Like Father, Like Son: The Astrology of Trudeau Invoking the Emergencies Act

On Monday, February 14, 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau followed in his father’s footsteps and invoked the Emergencies Act in an effort to deal with the ongoing freedom convoy in Ottawa, as well as related protests that have been occurring across Canada, including blockades at several US border crossings.

I have written about the astrology of the Freedom Convoy twice already: here’s a link to the first post and here’s a link to the second.

Today I want to look at the astrology of this historical event, including how the current transits line up with Canada’s natal chart and how it compares to the transits when Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act during the October Crisis in 1970. (If you’re unfamiliar with this part of Canadian history, this article has a good summary.)

I couldn’t find an exact time for when Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act. The earliest-dated news story I could find is this one, which was published at 7:54 am ET, so it had to be earlier than that. Note that the Moon ingressed Leo just after 6am ET that morning; if he officially called it really early in the morning, there’s a chance the Moon would actually be in Cancer. For the purpose of this chart, I’m going to use 7am as the time – but this is not exact, so I won’t analyze this chart on its own.

Also, the Act needs to get Parliamentary and Senate approval before it’s technically official. You could make a good argument for casting another chart if and when that occurs. However, there’s no denying the power that this announcement has already had, so I think it’s valid to examine the chart for early morning on the day the news first broke.

Here’s a biwheel showing Canada’s natal chart on the inner ring, and the Emergencies Act invocation on the outer ring:

The first thing that jumps out is the exact conjunction of exalted Mars with Venus up at the top of the chart, close to Canada’s Midheaven in Capricorn. The two of these planets will be moving through Capricorn and into Aquarius for the next few weeks, and I’ve already written about how this is clearly playing out with these convoy protests: you have a lot of conflict around what is essentially a labour strike (a phenomenon ruled by Mars), operating alongside calls for peace and diplomacy. Capricorn is Canada’s tenth house – our national reputation, our federal government, and our Prime Minister, all of which these protests are centered around. Mars rules Canada’s Ascendant, so this is giving us a national identity crisis.

I think the overwhelming peaceful nature of these protests is due in no small part to the fact that Venus is so close to Mars. Mars is also exalted in Capricorn, so he’s at his best self right now. I think Venus is having a tempering effect on Mars and that will continue, however I am concerned for when they get closer to Pluto. The two will conjoin Pluto at the beginning of March, and we’ll start to feel it in the next week or so.

Mercury is conjunct Pluto in the late degrees of Capricorn, and Mercury ingressed Aquarius – Canada’s 11th house of parliament and legislation – just before 5pm ET. This is interesting, as it means that there was an immediate shift from the messaging around the initial breaking news story – a lot of shock and surprise, emphasizing what our national reputation is on the world stage – to discussion of the logistics of actually enacting the Act (it needs parliamentary and senate approval – which are both ruled by the 11th, so this is very apropos).

The Venus-Mars conjunction is exactly trine Canada’s natal Pluto in the second house of Taurus, which is experiencing a long-term transit from Uranus as the rebellious planet moves through the bull’s sign. So, you’ve got an ongoing disruptive influence in Canada’s national wealth, being squared by transit Saturn in the eleventh house of parliament/legislation, and that got tweaked by this exact conjunction of Mars-Venus in our tenth house of national reputation and the Prime Minister.

Translation: the ongoing see-saw of the Mars-Venus war-peace tension centered around Trudeau is how the world currently sees Canada, and that’s triggering the Uranus-Pluto radical transformation of our national wealth, which will be directly affected by new legislation being passed. It has become clear that the main target of invoking the Emergencies Act is the money. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced on Monday evening that crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe and GiveSendGo, as well as cryptocurrency platforms, will have to immediately register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) if they want to operate in Canada. She also threatened to freeze the bank accounts of people participating in the blockades.

So, we see a clear manifestation of transit Uranus in Canada’s second house, conjoining natal Pluto, and also square transit Saturn in the eleventh house. Note that Canada’s natal Saturn is in the eighth house of foreign financial relations – that’s certainly at play here, too. As CBC helpfully reported, over half of the donations were from the US.

