Writing in 1984, Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman wrote ‘Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”.He was referring to government spending on social programs, but his commentary is just as relevant today as it concerns emergency authoritarian powers governments grant themselves. .These extraordinary powers have been amassed by governments step-by-step since then, with the goalposts moving evermore in a dangerous and authoritarian direction. One new set of powers to combat the latest COVID-19 variant is stacked atop the previous set of powers — any rare relaxation of these powers is never fully repealed, but provides a short reprieve before even more extreme measures are introduced. .Fears over how far these powers will extend are dismissed as wild-eyed conspiracies, until they are not. They are fever-dreams on Monday, and government policy on Tuesday. .Restrictions to stop mass gatherings, like concerts, became police attacking kids for playing hockey and jailing church pastors. It’s official government advice that masks don’t work, to mandatory masking for little children at no risk of COVID. It’s premiers vowing never to impose vaccine passports, before requiring them by law. It’s the government endlessly praising frontline healthcare workers, before firing them for being unvaccinated. .With every inch we give, government takes a mile. Every time they take new powers for themselves, they promise they’re temporary and necessary, but rarely is that the truth. .Dismissed by the political and media classes were warnings that these draconian measures were on a clear path to mandatory vaccination. By mandatory, I’m no longer speaking of discriminatory and coercive measures like vaccine passports — which makes vaccination mandatory if one wishes to live even a semi-normal life — or threats of firing workers who do not comply. I mean mandatory, in the sense the government will prosecute you like a criminal if you are not vaccinated. .Just weeks ago, Austria and Italy began their programs of mandatory vaccination, charging citizens for not getting the jab as if they were petty thieves. The silence of the Canadian political leadership and media should have been a clear enough sign they didn’t think it such a bad idea, but none of them said it out loud until today. .Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told the press that he believes the provinces are likely to soon introduce mandatory vaccination. .“What we see now is that our health care system in Canada is fragile, our people are tired, and the only way we know to get through COVID-19 — this variant and any future variant — is through vaccination,” Duclos said on Friday, during a news conference..Based on his “personal understanding of what we see internationally and domestically” and the conversations he’s had with health ministers across the country over the last few weeks, Duclos said he believes discussions around mandatory vaccination policies will be coming in the near future..“That’s why I’m signalling this is a conversation which I believe provinces and territories, in support with the federal government, will want to have over the next weeks and months.”.Thankfully, Ottawa’s ability to impose mandatory vaccines is limited by the constitution, where healthcare is theoretically under exclusive provincial jurisdiction. Ottawa’s ability to meddle has mostly been limited to requiring a vaccine passport for Canadians to travel by air and water; an exit passport more closely resembling 1980s East Germany than 2019 Canada. .But the provinces have closely followed Ottawa’s lead on most things COVID. When Ottawa said masks should be mandatory, all provinces made them compulsory. When Ottawa said there should be vaccines passports, every province imposed a vaccine passport. .Now Ottawa is signaling it wants to move on effective criminalization of the unvaccinated. Can we really expect the provinces to stand their ground this time? .Alberta Premier Jason Kenney signalled he won’t play ball in a tweet responding to Duclos’ comments. .“Alberta’s Legislature removed the power of mandatory vaccination from the Public Health Act last year and will not revisit that decision, period. While we strongly encourage those who are eligible to get vaccinated, it is ultimately a personal choice that individuals must make.”.Except it’s not. Premier Kenney already took away the personal choice of individuals to get vaccinated when he imposed a vaccine passport of his own, although he chooses to call it a “Restrictions Exemption Program.” .The premier’s statement is clear. Ottawa can say whatever it wants, but Alberta is Wild Rose Country and we won’t take Trudeau’s authoritarian diktats. .But we’ve heard it before. On masks, lockdowns, and vaccine passports, Alberta’s government has rolled over. Every. Single. Time. .It’s too late for Kenney to paint himself as a Western freedom fighter doing battle with an overreaching Ottawa, but there is a chance for him to do the right thing, this time. Kenney has drawn this latest rhetorical line in the sand, but it’s difficult to believe that when he’s drawn so many before, only to cross them and beyond. .All Kenney can do this time is keep his word. .Politicians can draw all the lines they like, but the only defence against this most extreme act of authoritarian overreach is for citizens to draw the line themselves. People — vaccinated and unvaccinated alike — need to make clear this is not just unwelcome; it is an unacceptable attack on their most fundamental liberties. It is an action that would delegitimize the authority of the government to exercise its will..For my own part, I now identify as an unvaccinated person. The two previous doses I freely took in the spring of 2021 should be wiped from the record. If my friends, family, and colleagues are quasi-criminals for their own choice over their bodies, then so am I. .There is no good place beyond here. This is the point of no return. Beyond here is only a dark descent into a world unfit for free men and free women..Derek Fildebrandt is Publisher of the Western Standard.,.dfildebrandt@westernstandardonline.com
