Conservatives’ habit of misrepresenting reality and riling up their base with false information and fake controversies, key ingredients in the toxic stew of Trumpism, has reached a dangerous new level with the truck convoy that’s currently winding its way east towards Ottawa. While that convoy was ostensibly animated by a federal vaccine mandate for truckers that went into effect on Jan. 15, its impact on supply chains and the availability of food on Canadian grocery store shelves, it has quickly mutated into something much bigger — and uglier.
Take former leader Andrew Scheer’s recent tweet, in which he declared his affinity for the convoy of truckers making their way to Ottawa to protest the government’s policy. “Trudeau is attacking personal liberty and threatening everyone's ability to get groceries because of his overreach on vaccine mandates,” Scheer wrote. “He is the biggest threat to freedom in Canada.”
If this sounds familiar, that’s because it should.
This fusion of hyperbole, hatred and fear-mongering is exactly the sort of thing the Republican Party has traded in ever since Donald Trump stepped onto that Trump Tower escalator in 2015. Since then, both he and the Republican Party he controls have routinely treated the truth and those who tried to defend it with open contempt.
Never mind that the supply chain issues that may have led to some products being temporarily out of stock have already started to ease. And yes, Canadians can go to their local grocery store and see that the shelves are, in fact, far from empty. But to borrow from Chico Marx — who are they going to believe: the Conservative Party of Canada or their own eyes?
There’s no question supply chains are stretched right now due to a combination of factors (recent floods in B.C. and droughts on the Prairies, for example, not to mention the growing percentage of truck drivers and other key employees who are sick with the Omicron variant), and that this is showing up in the form of shortages of certain products in our grocery stores. But to pretend, as the Conservative Party of Canada has for days now, this is entirely because of the federal government’s vaccine mandate for cross-border truck drivers (a similar mandate already exists in the United States) is dishonest in the extreme.
They’ve gone further than just garden variety dishonesty, too.
In a recent tweet, Thornhill MP Melissa Lantsman (who was once heralded as a bright, new moderate voice in the party) used a stock image of empty shelves in a British grocery store in a post that suggested “empty Canadian grocery store shevles [sic] could become a larger problem.” When people pointed out the obvious error — and deceit — she simply doubled down and directed people to her petition against the federal government’s vaccine mandate.
Sherwood Park-Fort Saskatchewan MP Garnett Genuis ramped up the rhetorical volume, tweeting it was “time to end Justin Trudeau’s nonsensical vaccine vendetta.”
These sorts of blatant lies and deliberate attempts to mislead Canadians are a threat to our democracy. But what makes the CPC’s recent conduct even more dangerous is the obvious desire on the part of its key members, including former leader Scheer and potential leadership front-runner Pierre Poilievre, to provoke a portion of the Canadian public that’s already inclined towards anti-social behaviour — and direct their fury towards the prime minister.
After all, the convoy of truckers headed to Ottawa right now sounds an awful lot like the one that made that same trip back in February 2019 to protest the Trudeau government’s treatment of the oil and gas sector.
As Canada’s National Observer reported at the time, that convoy was marbled with white nationalists, climate change deniers and anti-immigration activists, and its hostility towards the prime minister transcended normal political boundaries. And as Caroline Orr made clear in a recent piece, the threat of political violence coming from the far right in Canada has only gotten bigger. “The anti-vaccine movement has become a vector for radicalization,” she wrote, “and national security experts are concerned about what comes next.”
In other words, we may be on the cusp of our own Jan. 6 moment.
As CTV’s Glen McGregor reported, some people involved with the trucker convoy are openly rooting for that sort of attack on Parliament to happen. And as journalist Justin Ling noted on Twitter, Canada Unity, the organizing body for the convoy, “is essentially calling for the removal of the Canadian government.”
What happens when the Governor General doesn’t remove Justin Trudeau as prime minister and dissolve Parliament, as they seem to think will happen? How many potential Corey Hurrens — the “friendly sausage maker” who rammed the gates at Rideau Hall while packing a bunch of loaded weapons — do they have in their midst? And how will they respond when they don’t get their way?
