HANNAFORD: Was RCMP 'ready to revolt' report just what Trudeau wanted to hear?

About two weeks ago, a secret RCMP report surfaced. Much of it was redacted, but what remained was ostensibly a warning to the Government of Canada that a lot of Canadians had had about enough. There was potential for serious trouble in the streets.Certainly, the Freedom Convoy showed two years ago that Canadians can be pushed too far. It was a surprise to everybody — even Convoy enthusiasts. Also certainly it caught the Trudeau Liberals flat-footed, and awkwardly, the RCMP… awkwardly, because the national police force is supposed to have its finger on the national pulse. (If anybody within the organization did, nobody was listening to them.)The report is undated but appears to be based on an environmental scan conducted after the Convoy had been dispersed — so summer of 2022. You can read the heavily redacted version here.I admit that my first reaction was very much what everybody else made of it, that 'you bet Canadians are fed up, and if they can't afford a place to live or food to put on the table, there very likely will be trouble.' The report also talked about the 'erosion of trust' in government institutions so you bet those who wanted to imagine anarchy, could.Then I thought again. What there was in this report, appeared to be written with an eye to those who would read it and would want to hear. Here are a few thoughts, from the little that was released for publication.First, by tracing future social unrest to climate change, the report can be used to justify all manner of government actions that may or may not lower the Earth's ambient temperature, but could certainly contribute to other Trudeau Liberal goals.For example, these people seem to think Canadians are too mobile. Why?Hard to say, but as a person’s ability to get up and go wherever they want, whenever they want and without the need to seek government permission first is (even more than the right to vote) a foundational definition of freedom, you would expect that to sit uncomfortably with a prime minister who loves the idea of a Chinese-style command-and-control economy. 'Who do people think they are, that they think they should be able to do that?'However, if you can make the case that the climate is going to blow up, maybe there’s a reason to curtail rights like that. So, if the Trudeau Liberals offer you an electric car, yet have no plan to deliver sufficient power infrastructure to charge it up for the miles you're presently accustomed to travel, their desired outcome is obvious, isn't it?A report suggesting that climate change is going to contribute to social unrest, therefore provides some cover for doing things in the name of fighting climate change, that may have an altogether different purpose.Second, those among the Trudeau Liberals who like the idea of the Government of Canada as the centre of the citizen’s life, the great provider of everything in exchange for the citizen’s personal agency, would be alarmed by this: “Access to [this] data will allow private entities to develop the means to exercise undue influence over individuals and populations at an unprecedented level.” That’s competition for the government. Not that I prefer Big Tech over Big Government. A plague on both their houses. However, if in its struggle for supremacy Big Government gets access to Big Tech’s data, there is a new scenario for the freedom-loving citizen to contemplate. Freezing bank accounts and digital ID is the beginning, not the end.And this: “There is established opposition to existing and potential public health measures and other restrictions… there is more than a ten per cent chance of another pandemic spreading within the next five years…” Message to government, you've got to keep control. Keep your Emergencies Act handy.Finally and perhaps most alarmingly, to the Trudeau Liberals the RCMP suggestion that erosion of trust was based upon the deliberate spreading of misinformation was plain catnip. It is the perfect validation for the censorship legislation that they want to do anyway.None of this seems terribly surprising. This is an RCMP report after all and much as an oldster such as myself retains vast respect for what the Mounties have done in the past and continue to do today to keep the King’s peace, it is at the top, a highly political organization. And these people are not stupid.A report such as this would not — and in my view, was not — prepared without an eye to what the readers in government would expect and require. And that is permission to do what they want to do anyway, in the name of public safety.Public safety is always where the authoritarians start.So, what next?Sorry. Can’t help you, there. ‘Next steps’ is redacted. Maybe you can reverse engineer it, according to what you think the Trudeau Liberals are really up to…

HANNAFORD: Was RCMP 'ready to revolt' report just what Trudeau wanted to hear?

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