I’ve been warning people about Canada on this blog for some time. Canada is interesting, because they have secular left leaders similar to our own Democrat party. But unlike America, there is no “brake” on the power of this political party, because the population is far more secular than in the United States. What does the secular left do when their power is unchecked?

Here’s the story from The Federalist:

Canadian pastor has “exiled” his family to Kenya after his government invoked emergency war measures to punish citizens who attended a protest where he prayed and sang the national anthem.

Harold Ristau, a decorated veteran and seminary professor, participated in the “trucker convoy” against lockdowns last February, when The Federalist interviewed him last. He is now party to a lawsuit arguing the government’s response to Covid that included treating dissent as terrorism violated Canadians’ fundamental rights.

What was interesting was what the secular left fascists felt comfortable doing to him:

For peaceably assembling to petition his government for one day last year, Ristau says, he was threatened with the removal of his security clearance and government confiscation of his retirement nest egg, kids’ college funds, and other life savings. Ristau says he’s also experienced serious damage to his reputation, career, and friendships after the government used anti-terrorism measures against peaceful protesters.

Did you get that? The secular left wants to punish people who disagree with them like this: “the removal of his security clearance and government confiscation of his retirement nest egg, kids’ college funds, and other life savings”. If you disagree with things like abortion, global warming, masking, closing schools, and mandating untested vaccines, then you should be persecuted as a terrorist. This is why you should never – and I mean never – set foot in Canada. They have gone so far to the left that they are now a fascist country. If you disagree with their secular left dogma, they will come after you and persecute you in ways not seen since the Soviet Union. And Canadians just keep voting for unqualified, incompetent secular leftists, who blame all their failures on their enemies. Just like Hitler, Stalin and Mao did. They don’t allow anyone to challenge their rule.

The persecution wasn’t limited to the father, either. It went on down to the wife and the children:

Besides dealing with overbearing health restrictions, their children were mocked at school for their family’s religious and political views, Elise Ristau told The Federalist. After enduring more than two years of severe social and government repression, the Ristaus moved outside Nairobi with their five children last August.

“I don’t know that I can go back and be a Christian in Canada. So that’s why we’re here in Kenya,” Harold Ristau said. There, the former chaplain with a Ph.D. in philosophy trains Kenyan pastors at the Lutheran School of Theology.

I was particularly interested in the government’s “freezing” of bank accounts… essentially trying to starve their slaves into submission if they disagreed with the government’s propaganda.

Government use of “debanking” to punish dissent is growing in the West. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government used it on essentially every convoy participant authorities could identify, said Moore.

“As soon as they knew your name if you were on the ground [protesting] in Ottawa, they froze your bank account,” Moore told The Federalist. “…The federal government met with the banks, they gave the [protesters’] names to the banks, and the banks were then pushed to freeze the bank accounts of anyone with that name in their banks. It was a fascist collaboration.”

[…]Leftist activists also filed a class-action lawsuit against every Canadian who donated to the convoy. It seeks $300 million in damages.

The closing of bank accounts is routine in the United Kingdom as well. If you are too conservative, then they just close your bank accounts. You have to be forced to comply with what the state believes. And religious liberty is no defense. Not in a secular left fascist country.

None of these methods were used against secular left criminals and terrorists, who were actually violent and dangerous.

Canadian lockdowns kept gyms, restaurants, and liquor stores open but closed churches. Leftist protesters were allowed to yell and sing without masks, and the prime minister kneeled to them, all while provinces banned Christians from singing and chanting in church for years.

[…]Rev. Johannes Nieminen wasn’t allowed to cross provincial borders to perform his pastoral duties, while other Canadians could do so for work, he told The Federalist. After he was denied border entry several times, he said, police finally let him through — but told him he wasn’t allowed to meet with parishioners or hold church services.

Christians were especially singled out for punishment, and many of the “don’t judge” Christians approved of the government for doing it:

Police regularly showed up at churches on Sunday mornings and fined pastors whose parking lots had too many cars, he said. ARPA Canada and JCCF litigated a number of those cases and were often able to get pastors’ fines negotiated down to charitable donations.

[…]So far, “none of the [legal] challenges to worship restrictions on church services have succeeded” in Canada, said John Sikkema, a lawyer at the nonprofit firm ARPA Canada.

“Culturally, people find going to the gym very important and less so going to church,” Sikkema noted. “Especially when some churches don’t seem to care and don’t think it’s necessary.”

I thought this summary of the state of religious liberty in Canada was very interesting:

In Canada, Christians are often required to lie or betray their faith to access government grants and licensing credentials, and avoid punishment in many professions, Sikkema said. Many Canadian doctors, lawyers, and teachers, for example, are required to endorse abortion and LGBT sexual acts. Canadian doctors and many other health care workers must help patients obtain an abortion or doctor-assisted suicide.

In 2018, Canada’s Supreme Court banned a Christian law school from opening over Christian sexual standards. The Canadian military is also working to eject chaplains over Christian sexual ethics. Just about every Canadian business sports a government-provided pride flag, Nieminen said. Churches that object to transgender mutilation of children have faced naked protesters as families arrive to worship, Sikkema said.

“Canadians are very aware that we don’t have freedom of religion, we don’t have freedom of speech, we don’t have the right to assemble if that’s in disagreement with the regime,” Nieminen said. “Pastors and teachers cannot speak about the morality of human sexuality. That is a reality Canadians live in, and I think that’s partly why they’re afraid to speak out.”

It’s very important for Christians in America to not capitulate to the “don’t judge” emotional culture. We can’t afford to capitulate to the secular left, and allow them to force their views on us. And on our children. Learn from Canada, and don’t make their mistakes.