BUCK: The big thing Clay and I wanted to dive into with is martial law in Canada. This is what is actually going on right now. The truckers have been so successful, this has been such a serious movement underway — such a challenge to the regime, to the apparatus of covid control — that now for the first time under this new version of the so-called Emergencies Act, you have Justin Trudeau saying that this is essentially a form of insurrection.

They’re going to treat these truckers like they would, at some level, domestic terrorists. They’re going to seize their funds. They’re going to shut down their protests. They will send in additional police resources, and people worry if the military could be called in. Here is Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act.

TRUDEAU: The federal government (dramatic pause) has invoked the Emergencies Act to supplement provincial and territorial capacity to address the blockades and occupations.

BUCK: Clay, this is a huge escalation of the situation on the ground in Ottawa right now. I worry that he’s going to order the brave men sitting in their trucks demanding nothing but normalcy… They are gonna get thrown onto the icy pavement, gonna get treated like domestic terrorists, because this has become a test of the apparatus.

And, Clay, I’m talking to people up in Canada. I’m talking to people tied into the political system up there who know the political system up there. They’re saying the truckers could bring down Trudeau government. This could actually happen. It’s big.

CLAY: This should be terrifying to anybody who values freedom in any way. This is an unbelievable act undertaken by Justin Trudeau that effectively does away with democracy in Canada. And, Buck, the part of it that is even more expansive than just the powers that he’s undertaken is how they’re going to be certainly impacted. And did you see where they have unilaterally expanded the definition of terrorism to encompass crowdfunding sites that are supporting the truckers in any way?

That is now considered to be within the scope of terrorist-related activity. And so theoretically if you have given $50 to support the truckers to a GoFundMe — and I believe all of these different people who have donated money, their minds have now been released. In some way, that’s been leaked. But in theory, you could be charged with aiding and abetting terrorism.

I just… As you look at what is going on in Canada, understand that the left wing, which may have started with good intentions… Let’s presume that they initially had good intentions — and you can argue that maybe they didn’t, but let’s presume good intentions. They have become so drunk with their own power and the emergencies that they have been able to argue for in relation to covid that now they are tossing aside many of the bedrock principles that have protected freedom in democracies around the world.

When I saw this happen yesterday afternoon, Buck, right after we went off the air, it was utterly chilling to see what is happening in Canada right now. I understand a lot of Americans are out there like, “Why should I care about what’s going on in Canada?” Because Joe Biden would do this if he could. Make no mistake: What Justin Trudeau is doing is a left-wing fever dream that many different elected left-wing officials would like to be able to embark upon.

This is not some crazy outlier. Without significant opposition, Justin Trudeau has done it such that, Buck. I was reading this morning — and this is not gonna shock people. (chuckles) I’m rarely out and about reading Canadian news. I don’t seek out the Toronto Star to be like, “Hey, what are they talking about in Canada today?” The Toronto Star, which is my understanding — you can correct me if I’m wrong, Buck, and certainly I’m sure we have a lot of listeners in Canada who will.

But I think it’s a left-wing stalwart of the Canadian media. To their credit, their lead editorial is, “Invoking the Emergencies Act is a Shocking Admission of Failure — Many will cheer the Trudeau government’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act … But we will not join the cheering. … [G]oing that route is a shocking admission of failure by governments at all levels.”

BUCK: Clay, this is not argument right now that this isn’t even a justified — in any sense — invocation in Canada under their own law of the Emergencies Act. The situation — this is according to the BBC — as outlined in the law is supposed to involve “espionage or sabotage, foreign influence activities, threats or use of acts of serious violence for political, religious, or ideological objectives or acts intended to undermine or overthrow the constitutionally established government.”

This is, essentially, an insurrection act statute in Canada. This is we are in a state of true emergency, and if we don’t have extraordinary powers for the prime minister, the whole thing could come tumbling down. This is how they’re reacting to truckers who are playing hockey in the streets and having outdoor barbecues and playing music? And what do the truckers want? This is the other fascinating thing.

They’re not calling for some radical change in society. They’re calling for normal society. They’re calling for life to go back to normal. These truckers may be striking the single biggest blow for freedom in the Western world since the pandemic started and on the other side of this — she’s former journalist, by the way, the deputy prime minister. You mentioned this” They’re gonna seize not just the bank accounts of truckers. Giving your money to them or your business gives money to the truckers, they’re going to treat this like a terrorism finance issue under this law.

