Grandson of Immigrants Has No Empathy for Immigrant Truckers
Deputy Finance Minister Michael Sabia felt banks should be treated fairly, but expressed no such concern for protesters. Part 2 of 3.
Part 1: Here’s Who Froze Trucker Bank Accounts Part 2: Grandson of Immigrants Has No Empathy for Immigrant Truckers Part 3: Canada Went Rogue, Damaging Our International Reputation
Michael Sabia, the man who devised a way to freeze the bank accounts of protesting truckers, is a member of the establishment. Born in 1953, he was educated at Ridley College, “one of Canada’s leading, oldest and most prestigious boarding schools.” After attending the University of Toronto and Yale, he married Hilary Pearson, the granddaughter of former Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson.
Employed by Canada’s Finance Ministry at the beginning of his career, Mr. Sabia helped develop this country’s Goods & Services Tax (GST). His boss at the time, David Dodge, had also attended Ridley College and would later fill the position Mr. Sabia now holds - that of Deputy Finance Minister.
Mr. Sabia has worked in senior roles at Bell Canada, CN Rail, and at banks. A government of Canada website enumerates his links to the World Economic Forum and the United Nations.
> UN Net Zero Alliance participant > co-chair of a World Economic Forum working group > co-chair of G7 Investor Leadership Network on Climate Change
In short, Mr. Sabia is well connected, professionally and politically. He’s an insider, a member of Canada’s ruling class - one of those people who jets off to Davos and then tells the rest of us to watch our carbon footprint.
His late mother was the daughter of Italian immigrants, and a feminist social activist once described as a “champion upender of the status quo.” Yet during nearly 6 hours and 170 pages of testimony at the Emergencies Act Commission last month, Mr. Sabia expressed not one iota of sympathy for the underdogs - the truckers who’d driven across the country in treacherous weather, spent thousands of dollars on fuel to do so, and then endured weeks of sub-zero weather in a vain attempt to gain an audience with their government.
The only time this man mentioned the idea of fairness is when he talked about the nuances of the Quebec banking sector:
In the universe Mr. Sabia inhabits, it would be “a pretty big problem” for the government to make demands of some Quebec financial institutions, but not others. Employing totalitarian financial measures against peaceful protesters - something never done before in the civilized world? Whatever.
When advised by a lawyer that the frozen bank accounts led to missed payments that have permanently affected some people’s credit rating, Mr. Sabia said he hadn’t intended this to happen. As Deputy Finance Minister he could have told the hearings he’d take steps to repair that damage. Instead, he shrugged it off. Not his problem (pages 113-115).
Perhaps he was unaware that a large percentage of the Ottawa protesters were actually immigrants. I’ve spoken to Freedom Convoy truckers who came to Canada from Armenia, Bulgaria, Guatemala, and Holland. I’ve blogged about others who were born in Jamaica, Poland, and Romania. In the documentary film Unacceptable Views, the trucker on screen near the 11-minute mark is an immigrant from East Germany who remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall. “So it’s my second stand for freedom, and for liberty,” he says.
If you’ve already fled a bad situation, if you’ve spent years believing you and your family were safe, the freezing of your bank account set off all your warning sirens. One of the immigrant truckers I photographed in Ottawa told me months ago he’d secured a Green Card and was moving to the US. He said he personally knew two other truckers who had done so already.
When immigrants who fled to Canada start fleeing from Canada, people like Mr. Sabia have messed up big time.
Part 1: Here’s Who Froze Trucker Bank Accounts Part 2: Grandson of Immigrants Has No Empathy for Immigrant Truckers Part 3: Canada Went Rogue, Damaging Our International Reputation
This guy's involvement in the climate change wars is indicative of his self delusion that plays out in his actions re. the truckers. He likely sees his actions as practice for the coming climate apocalypse. We have come a long way since I read Donna's first book on the IPCC and the creep of draconian "climate change" policy has become a torrent that threatens freedom everywhere. The parallels of climate change and covid policy are undeniable and both sit on a foundation of error and lies created to generate fear in the people. Thank You Truckers for starting the revolution needed to save us.
One more person in our government showing who he REALLY is - or you are showing us who he really is!! Is there no integrity in any of Trudeau’s gang?