The rule of law, not the rule of claw, is what makes a democracy

HALIFAX—Sometimes the future shows up in faraway places. Last week, it landed in Quito, Ecuador. Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated at a campaign event while running to be his country’s president. He was promising to crack down on Ecuador’s “narco state” and someone disagreed. It was a 12-bullet disagreement. Life also ended for another man much closer to home. In Utah, Craig Robertson was shot dead by FBI officers who came to arrest him for threatening the life of U.S. President Joe Biden. Robertson, who self-described as a “Democrat Terminator,” also posted threats against prosecutors working on Donald Trump’s myriad criminal cases, as well as other political figures. Robertson, a Trump supporter, posted his threat against the president online: “Hear Biden is coming to Utah—digging out my old ghille suit and cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle. Welcome Buffoon in Chief.” Robertson, aged 75, was shot after allegedly pointing a weapon at a member of the FBI SWAT team that came to arrest him. Before that, another Trump supporter, Ricky Shiffer, was shot dead during an attack on the FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio. After Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was searched, Shiffer posted on social media that FBI agents should be killed. He also put out a call for like-minded people to “be ready for combat.” A new study from the University of Chicago came up with some chilling data on the state of America’s body politic, and alarmingly, its attitude towards violence. On the Team Crazy side, 10 per cent of Americans believe the government is run by Satan-worshipping pedophiles. Twenty-five per cent believe in the so-called “replacement theory," in which it is alleged that Black and Brown people will replace whites, who will then effectively lose their country. According to the study, a stunning 142 million Americans believe that elections won’t solve the country’s problems. And one in five people believe that Trump is the real president. Then there was this finding. Two-and-a-half years after Trump instigated the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Jan. 6, 2021—a riot in which five people died, police were beaten, and hundreds were sent to prison—12 million American adults believe that violence is justified to restore Trump to the White House. This is how the director of the study, Prof. Robert Pape, described his findings on how Americans feel about using force to achieve their goals. “What’s happening in the United States is political violence is going from the fringe to the mainstream.” And Pape worries that the perfect storm could be brewing in America: a mixture of distrust in democracy, a belief in conspiracy theories, and support for violence. Nor does it help that one group wants to put Trump in the White House while another wants to put him in jail. The antagonists are set to collide during the 2024 presidential election with potentially catastrophic consequences. The man fanning the flames is Trump. With his fourth indictment expected in Georgia, Trump has released a television ad defaming and vilifying District Attorney Fani Willis. Willis is expected to charge as many as 12 people after a two-and-a-half-year investigation into the efforts of Trump & Friends to subvert the election results in Georgia, a state won by Biden. Trump plans to use the ad in heavy rotation next week in Atlanta, ahead of his likely indictment, describing Willis as a member of the “Fraud Squad.” It will also be played in New York and Washington, D.C., as well as nationally. Trump knows how to play dirty. The ad delves into the prosecutor’s sex life, accusing her of having an affair with the leader of a gang she was prosecuting. It is a charge that Trump himself has made in campaign speeches. Willis has called the ad “derogatory and false,” but instructed her staff not to respond to Trump’s provocation. Most of the DA’s staff is already working at home out of concern for their personal safety. Threats have poured in against Willis, and her heavily defended workplace looks more like the Alamo than a courthouse as decision day looms. Canada, too, has experienced intimations of the same phenomenon that is threatening the heart of democracy in the United States, the rule of law. No one died in Belleville, Ont., when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was swarmed, but it was an assault, not a protest. During the 2021 federal election campaign, the PM was unhurt when a protestor pelted him with gravel, an attack for which the perpetrator was sentenced to house arrest. In 2020, a reservist in the Canadian Rangers rammed the gates of Rideau Hall, the grounds of the governor general's residence and that of the PM, who was then living in Rideau Cottage while 24 Sussex was under renovation. For 13 minutes, Cory Hurren roamed loose on the grounds, carrying a gun. He had driven 1,900 kilometres to confront the PM, a dark odyssey that landed him in prison for six years. Finally came the truckers’ chaotic blockade in Ottawa and across the country in 2022. Despite the illegal actions of the occupiers, the Conservative Party endorsed the protest. The once-upon-a-time party of law and order championed the mob for weeks until it became obvious that Canadians strongly disapproved. How bad did things get? Some of the protesters who wanted the Coutts, Alta., border crossing to remain closed were prepared to use violence to achieve their goal. The Alberta RCMP charged four “protesters” with conspiracy to commit murder. Authorities uncovered a huge cache of weapons. A tactical vest was also seized, bearing the flag of Diagolon, a neo-fascist group allegedly founded in Nova Scotia. The crisis at Coutts ended peacefully after the RCMP seized the weapons. But the other weapons that made Coutts possible—being soft on hate speech, confusing protest and assault, and seeing political opportunities in chaos—are still very much around. A lot of work needs to be done to make sure that the trend towards vigilante politics, so evident in the United States, doesn’t take root here. A good place to start would be an all-party press conference where every Canadian political leader denounces and condemns the use of violence in our public life. The Liberals and the NDP have got to stop pussy-footing around with people who are thugs rather than protesters. Free speech is one thing. But confusing it with hate speech is quite another. The Conservative Party also has a role to play in re-civilizing our politics. Instead of spending $3-million on a makeover it hopes will turn their attack-trained chihuahua into Lassie, the CPC should make clear to the forces on the extreme right of their base that violence can never be a legitimate implement in their political tool kit. The rule of law—not the rule of claw is—what makes a democracy. Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist. The Hill Times

The rule of law, not the rule of claw, is what makes a democracy

A lot of work needs to be done to make sure that vigilante politics doesn’t take root here. A good start would be an all-party press conference where every Canadian political leader condemns the use of violence in our public life.

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The rule of law, not the rule of claw, is what makes a democracy

A lot of work needs to be done to make sure that vigilante politics doesn’t take root here. A good start would be an all-party press conference where every Canadian political leader condemns the use of violence in our public life.

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