I have never set foot in Canada. The closest I have ever been was in Alaska or maybe Seattle, Washington.

I have always wanted to visit Canada. My favorite Spanish teacher, Mrs. Ford, at Bell Junior High School always said that Americans should learn either French or Spanish to better understand Canada (they speak French and English) or Mexico. I have been to some Mexican ports while on cruises to the Caribbean.

I have no desire to visit Canada these days.

Canada’s government is acting more like Communist China in its reaction to the Freedom Convoy – a group of thousands of Canadian citizens who want the government to end the onerous restrictions on their freedom, including ending the vaccine  and mask mandates imposed in response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

This month, Canadian authorities arrested Pastor Artus Pawlowski after he spoke to members of a trucker blockade on the U.S.-Canada border in Courtts, Alberta, on February 4. He was placed in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. In other words, they wanted to make an example of him to others who might dare to speak against government policy.

His message? Continue the protest until the government backs down and do so in a non-violent manner. The truckers had agreed to stop the blockade of the U.S. border and travel to Edmonton after his speech.

Pawlowski has been arrested five times since the pandemic started two years ago. Last April, he threw armed police out of his church when they tried to inspect it for coronavirus compliance during an Easter service.

As a young man, he had fled the communist regime in Poland. He talks about the similarities between the Canada protest and Poland’s solidarity movement in the 1980s.

This time, he has been charged with one count of “mischief”, one count of blocking critical infrastructure and one count of violating a bail condition by “not keeping the peace.” He had been placed on probation in October. He has been denied bail.

While he fasts in prison, prayer vigils have been underway in Canada and the United States.

U.S. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, has asked the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to add Canada to its “special watch list” because of the mistreatment of pastors in that country.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with the strong urging of President Joe Biden, invoked “emergency powers” to end the trucker protest. This is the first time this has ever been done in Canada. Trudeau essentially declared martial law just because of a peaceful protest. Trudeau has refused to meet with the truckers and has labeled it “an insurrection.”

Trudeau and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti said the powers are temporary and will be limited geographically and in scope, and that the Canadian military won’t be involved.

Several Canadian premiers publicly disagreed with Trudeau’s actions. Those were in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and Quebec.

The news media in Canada is as biased and progressive as the mainstream media in the United States. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation suggested that the truckers are being backed by Russian elements because of support for Ukraine against Russia by the Canadian government.

The U.S. media, with the exception of Fox News, is portraying the trucker protest as a bunch of right-wing racists who are spurred on by a unquestioning loyalty to former President Trump. They refuse to draw any comparisons to the freedom marches of the 1960s in this country.

Trudeau could end this protest immediately by meeting with the truckers and canceling the coronarvirus restrictions. But he won’t because he, like Biden, wants more government control over the lives of the common people.

A trucker protest scares leaders like Trudeau and Biden. They don’t understand why free people won’t stand in line to be ordered around, especially when it comes to their health and mobility.

Canada, and the United States arguably to a lesser extent, is racing toward socialism and totalitarianism. The pandemic is a perfect scheme to force compliance under the argument of “true science.”

The goal is simple – a one-world government. That is not a “conspiracy theory.” It’s something that is playing out right before our eyes with our northern neighbor.

So, I am going to stay away from Canada until things change. They need to vote out Trudeau and to put the brakes on their socialist tendencies. They need to restore the freedoms that made their nation great. They need to stop the religious persecution of Christians.

And they need to stop taking advice from Joe Biden.