“Are you saying the Insurrection Control Act is an attempt to impose a dictatorship?”
“Whether that was their original intent is hard to say. But now, with the Act in place and the force to back it up, the temptation to extend it, to make it permanent, will be irresistible. They’re in charge, and they won’t give up power without a fight. Just watch. When they’ve beaten the demonstrators into submission, they’ll announce that they’re sorry, but the situation is still unstable, so they have to maintain the emergency measures for a little while more. Of course, the little while ultimately becomes the norm.”
“But Don, the people wouldn’t tolerate that. We’re used to our freedoms. We won’t let them be taken away so easily.”
“I wish I was as optimistic as you are. But I’m not. Listen to the radio talk shows. Look at social media. There is a vast number of people who are tired of the confrontations between industry and environmentalists and natives. Most people just want to get on with their lives. There’s a growing and frightening consensus that these measures may be dictatorial, but if they help, bring them on.”
“Aren’t you exaggerating how people really feel?”
“Have you seen the advertisements, sorry, public service announcements, coming from the government? They’re propaganda. They’re designed to create an enemy and to make it a thought crime not to condemn that enemy. The more they hammer away, the more the enemy becomes real and the more most people are willing to support what the government does.”
“Who’s this enemy?”
“Does it matter? For some, it’s industry and profits. For others, it’s environmentalists and Indigenous activists. For others, it’s ivory tower academics who have no idea of the struggles of the little guy. The middle class. The government is creating an environment in which everyone can see himself as besieged and everyone else as besiegers. The government is your friend and the Insurrection Control Act, which is aimed at your enemies, is the shield.”
“So how does it end?”
“I see just two outcomes. Either Canada becomes and remains authoritarian, or there will be an armed insurrection. A revolution.”
“Is that likely?”
“I think it’s inevitable.”
“I can’t accept that. I believe the government will repeal the Act once they’ve established calm.”
“Well, Bill, let’s wait and see. It won’t take long. If they’re going to repeal the Act, we’ll see signs of that in the next six months. If not, it they intend it to be permanent, we’ll also see indications of that.”
“What kinds of indications would tell you they intend to maintain it?”
“A tightening of the screws. For example, restrictions on fuel for private vehicles. That’s a tempting target. If that happens, watch out.”
“Why do you say that’s a tempting target?”
“The car is a symbol of independence. You can go wherever you want whenever you want. Eliminating it is a means of stripping people of that freedom.”
“But even in the worst authoritarian regimes, people have cars. Or at least motorbikes.”
“Yes, but those countries don’t have an established tradition of independence that has to be squelched. Canada does. Removing cars is a route to imposing control.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
‘Well, Bill, order will be re-established within months. I expect that by the end of the year, we’ll know the direction the government is going.”
31
ROOTS OF THE RESISTANCE
Roald called Darius and Ilona into his inner sanctum, a rough office with a latched door and the understanding among his team that only those who were invited ever went inside.
They entered the room to a cheerful greeting and an introduction to a man called Gus. Gus was small, even more so than Darius, with an air of detachment about him as if he were not part of the world, merely an observer and critic. Darius and Ilona had seen him around, but never on a mission, leading them to wonder what he did. On occasion, even Roald joined in the attacks, but Gus never took part in any of their actions.
Roald said, “You know Gus. He’s our chief strategist. He lays out the big picture. I’ll let him do the talking.”
Darius signed Roald’s words. When Ilona signed, “What is big picture?” he shrugged.
Gus said, “We’ve asked you in because you have proven your worth and your loyalty to the resistance, and because it is clear to us you are intelligent and resourceful. More so than I could say of most of our people. Given that, we want to move you to a higher level of engagement.”
Darius thought, I’ve heard that before. And it didn’t end well. He said, “What does that mean?”
“Attacking Peaks in ones and twos is a low-return activity. It’s easy, but it doesn’t accomplish much.” When Darius finished signing, Gus turned to Ilona and signed, “You agree?”
A mix of confusion and surprise on her face, she signed, “Yes. Always more come.”
“Right. So the secret is to hit them so hard it hurts them. To kill a lot of them, yes, but even more, to take down their senior officers. Those people are much tougher to replace. But there’s a problem. Can you guess what it is?”
Gus’s words flooded Darius with images of his charred village, the violated bodies. His voice shook when he said, “They’ll hit back even harder.”
“You’re right, and that brutality gives us a problem and an opportunity. The problem is that the Peak retribution could turn the public against us. We need their discretion for our survival. The opportunity is that it could turn the public against them. Tilting that balance is my role and the role of a team of what you might call propagandists.”
“What is that?”
“We have access to the best minds available, and we give them the responsibility of shaping public opinion through writing, speeches, meetings, even broadcasts.”
“Broadcasts? How?”
“We’ve been able to set up pirate radio and television stations. They can’t stay on the air for long because the Peaks are monitoring for them, but we can usually get in a half-hour message. That’s enough to help sway the public in our direction.”
“But aren’t they there already? Everyone I’ve spoken to hates the Peaks. It shouldn’t be hard to get people opposed to something they already despise.”
Gus signed, “What you think?”
Ilona thought for a minute. “Hating Peaks not same as hating government. Government is responsible.”
Gus clapped his hands together. “Wonderful. You have grasped what few among us have. That our enemy is the government. The Peaks are merely their weapon.”
Darius said, “Merely? It’s an awfully powerful weapon.”
“It is. Which is why our real efforts must go around the Peaks to the government itself. Our problem is that the government has managed to convince the public it is on their side and that the brutality of the Peaks is necessary to protect us from the radical forces that would otherwise overwhelm them. That, I suppose, is us. Our job is to mold the public’s view of who the enemy is.”
Darius thought for a minute. “But why would the government allow the Peaks to be so vicious. Why wouldn’t they have created a group that enforced the laws but did so fairly? That way, the resistance wouldn’t exist, and the government would have no opposition.”
“Good observation. They have adopted brutality to instill fear. If you disobey, you die. Painfully. You’re too young to remember, but before the Collapse, Canada was not a police state. Its people were independent, used to making their own judgments. To dominate people like that, you need to cow them. To make them fear for their lives. To make survival their highest priority.”