These are questions the Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership should be made to answer. They’re all the more pertinent now that people like Donald Trump Jr. and Fox News’ Laura Ingraham are drawing attention to the convoy and fanning the same flames that nearly set their own Capitol alight just over a year ago. But the answer coming from Canada’s Conservatives, if we ever get one, will probably be that their ends justify these means. If it helps them win an election, or at the very least fend off the surge on their far-right flank from the People’s Party of Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada seems content to keep pushing us down this dark road. The rest of the country has no choice but to wait and see where it takes us.
This story has been corrected to reflect that at least seven people died as a result of violence during the Jan. 6 storming of the White House.
Comments
The Canada Unity Memorandum of Understanding issued to the Senate and Governor General lists the demands of this group. It stretches far beyond the vaccine mandate for truckers and includes the removal of all Covid mandates and the request to rehire all staff who have been released from their employers for failing to vaccinate as a part of their employment.
https://canada-unity.com/mou/
Once that is achieved only then will they agree to remove the trucks that they state will surround Ottawa under their “Operation Bear Hug”.
The Criminal code of Canada states:
Intimidating Parliament or legislature
51. Every one who does an act of violence in order to intimidate Parliament or the legislature of a province is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding fourteen years.
R.S., c. C-34, s. 51
Sedition
Seditious words
59 (1) Seditious words are words that express a seditious intention.
Seditious libel
(2) A seditious libel is a libel that expresses a seditious intention.
Seditious conspiracy
(3) A seditious conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to carry out a seditious intention.
Seditious intention
(4) Without limiting the generality of the meaning of the expression seditious intention, every one shall be presumed to have a seditious intention who:
(a) teaches or advocates, or
(b) publishes or circulates any writing that advocates, the use, without the authority of law, of force as a means of accomplishing a governmental change within Canada.
R.S., c. C-34, s. 60
It appears that these clauses may be something that the protester should quickly consider: “without the authority of law, of force as a means of accomplishing a governmental change within Canada” as their MoU is basically stating that we plan to disrupt travel in Ottawa and will not cease until their demands are met.
This event has the possibility of some very serious and dangerous outcomes, I can only hope that cooler heads will prevail and that all Canadians can accept that, although we have the right to demonstrate, we don’t have a right to impose change on government by force, intimidation or any other measures.
Premier Kenney, Mr Genius, Mr Scheer, Mr Poilievre. Ms Bergen and all politicians who are encouraging the protest should review the CCoC and consider the consequences of supporting this protest particularly with respect to Sections (3) Seditious conspiracy and (4) Seditious intention.
I am confident that many demonstrators have a clear intent of following the law but am more concerned with the many among them who openly call for violence and property damage; that should concern us all!
“O Canada” indeed!
I'm pretty sure that the phrase "accomplishing a governmental change" in that law means change to a different government--not the same government changing to different policies. If it meant the latter, the law would make all political protest illegal.
So this ain't sedition, and it won't be sedition even if they block traffic or curtail the movement of goods. Personally, I'm fine with protestors doing that kind of stuff; I was fine with Idle No More blocking train lines, I'm fine with truckers blocking things. IF they have a genuine grievance.
The problem here is that the people protesting are doing it mainly on the basis of inflammatory lies, and the stuff they want would screw over the rest of the public (and indeed themselves). And the broader problem is that there is an ongoing campaign of inflammatory lies dedicated to creating a tribe within our society that hates everyone outside it and opposes the majority of policies useful to the general public because they have become willing to believe everyone outside their alt-right tribe is deceitful and capable of any evil, and so policies coming from outside their tribe are presumed to be evil deceits. I would argue that this campaign, in turn, is largely driven by certain well-heeled interests, such as fossil fuel interests, who tend to make more money when policies are bad for the majority, and who think it's worth shredding society if that gets them some catspaws to help block useful action.
So I don't mind that they're protesting. I mind that they're wrong, acting based on misinformation, and care nothing about the fabric of society.
I noted that Premier Kenney did not arrest leaders and or followers for blocking critical infrastructure as per his recent anti-Alberta legislation when the convoy rolled through his province, nor did he arrest Mr Genius (name???!!) for seditious comment. so I guess we can conclude that his anit Alberta law will apply to those citizens defending the environment against oil companies, logging companies, etc.?? as we sort of knew wit was intended to??? No comment in the MNSM about that so far.
