At first, I assumed Justin Trudeau was just a bit tragic. When the dashing Canadian PM rose to power in 2015, the man seemed too cringe to be real. A man who confused virtue-signalling with statesmanship and Tumblr talking points with a political ideology. A man who once chided a woman at a public event for using the word ‘mankind’ (‘We like to say peoplekind’, he retorted). But as a ruling of the Canadian Federal Court this week reminds us, beneath the colourful socks, woke bromides and disconcertingly long history of blacking up resides a dangerous authoritarian.

Remember the Freedom Convoy? This was the Canadian truckers’ revolt against Covid mandates which began two years ago this week. In January 2022, truckers blockaded major trade routes and rolled into Ottawa, beginning a month-long, often carnivalesque occupation of the Canadian capital. It was sparked by a change in vaccination rules that would have made life intolerable for unvaccinated truckers, even though most people were already jabbed and the threat from Covid was well on the wane. But it soon morphed into a much broader revolt against lockdown authoritarianism and the contempt it showed for blue-collar workers.

Trudeau’s response, you may recall, was enough to make Xi Jinping proud. He invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history, granting the government sweeping powers to freeze protesters’ bank accounts, break up demonstrations, crush crowdfunding efforts and compel tow-truck firms to clear the streets. The crackdown was all the more outrageous given many of the blockades were already in the process of being resolved amicably. Plus, those parked up in Ottawa had been peaceful. They held cookouts, honked horns and danced. Which is why there were remarkably few arrests. Before Trudeau sent the heavies in, that is.