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It's a little scary how some leaders are using this pandemic to grab power. Even Canada's PM tried to grant himself emergency powers that went a little too far.

by beloch 7y ago

It's a little scary how some leaders are using this pandemic to grab power. Even Canada's PM tried to grant himself emergency powers that went a little too far. He had to back down because he controls a minority of seats and the other parties noticed what had been snuck into an emergency bill [1]. If this almost happened in Canada, we should expect there will be a lot of countries where citizens will have to make noise to ensure emergency powers don't become permanent powers. [1]https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/politics/liberals-to-back-off-on-broad-spending-powers-without-oversight-in-emergency-funding-bill-1.4865204 https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/politics/liberals-to-back-off-...

dmix 7y ago
I'm amazed this didn't make many headlines, even here in Canada. If a politician in the US, UK, etc tried to push an emergency bill that allowed them to tax/spend without any congressional/parliamentary oversight for 1-2yrs it'd be a big deal. Not to mention the current government didn't even win a majority government... so it's hardly the same as some rubberstamp parliament. I guess because it didn't pass parliament? Regardless this has to go down as one of the biggest attempted power grabs in the history of Canada. We're already seeing what that might have meant, a few days ago Trudeau announced any company (even major public multinational companies) that loses 30% of business would get up to 75% of wages covered... the problem was the bill that just got passed said none of that. The bill was limited to small private companies with <$12 million in revenue and had no measures of "lost business" (which makes far, far more sense, why give companies with access to plenty of capital the same help as struggling small/medium businesses? Not to mention "lost business" is very easy to manipulate for big companies).
L_226 7y ago
It happened in Australia - https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/01/labor-says-parliament-should-sit-to-scrutinise-governments-coronavirus-emergency-powers https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/01/labor...

by beloch 7y ago

dmix 7y ago

I'm amazed this didn't make many headlines, even here in Canada. If a politician in the US, UK, etc tried to push an emergency bill that allowed them to tax/spend without any congressional/parliamentary oversight for 1-2yrs it'd be a big deal. Not to mention the current government didn't even win a majority government... so it's hardly the same as some rubberstamp parliament. I guess because it didn't pass parliament? Regardless this has to go down as one of the biggest attempted power grabs in the history of Canada. We're already seeing what that might have meant, a few days ago Trudeau announced any company (even major public multinational companies) that loses 30% of business would get up to 75% of wages covered... the problem was the bill that just got passed said none of that. The bill was limited to small private companies with <$12 million in revenue and had no measures of "lost business" (which makes far, far more sense, why give companies with access to plenty of capital the same help as struggling small/medium businesses? Not to mention "lost business" is very easy to manipulate for big companies).

L_226 7y ago

It happened in Australia - https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/01/labor-says-parliament-should-sit-to-scrutinise-governments-coronavirus-emergency-powers https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/01/labor...