Last Sunday at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square, hundreds of Turkish Canadians and their allies demonstrated against an act of tyranny that occurred last week in Turkey — a derailing of democracy that was equal parts egregious and outrageous.

Namely, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan had his main political rival arrested. That would be the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu. The arrest came hours before the mayor was to be nominated as the presidential candidate for the main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Mayor İmamoğlu was also stripped of his university diploma. That’s a big deal given that having a diploma is a prerequisite for those who aspire to seek public office in Turkey.

After his arrest, İmamoğlu was charged with “establishing and managing a criminal organization, taking bribes, extortion, unlawfully recording personal data and rigging a tender.”

There is also a separate investigation regarding the mayor allegedly aiding the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey considers a terrorist organization.

But İmamoğlu’s supporters say these are farcical trumped-up charges and that the real reason for the arrest has everything to do with Erdoğan removing someone he deems to be a political rival. Kind of like how the Liberal Party of Canada came up with trumped up charges to remove candidate Ruby Dhalla from the party’s leadership race earlier this month.

Demonstrators at Nathan Phillips Square bemoaned that there’s been a lack of international outrage about what occurred in Turkey last week as the nation under Erdoğan is now more about tyranny and less about democracy.

Others noted that the Istanbul mayor has no chance of receiving a fair trial thanks to the inherent corruption in Turkish courts. Others are concerned that there’s a strong likelihood that Turkey could descend into civil war thanks to Erdoğan's increasingly odious behaviour.

Of note, following the arrest of İmamoğlu, tens of thousands of Turks have taken to the streets in more than a dozen Turkish cities. Not surprisingly, Turkish police have hit back hard, so far arresting more than 1,100 people.

Also of note, a demonstrator pointed out that more than 800 journalists have been arrested in Turkey under Erdoğan’s rule as there is almost zero tolerance for critical voices.

It is indeed sad to see what is happening in Turkey as it becomes less democratic. Still, Canadians would be wrong to be smug about the state of our democracy under the Trudeau/Carney Liberals.

In recent years, we have seen journalists (the non-state-funded ones, at least) arrested for asking impolite questions; we have seen Canadians having their bank accounts frozen for donating to “unapproved” charities; we have witnessed the biggest attempted gun grab in our nation’s history; we seen a litany of censorious legislation enacted.

The question arises: how far removed is our Dominion from Istanbul under the iron fist of Erdoğan.

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