Uranus will make an exact conjunction to Canada’s natal Pluto from early May 2022 through to the end of that month, and then again in early December through to the end of the year. I expect we’ll receive some big – transformative, even – news about Canada’s finances around these times, which will be directly related to this invocation of the Emergencies Act. The top contenders on my list are a universal basic income, some form of a national digital currency, and/or possibly some big moves related to cryptocurrency regulation.

Canada just had a Jupiter return. Jupiter is associated with laws and judges, national inquests and the justice system, and national wealth and bankers. All of that is certainly at play in this invocation of the Emergencies Act. Canada has a strong Jupiter in the sense that it’s in domicile, but it’s also buried in the twelfth house of hidden enemies and institutions of isolation (long term care homes, residential schools).

So, our Jupiter events tend to be about hidden things. When Jupiter went into Pisces last year, that was when they discovered hundreds of unmarked graves at a few former residential schools. I thought there might be similar news this time around (there still could be), but it also seems clear that this Jupiter return will involve a massive judicial event involving hidden things – spies, secret enemies of the state. Who knows what nefarious plots will be unearthed and how many will stay buried.

Several legal authorities have already stepped forward stating that this invocation of the Emergencies Act was unjustified. Given Canada’s natal Mars is closely opposite its natal Jupiter (and in the sixth house of military and workers, to boot), this suggests that this move will be faced with opposition from the workers/truckers (obviously) and the police/military (they’ve continued to state that the military won’t be called in). Interestingly, Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly resigned the day after the Emergencies Act was invoked, so we’ve already seen evidence of this. 

Neptune is also currently transiting Canada’s 12th house of Pisces. Morpheus floating amongst the multi-hued bubbles of an opaque sea: Neptune is left-wing politics and collectivism, as well as illicit activities. The 12th house is also associated with illicit affairs and hidden enemies. As Jupiter approaches Neptune, expect there to be increased pressure in the justice system associated with affairs that have been previously hidden. What we see in the media will not be all of what’s happening – far from it. Also, there’s a very real chance that any decisions made during this time will turn out to be false or otherwise compromised, due to Neptune’s influence.

There will be a big push towards collectivism, whether real or imagined. It reminds me of Trudeau’s initial comments about the truckers being a “small fringe minority” and how he keeps insisting these protests are not peaceful, despite there being little to no evidence of violence, in order to make it seem like all of Canada is united against the truckers. Clearly this is not the case, yet we continue to hear this rhetoric.

Canadians have Neptune problems, thanks to our Neptune-Ascendant conjunction in Aries, which leads us into self-delusions about who we really are (not colonialist warmongers). So I don’t have a lot of hope for the truth coming to the foreground in this situation. Actually, it’s likely to get more and more obscured as time goes on. Justin Trudeau, in particular, has bought into the Canadian “but we’re the good guys and everyone agrees!” delusion completely, thanks to his Moon being at 17 Aries – right on stop of Canada’s Ascendant-Neptune conjunction.

Let’s shift gears and compare how Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act compared to when his father invoked the War Measures Act on October 16, 1970.

Right away we see a tight conjunction between Mars and Pluto in Virgo at the time that Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, showing the intensity of the fear and violence in that situation. The October Crisis was a series of events perpetrated by the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), a small extreme-left terrorist group who kidnapped prominent politicians and murdered one of them. (Now THAT’S a fringe minority.)

Virgo is Canada’s sixth house, signifying the military – just like Mars itself, which is also there. This shows the strong military/police involvement in the October Crisis. The former War Measures Act gave the government sweeping powers: the police had the right to arrest and detain people based on suspicion alone. Within 48 hours of the Act being declared, police had arrested over 250 people. Over 400 were arrested in total during this time. When you give powers to the state, it uses them.

There were soldiers and tanks outside Parliament in Ottawa. How interesting to see the inversion now, with a bunch of protestors and trucks there now.

The War Measures Act was repealed in 1985 and replaced by the Emergencies Act in 1988. The Emergencies Act is much more limited than the former War Measures Act, thank the gods. Also, while public opinion initially supported Trudeau’s enacting the War Measures Act (evidenced by the Moon’s conjunction with Saturn at that time – the public craving order), it quickly became controversial and there was a lot of criticism, especially given the extent of powers that it gave the government. Justin Trudeau’s enacting of the Emergencies Act was controversial right from the start, as it should be (shown by the Moon newly ingressed into Leo, conjoining Canada’s natal Mercury – lots of talk about public opinion on the matter – and opposite Saturn and Sun in Aquarius – opposing the Prime Minister’s orders).

