Kerby Anderson

Not so long ago, authoritarian leaders who wanted to extend their power and reduce the freedom of their citizens had to resort to force. State police were directed to round up political opponents and put them in jail or make them disappear. Brownshirts or party members were sent into protests to break them up. But our new digital world has shown political leaders there is a different way to force their will on the citizens. We have seen this playing out in Canada. It doesn’t matter what you think of the government and the truckers. You must admit that what has transpired over the last few weeks is unprecedented and perhaps shows other leaders how to control a country. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used the Emergencies Act to freeze financial accounts (including personal bank accounts and cryptocurrency transactions). The Minister of Finance declared that banks could do this “without a court order” and would “be protected against civil liability.” It’s also worth mentioning that two years ago, Black Lives Matter occupied parliament hill in the capital, but Trudeau did not invoke these same emergency powers to stop those protests. Our digital world now makes it very easy to freeze bank accounts and cut off financial transactions. These are powers previous dictators could only dream of having at their disposal. No need to send in the police or the military. Just have polite, mild-mannered Canadian bankers freeze the accounts. With a little help from corporations and the tech world, you can shut down crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe and GiveSendGo and then publish the names of donors so they can be doxed or fired. In this digital world, authoritarian leaders no longer send in the troops. They merely need to push some buttons and cut off the money.