13 thoughts on “If you have money in a Canadian bank, get out now”

  1. All of my money is in Canadian banks, more’s the pity: maybe it’s time for me to give cryptocurrency another look.

    I just need to somehow move everything before the government finds out I’ve commented here on Crowhill, which could easily be suspicion enough that I donated to the truckers, and I’d have my accounts frozen. I used to joke about keeping a few thousand dollars in cash around in case I needed to escape suddenly, but maybe it’s not so funny.

    On the bright side, the government didn’t sit today to debate the Emergencies Act, on the grounds that it’s too dangerous because they’re implementing the Emergencies Act, so I’ve got beyond-parodic circularity going for me.

    1. “Emergencies” are how governments justify assuming more power. What we need are anti-emergencies when we take it back.

        1. If only Republicans and their goons treated the election of Biden for the presidency as an anti-emergency!

        2. No, not even conceptually. Elections change which party can exercise executive or legislative power, both powers such as they have de jure and those they’ve arrogated de facto. Elections don’t affect what powers those groups can exercise.

          1. Elections, at least in the US, can significantly impact what and when certain powers can be exercised.

            1. Can you give an example? Admittedly, I’m more familiar with the Canadian system — an unusual hybrid of British commonlaw, Napoleonic influence in Quebec, relatively recent Charter principles (although apparently they can be ignored if you say you’re not ignoring them, so it’s not clear whether they matter) and occasionally First Nations treaty complications — than I am the US.

              But I can’t think of anything offhand where something is not a power justly exercised by a legislature, but then there’s an election and the membership of the legislature changes, and then it’s legal, or vice versa. (I’m setting aside pedantic corner cases where because of some sudden inability to serve there’s no longer a quorum, or something like that.)

              I’ve read a fair number of legal cases about constitutional powers and I’ve yet to see anyone bring up “but then there was an election” in them. But again I barely rise to the level of an interested amateur in foreign law.

              1. *Prior to Covid, Pennsylvania state law (Act 77) legalized no-excuse mail-in voting as a compromise between Democrats and Republicans (in the Senate, passed 35-14, Republicans voted 27-0 in favor along with eight Democrats; all 14 dissenting votes came from Democrats. In the House, Republicans voted 105-2 in favor while Democrats were more divided). Since Biden’s victory in 2020, a five-judge panel agreed with Republicans that challenged the law, saying the state’s constitution required people to vote in person unless they had a specific excuse, such as having a disability or being away from home on Election Day.

                *In 2018, after losing the election, Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed a slate of bills, passed by Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled legislature, will curbed incoming Democrat governor-elect Tony Evers’s power in office, and potentially made it harder for Democrats to get elected in the future.

                *Democrats Gretchen Whitmer, Dana Nessel, and Jocelyn Benson won the governor, attorney general, and secretary of state races. Michigan Republicans attempted to guarantee the GOP-controlled legislature the right to intervene in any legal battles involving state laws that the attorney general may be reluctant to defend, as well as remove campaign finance oversight from the Secretary of State’s office.

                *In North Carolina the Republican-controlled legislature stripped incoming Democrat Roy Cooper’s power over Cabinet appointments, made the state’s judicial system more partisan, and ensured that the state’s board of elections would be controlled by Republicans in election years.

                *Conservatives seek to eliminate legal abortion by electing those that would appoint SCOTUS justices that would be sympathetic to their views. The same strategy has been employed at lower court levels to influence how laws are interpreted and applied (by both parties).

                Indeed, elections have consequences and can influence what power can be exercised.

      2. Which is why the voters of Pennsylvania passed a constitutional amendment last spring to put time limits on executive emergency powers, after which the legislature can intervene.

        That works as long as the legislature is an effective check on the executive. When it’s not, we’re right back where we started.

  3. QUOTE: Why would anyone keep their money in a California bank after this?</b?

    Is the link suppose to say “Canadian” bank?

  4. Ah, good. I was starting to worry I’d missed something profound, but none of those are about elections changing what powers can be exercised at all. You’re simply listing things that legislatures and judicial branches WHO ARE ALREADY ELECTED can do, and in fact need to do, because simply electing them (or appointing them) didn’t suffice.

    Life is short, so I’m going to assume all of your descriptions are completely correct, as if this were a motion to dismiss where we accept the pleadings as accurate.

    > Indeed, elections have consequences and can influence what power can be exercised.

    We can agree that elections do have consequences, and laws that legislatures pass and rulings that judges announce can influence what powers can be exercised by different branches of governments, with the scope of the variation often limited by some underlying written or unwritten constitution. But it’s not elections that do either of those things, as people who are consistently disappointed with the achievements of the people they voted for could tell you.

    1. You missed my point. Yet, we can agree that life is short…so no need belaboring the point. Elections can indeed provide anti-emergency remedies through directing what powers can be exercised.

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