Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. Justin Trudeau’s complete lack of self-awareness
On Friday Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared at a meeting of Toronto’s Ukrainian community – sans mask, but bearing Ukraine ribbon – to deliver a stern warning: we need to be aware of “slippage” in our democracies.
Justin says – “leaders are becoming more authoritarian”.
And he’s right – Less than three weeks ago he invoked the Emergencies Act to criminalise peaceful protest and then seize and/or freeze the private property of people who had done nothing but donate money to peaceful protesters.
Justin says – “countries are allowing too much misinformation and disinformation”
And he’s right – The Canadian establishment reported that the Freedom Convoy was full of white supremacists who were stealing food from homeless shelters and being funded by “foreign agents”. None of that was ever proven true.
Justin says – “our current political climate emboldened Putin, and made him think he could get away with starting a war” Continue reading “This Week in the New Normal”