FWIW, that guy's last name is "Genuis" actually.
I'm very sad to see so many left wing progressives being driven to right wing websites and events. Yes, driven. The minute someone who's been trying to get GMO foods labeled asks if it's a good idea to use a genetic vaccine on a whole population; the minute someone questions why a passport is needed in a restaurant but not a cafe, they are labelled an anti-vaxer ,"This fusion of hyperbole, hatred and fear-mongering " are aimed right at them, they lose friends and family and shut down with no chance of being heard. This is the standard for media and social media. It would be far more beneficial to embrace these people,try to understand why they think what they do, and keep them in the fold. The truth is somewhere in the middle on this one. Please don't leave "trumpism" the only place for them to go and be heard.
I think people are tired of pandering to a minority of people who have bought into conspiracy politics, it's easier to turn away and get on with life. I don't believe you will find many left-wingers involved with this trucker fiasco, it's the regular right-wing anti-everything, freedom chanting yahoos as usual.
I disagree. I know many left wing citizens who support this convoy, as they do not support the loss of our rights of privacy and freedom. Reducing it to name calling only helps to alienate.
Okay. Let's synthesize it down to cold, detached numbers then.
In round numbers, 90% of the entire population got quietly vaccinated, most with at least two doses. Somewhere between 75% and 90% of all truckers are vaccinated (sources vary) and have or are applying for passports. That leaves 10% of the nation's population who are not vaccinated, and of that likely only a small minority who are rabid anti-vaxxers and conspiracy believers. It also leaves 10%-25% of truckers at best unvaccinated, with only a small minority of them willing to drive across the country in winter to rave on the national news.
If it turns violent, I predict only a few protestors will participate on national TV without wearing theatrically intimidating terrorist-style ski masks or be willing to damage their main source of income (their truck), and there will be a measured police reaction, especially if random shots are fired or gates are crashed for the rolling cameras -- which will be dutifully waiting for the action to start in the hope of capturing their daily quota of sensationalism.
If an armed group manages to slip in despite police monitoring of communications, it will be a bad example for Canadian security abilities, but then the Conservatives and the truckers will need to quickly distance themselves from it. In all likelihood, this will likely end up being a record-breaking, loud traffic jam. And Trudeau and the cabinet will be secretly whisked away in advance.
I also predict that the Ottawa winter will nullify the intentions of anyone wanting a long-term convoy protest holdout on the streets, especially next week when a nasty polar vortex clashes with warm, moist air right over SE Ontario.
This is not a revolution. Not even close. It's a cranky hissy fit with an edge. Noise: 10. Signal: less than 1.
As for protest, Vancouver's old lefty peace marches blocked many roads, and the very small Extinction Rebellion crew are also very adept at blocking bridges. That Revolution never came either.
By all means counter the BS, anger and lies with truth, data and rational calm, but let's not make this out to be some kind of societal upheaval. The truth and data prove it.
I agree with you, Doreen. To be anti mandate, which is what the truckers are declaring, is not necessarily to be anti-vaxx. This article inflames the rhetoric. There is a lot of gray area, and it is convenient to push narratives that make it black and white.
There are many legitimate reasons people are Covid vaccine hesitant, and even more for mandate hesitancy.
OK, so first of all, this particular convoy about this particular issue is moronic. They're complaining about a Canadian government mandate saying truckers returning to Canada from the United States won't be let in if they're not vaccinated. Which might be an issue, except the United States also has a mandate saying truckers aren't allowed INTO the United States if they're not vaccinated. So, unvaccinated Canadian truckers can't get into the US in the first place, so there's nobody for Canada to refuse to let return. So going forward, the Canadian mandate affects exactly nobody.
A massive protest based on a made up controversy is precisely the alt-right style. Anyone in the sort of granola-left who has worries (frankly, inaccurate worries, but somewhat understandable) about the science of certain vaccines, should not be buying into this nonsense.
