Words matter. Note that the title of this post does not refer to the Freedom Convoy, or Truckers Convoy and it also isn’t called a Protest. It is misleading when the wrong words are used and the media are partly to blame by just accepting the headlines that extremist organizers want to be associated with as a cover for their attacks on Canada. That is aiding their deception.
Not a Freedom Convoy
The reality is that the Convoy Occupation in Ottawa was not about Freedom, Truckers, or Vaccination mandates. Also a lot of the hate directed at the federal government and Trudeau specifically was about things that were under provincial jurisdiction or mandated by import rules in the U.S.A.
Saying that it was a Freedom Convoy sounds nice because after all who is against freedom. However we need a clear and common consensus to define what freedom really is. When occupiers were interviewed about this freedom theme they displayed a very poor understanding of the concept. Almost all the narrative was that they were fed up with various types of mandates and want to be free to do whatever they want regardless of the consequences to other people. Let’s take Freedom of Speech for example. Occupiers were very intolerant and disrespectful of mainstream news media and anyone else who didn’t agree with them, shouting them down by saying they are spreading fake news and are controlled by a corrupt government. They were clearly frustrated that the majority of people don’t agree with them and they don’t want to hear or even let these other views be expressed. They also don’t want to answer questions about their views. So in effect they want to have freedom of speech but don’t want to listen and don’t want to allow others who may disagree with them to have freedom of speech. Freedom for them but not for others. True freedom is for all of society not just for a few angry individuals.
Human Development and Maturity
From a human development perspective a simple model is that as people mature we start as totally dependent babies, then at an early age we start striving to be more independent, and later on as adults we learn that for society to function on a larger scale people need to recognize that we are all interdependent, we need to get along, and have civilized processes to resolve differences. Not rule by violent mobs.
The narrative the occupation organizers wanted to spread was that the occupiers were law abiding, peaceful, patriotic, fun loving, and family oriented. None of that was true.
Not Law Abiding Protest
Law abiding citizens understand that democratic governments establish laws that the majority supports. If the majority doesn’t support the government policies and laws, through the democratic process they are voted out and the laws are changed. The occupiers have a different approach which is that they can pick and choose to only obey the laws they agree with – with no consequences (enforcement). They try to hold society hostage by vocal protest, seizing and damaging public and private property, breaking laws, violence, and intimidation. Vocal protest is allowed. The rest are not. Residents of downtown Ottawa had their rights and freedoms violated and the occupiers stated they would continue this indefinitely until their demands were met. BTW their official demands, provided in writing, were not the removal of some temporary mandates which were going to expire soon anyway but a complete overthrow of the government by force. Their idea of freedom is that the organizers would form a committee with the support of governor general and some senators (to lend some legitimacy LOL?) to decide how Canada should be run. That is a self appointed dictatorship that completely disregards Canadian’s rights to choose their leaders through democratic processes.
Not Peaceful and Patriotic
The occupation was not peaceful or patriotic. Millions of dollars of damages were done to public and private property. Thousands of Ottawa citizens had their lives completely disrupted, could not enjoy their homes or do business or have access to essential services for weeks. Even their sleep was deprived by incessant horns being blown 24/7. These people whose lives had been turned upside down, were innocent victims. Even in wartime there are rules about crimes against humanity when attacking innocent civilians. A very revealing video of the hypocrisy of the convoy occupiers showed a man doing a counter-protest by banging a pot in retribution against the honking horns. Did the occupiers show tolerance to the counter-protest? No they became angry and threatened to assault the person. Two wrongs don’t make a right but it clearly shows a theme that the occupiers felt their cause justified the means but they had no tolerance for reciprocity in recognizing the effects on and rights of others.
A lot of Canadian flags were waved but the occupiers do not represent Canadian values by their behaviour. They damaged our economy, they damaged our reputation, and they desecrated our monuments like the tomb of the unknown soldier and Terry Fox statue.
Not Fun Loving and Family Oriented
What about fun loving and family oriented? With the lack of law enforcement there appeared to be a party atmosphere that was trying to be manufactured to keep up the spirits of the occupiers but that was only for the occupiers that had taken over the downtown area and did not include regular citizens. There were many reports of residents being threatened and even attacked by their buildings being defaced with graffiti, doors being barricaded, and people being verbally abused for doing nothing more than trying to protect their health by wearing masks. Is it family oriented to bring children into a chaotic, polluted, lawless zone with imminent potential violence and using them as a shield against law enforcement? You decide.
Not a Truckers Protest
The Convoy Occupation in Ottawa was not a truckers protest. The vast majority (over 90%) of truckers and the truckers associations were not supporters of the occupation and lawlessness. The Fifth Estate did an excellent documentary The Convoy and the Questions that interviewed the convoy organizers and fund raisers. They also revealed what these people were saying on social media to stir up hate and violence (e.g. Kill Trudeau). These people were opportunists with a long history of exploiting anger, hate, frustration, confusion, and ignorance. They had no association or history with truckers. A small minority of truckers just matched the criteria that they could exploit for their causes and better yet they had heavy equipment they could use to attack the government. The causes that the occupation organizers want to advance are:
- racism
- separation
- extreme right wing politics
- anarchy
- overthrow of the government
- conspiracy theories against health care measures
- developing their own following for personal power and money
Protecting Our Civilized Democratic Society
Large amounts of money (over $10M) were raised very quickly from people that presumably thought they were supporting freedom, hard working truckers, and changing pandemic policies. What this money would really have been spent on by the organizers can only be judged by the causes they have been associated with throughout their "careers". Currently the money has been seized and there are court cases targeted to use the money to pay for at least some of the damages that citizens of Canada would otherwise end up paying for. Canadians pay with their taxes every year to support the freedom of various groups to protest. Ottawa municipal taxes shouldn’t be expected to pay for national protests and they couldn’t possibly pay for these substantial costs. Canada is one of the most free countries in the world and we need to be tolerant of our citizen’s right to protest but not for unlawful attacks on our economy, property, and freedoms by people seeking to destroy our civilized democratic society.