau.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

Canada's legislature has been canceled, at least for the day. In a statement Friday morning, the speaker of the House of Commons announced the body would not sit due to operations to clear now-famous "Freedom Convoy" trucker protests in downtown Ottawa.

The decision not to hold go into session during heavy police action is not so shocking. And prime ministers have been accused of delaying legislative activity for political reasons in the past. Still, today's announcement is part of an extraordinary sequence of events that began on Monday, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canada's history. The law doesn't override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms — Canada's counterpart to the Bill of Rights — but it does give the prime minister expanded authority to restrict demonstrations, freeze funds, and reinforce local authorities with national agencies.

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Samuel Goldman

Samuel Goldman is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow in Religion, Ethics, & Politics at Princeton University. His books include God's Country: Christian Zionism in America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) and After Nationalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). In addition to academic research, Goldman's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.