Only a short time ago, Canada was a free country. Now Prime Minister Trudeau asserts the power to arrest persons and seize property without a warrant, freeze bank and crypto accounts, and end dissidents’ ability to feed their families. How did this happen?

• Like other Commonwealth members, Canada has no written constitution. When Brits talk about the “constitution,” they mean their centuries-old way of doing things. That  can change really fast. It has. Canada has a Charter of Rights, but it is merely an act of parliament that can be changed or repealed by a simple majority vote. So when the Biden Administration used a “work-around” to enforce its vaccine mandate, what was being “worked around” was the Constitution. We should have noticed.

• In Canada as in the US, when the greatest generation came home from World War II, they worked to give their kids what they didn’t have: plenty of stuff and educations. They succeeded. But they forgot to give their kids what they DID have: Judeo-Christian ethics and beliefs. Without “Thou shalt not steal,” why not loot? Without God, the government is supreme. Without faith, a pandemic is terrifying, so the all-powerful government becomes the savior.

Without the brakes of a hard-to-amend constitution and religious scruples, it is impossible to stop when we find ourselves going downhill. It is impossible even to slow down. All we can do is hope to survive the crash. Or we can work harder to restore our Constitution and Bill of Rights, and restore faith in a just God who judges nations as well as individuals, I prefer the second alternative. How about you?