By Robert B. Charles
Colin Powell used to encourage us to “look around corners,” foresee contingencies, think about the possible, prepare for it. In that spirit, consider a question: Is Pierre Trudeau – by the terms of established international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – behaving like a criminal? Is what he is up to headed this way? He has decided to imprison Christians for exercising freedoms of speech, worship, and protest. If he can imprison for resisting anti-free exercise COVID restrictions and “transgender” protests, are we far behind? Watch your six.
In a nutshell, Canada’s irreverent, constitutionally unrestrained prime minister has gradually – but with consistency, audacity, and impunity – gone after Canadians of faith who resisted COVID lockdowns, as well as resist anti-religious and anti-free speech government action.
He has now taken to targeting and arresting Christian protestors, because of their beliefs.
Some will say “come on,” or “you must be kidding,” but the sad, hard to deny truth is that religious persecution, targeting of those of faith for a number of reasons, happens regularly.
The new and disturbing part is seeing our neighbor to the north, Canada, swept into the vortex. This is a nation with whom we share a long border and long history of respect for freedom. To see egregious suppression of key human rights – those found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – is more than sobering.
Incidents of explicit, indefensible targeting, followed by persecution, intimidation, arrest, humiliation, and imprisonment of various faith communities in Canada are numerous. They would now fill a small book. The expansion of government overreach, including incidents of textbook persecution, comes from the top. It has to because they are too frequent now.
So common is suppression of formerly uncontested freedoms in Canada that articles are – based on growing fear – everywhere. Even liberals and moderates, like those old boiling frogs, feel things getting hot. The process has also been frighteningly sustained and methodical, if not systematic, and started years ago. It is now accelerating.
Worried articles abound – “On the Brink – the Criminalization of Christianity in Canada,” “Thousands of Churches Raise Alarm…,” “Canada Deaf to Persecuted Christian’s Cries,” “Canada’s Crackdown on religious Freedom is a Wake-Up Call.”
The list is long and will likely grow, until that freedom too is shut down. More disturbing than fearful objections are credible US reports of Canadian anti-religious sentiment,
indisputably discriminatory acts by Canada toward many faiths, Christian, Jewish and Muslim.
Recently, religious intolerance – by the irreligious – has grown.
We see imprisonment and mistreatment of innocent religious protestors by Canada’s political police. Just pop a search into your browser and you will get plenty of stories. Americans need to wake-up, understand that oppression of rights, if not stopped, is infectious. We need to take religious persecution seriously if we do not want it here.
Some will say, it is already here.
There are arguments for that view, but Canada is in far worse shape.
The latest mistreatment of Christian pastors across that country is genuinely arresting. One leading case is pastor Artur Pawlowski, and his family. They have been relentlessly persecuted for urging peaceful support for truckers resisting COVID restrictions, holding religious services during COVID, protesting abuse of children with over-sexualization and gender-changes.
This one pastor’s harassment, imprisonment, and ill-treatment by Trudeau is textbook persecution. It raises profound questions about Canada’s leadership, and leaders anywhere who suppress established freedoms, ignoring higher law.
Some will say “what law?” Okay, here it is. “Crimes against humanity” – according to the UN – include “persecution against any identifiable group…on political…cultural, religious…” or other “grounds…recognized as impermissible under international law.” In other words, legal actions may lie in international criminal law for crimes against humanity, not requiring war for leaders to be judged to be acting like war criminals.
What might that include? How about violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which identifies as impermissible – thus actionable – acts violating articles in that document. Notably, the Universal Declaration was framed by 50 nations, and was conceived of by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Article 18 reads: “Everyone has the freedom to think or believe what they want, including the right to religious belief…and the right to publicly or privately practice our chosen religion, alone or with others.” Article 19 reads: “Everyone has the right to their own opinions, and to be able to express them freely…with who we want, and in whichever way we choose.” Article 20 reads: “We…have the right to form groups and organize peaceful meetings. Nobody should be forced to belong to a group if they do not want to.”
More could be said – but stop here. Like it or not, Canada is slipping into anti-Christian, anti-religious, anti-free speech, and anti-self-defense waters. These are dangerous waters.
Mr. Trudeau is trampling timeless human rights. But more importantly, what happens north of us can find its way south fast. Americans should never surrender these core rights, so watch your six.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003),