There was a Mercury-Uranus conjunction in Libra back then, and the Sun was also in Libra (Canada’s seventh house) – this perfect encapsulates the energy of Pierre’s famous “just watch me” interview that he gave three days prior to invoking the Act. The Sun represents the PM, and that Mercury-Uranus conjunction is all about volatile, surprising communications.

During the October crisis, Saturn was transiting Taurus, where Canada’s natal Pluto is. The Moon was also there on the day Pierre invoked the War Measures Act. This is directly opposite Canada’s natal Saturn, which was conjoined by transit Jupiter; transit Venus and Neptune were co-present too. This is across Canada’s second and eighth houses – so our national money/banks, and foreign financial relations (and death).

The money aspect of the October Crisis doesn’t get talked about much; people tend to focus on the Mars aspects (the kidnappings, murder, police and military action). Of course, finances played a role then, as now.

The FLQ was financed by bank robberies. Neptune signifies both illicit activities and left-wing politics, as I mentioned earlier, and it’s in Canada’s eighth house of other people’s money – so you have a radical socialist group financed by stolen money, committing illicit acts. Afterwards, the Quebec government ended up giving cash compensation to around 100 people who were wrongfully detained, again showing that Jupiter-Saturn-Neptune dynamic: wrongfully imprisoning people (Saturn) under newly enacted laws (Jupiter) based on false suspicion alone (Neptune).

I do wonder what else the government did in the financial realm during this period. To be honest, I haven’t had time to research this in more depth. However, it is worthwhile to read this accounting of the October Crisis, as it paints a starkly different picture than the story you’ll read everywhere else. Of particular note: three of the original FLQ members went on to have very successful careers – one of them (Paul Rose) is a folk hero in Quebec despite being a convicted murderer and terrorist. After his release from prison, he served as a union organizer, newspaper columnist, and led the Parti de la démocratie socialiste (PDS) which replaced Quebec’s NDP.

The Sun ingresses Pisces in a few days, on February 18. In my second post about the convoy, I thought that Trudeau would double down on the restrictions while the Sun was in Aquarius, co-present Saturn – and he has certainly done that. I also thought that maybe when the Sun enters Pisces, perhaps he’ll be finally willing to look into the dark corners he’s been unwilling to face so far. I admit this is a rather vague prediction.

I wasn’t certain how this would play out exactly and I’m still not. Given the co-presence the Sun will have with Jupiter and Neptune, I think it’s obvious that this will now involve the Emergencies Act itself. As the Sun approaches Jupiter, this is Trudeau joining up with the nation’s lawyers, bankers, judges and priests – I would add politicians and senators in there as well. Given that Jupiter-Neptune dynamic that occurred during the October Crisis, perhaps we get a repeat of those themes: wrongfully imprisoning people or other judicial actions that end up being false. Note that this time, Jupiter and Neptune are in the 12th house, which represents prisons.  

To summarize: the current transits do not support the same level of police and military action that was present at the time the War Measures Act was invoked, which was evidenced by a Mars-Pluto conjunction in Virgo, ruled by an erratic Mercury-Uranus conjunction. This time, we have Mars-Venus in Capricorn, ruled by an authoritative (or authoritarian, as it were) Saturn in Aquarius. The desire to put things in order is centered around legislation and finances, rather than force, this time around. The competing forces of conflict and peace will build in the coming days as Mars and Venus approach Pluto.

The close trine between Mars-Venus in Capricorn and Uranus-Pluto in Canada’s second house shows how financial shocks and transformations are deeply embedded in this event. Because this is a trine aspect, the two will boost one another and use each other to further their own purposes. So, the radical transformation of our national finances will be buoyed by the conflicting forces of war and peace in our government, which will be on full display as Canada rewrites some of our national reputation.

Finally, the Jupiter-Neptune presence in Canada’s 12th house speaks to justice and litigation issues involving hidden things. Perhaps people will be thrown in jail, quite possibly unjustly, but there will also be things happening under the surface that we might never really find out about, or at least not in the mainstream headlines. The true Canadian way.