Canada is unilaterally making crowd funding platforms supporting Canadian truckers the subject of money laundering terrorism laws. Justin Trudeau’s government is now a dictatorship with his emergency powers declaration. pic.twitter.com/0th23zLKsh

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) February 14, 2022

DEPUTY PM AND MINISTER OF FINANCE CHRYSTIA FREELAND: As of today, a bank or other financial service provider will be able to freeze or suspend an account without a court order. By doing so, they will be protected against civil liability for actions taken in good faith.

CLAY: That’s crazy, Buck.

BUCK: Can you imagine, Clay? So

CLAY: Yeah. I tweeted this.

BUCK: Can you imagine if during BLM riots, the Trump administration was like, “You know what? If you donate…” Kamala Harris called for a bail fund for rioters in Minnesota. People had burned down a police precinct, and the sitting vice president now (then would-be vice president), said, “Give money to them.” If Trump had seized bank accounts… By the way, I think he would have been wrong to do that. But the point is had he done that they would have said, “The long dark night of fascism is here and America is done.” Look what they’re doing in Canada.

CLAY: It’s so true. Again, just to take a step back ’cause I do sometimes when we talk about foreign affairs people say, “Why you talking about Canada right now?” I understand that argument. First of all, we have a lot of Canadian listeners, and we appreciate all of you listening north of the border. But the answer is because the precedents matter as they occur in democracies, particularly democracies that are as closely aligned as Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden are.

So to Buck’s point, think big picture here. In the summer of 2020, imagine if Donald Trump had unilaterally decided by using his own powers as president that he was going to shut down all crowdfunding sources that were supporting BLM protests — and that on top of that, anybody who had donated money to them, he was going to potentially seize their bank accounts to keep them from donating money further.

The United States media — CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post — and, frankly, I think even otherwise aligned Trump organizations. I think Fox News would have said this is wrong. I think the Wall Street Journal would have said this is wrong. I think right and left in this country would have said this is an overreach of presidential power that we cannot countenance. There would have been immediate lawsuits.

It would have probably gone direct almost to the Supreme Court as it worked its way through the system rapidly. And Justin Trudeau is doing it. (chuckles) Again, Justin Trudeau is doing that. So this is why I always say, “Principles and precedents matter,” and I understand people get upset about that, but it’s the lawyer in me, right? I’m always trying to think in my mind, “Okay. I might disagree with this right now, but is the precedent that we are setting the right one?”

So if you are on the left and you’re for some reason angry at the truckers, the question that’s easy to ask is… Protests are not gonna end with the Canadian truckers, right? There’s always going to be protests in the United States, in Canada, wherever else. Whatever laws you support and endorse for one form of protest, you need to be able to apply them without fail based on not the content of the protest but a content-neutral approach. And that’s not happening here. And the same people that would have been rending their garments if this has happened to BLM are allowing it to occur and happen to the Canadian truckers and saying nothing at all.

BUCK: Notice how Trudeau — who is in many ways the archetype of the pseudointellectual beta male in the West, right? This guy, if he wasn’t a Canadian prime minister, he’d probably have an afternoon weekend show on MSNBC talking about how white supremacy is the biggest threat facing the country. You just know who he is. He’s not even defending the mandates anymore, and he never really did. He just uses the vague language of, “Oh, this is about keeping all Canadians safe, and these truckers are neo-Nazis.” Really?

CLAY: White supremacists.

BUCK: And the Koreans and the Indian immigrants and the other people that are showing up to these protests, they’re white supremacists and neo-Nazis? I don’t think so. And you just see here when the apparatus gets pushed, all the sudden, you see a very quick shift, Clay. You see a very quick transformation, if you will, about how a Canadian government full of preachy “here are my pronouns” libs turn into vicious authoritarians who will demand that people posing no threat to anyone be bludgeoned by police in front of their families for standing athwart the system and its tyranny. That’s my fear here as they’re calling in additional police resources. Because these truckers aren’t going anywhere. So what happens?

CLAY: Yeah. And, Buck, it’s such a good question. Are they going to create violence where there has been none, right? Unlike the BLM protests which we saw take place all over this country that were wildly violent and destructive to many different city neighborhoods all over this country, the truckers haven’t done anything, right? They’ve actually been peaceful protesters.

And what they’re asking for — I think this is important — is just normalcy. All they’re saying is, “Hey, let’s go back to pre-covid rules in Canada,” and the Canadian government won’t allow it even as all over the country and all over the world, all over the United States and all over the world covid restrictions are collapsing almost immediately.