(Incidentally, if you're worried about the particular messenger RNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, I think you have a responsibility to go get the Chinese one, or the Cuban one, or the Russian one, all of which use traditional vaccine technologies)
Restaurant vs cafe and so on is a different thing. Sure, there's plenty wrong with the public health measures in most provinces, even the relatively responsible ones. There's always going to be contradictory policies, politics-driven policies and so on, and I think it's absolutely a good idea to try to insist on better policies. I personally think Canada, outside the Maritimes, has generally used poor strategy, and we'd have been better off going for a Covid-zero policy to actually wipe it out so we can get on with our lives, like New Zealand or China. But the alt-right doesn't care about any of that. They point out contradictions in public health measures, but not to improve them, rather to try to destroy the whole concept of public health. "Libs" like public health, and they want to "own the Libs". They'll throw anything against the wall and hope it sticks, even routinely saying things that blatantly contradict each other. There isn't really a discussion to be had there--they know that, they embrace it; they see themselves as in an existential war with the rest of society. Try to find middle ground with them and they'll just say "Isn't that just like a Lib--bringing a reconciliation, to a gun fight." At that point, all you can do is try to isolate the really hard liners from everyone else.
Excellent post. There are a lot of nuances all of this and Convoy-Canadians don't do nuance. Their behaviour is actually prolonging all the negatives for them as well as us.
The refusal of the CPC leaders to call this out is troubling, if unsurprising. Beware the "conservative movement". It's anti-democratic at the core...as we are seeing as it flourishes in the US.
Thank you so much for this piece. I'm especially shocked to read Andrew Scheer's comments. I am extremely worried about what could happen when the truckers reach Ottawa. And I'm extremely worried about what I view as the erosion of our democracy in Canada.
And what can the rest of us do about this - to push back against this radicalism?
We need to have a conversation about what freedom means in a democracy and how there are limits to those individual freedoms/ rights in certain circumstances, such as in a pandemic.
Rufus' post is right; it's about owning the libs and/or just burning it all down, juvenile delinquent style, bad boy style, anarchist style. Many of these people somehow deny that there even IS a pandemic, calling it a "shamdemic."
On recognizing the limitations of individual freedoms? The word is now sullied, has become "freedumb."
Conflating Trumpism with questioning vaccine mandates, or any mandate that forces one to inject a drug into one's body against one's will, is not only false and completely misguided but also serves to fuel polarization in a society already divided by fear and lies. I expected more from the National Observer.
Well said! I expected more from the Observer too.
I so agree with that statement. It is not the first of Mr.Fawcett's articles on closely related subjects, which raises my hackles. I am definitely not a right-winger and firmly believe that the truckers are demonstrating in order to regain some democracy in our government.
There is no question that Trump energy is part of this. Vaccine hesitancy of any kind was rare in our society until recently. All of a sudden taking a vaccine is a big deal. It's not. There is virtually no risk plus it protects all of us. As I said in another thread, not taking the vaccine is like being a draft dodger in WW2. "Fighting Hitler doesn't seem safe. You go ahead." If you're unsure consult your doctor. Who is telling you it's not safe? Some guy on Facebook. He must know more that your doctor. Stepping forward beyond your fears because it's the right thing to do is called courage!
Donald Trump's refusal to take this seriously has cost a half-million American lives (if they did as well as Canada their death toll should be around 300K) and spread a false narrative to Canada and around the world. It would be interesting to know how many in the convoy love them some Trump. I'm sure it's not everybody but they sure are Trump adjacent - lots of emotion and not so much careful thinking.
So they drive to Ottawa because...tyranny? Take a look at China locking people in their office buildings for 30 days - that's tyranny. Just because you don't like a policy doesn't mean it's tyranny. And what happens next? They stage a big tantrum and tie up the streets of Ottawa until Covid goes away? Until Andrew Scheer is installed as the rightful ruler of Canada. I don't think they've thought this through.
@ J.B. Good response! I would point out that entire Trump family, from Daddy-O down, have been multiple vaxxed. Jr. is a hypocrite, and it's patently obvious he is fomenting online rage for political gain without daring to be on the street himself. He and Pops are chickens when the streets start to cloud over with tear gas.
@ Monica Marcovici.
I can assure you that I, my family, and no one we know were ever vaccinated against our wills. I live with an immune compromised parter. She gets COVID, she dies. Vax, death, or possibly a lifetime of nasty post COVID health issues -- it's an easy choice to make, and we made it three times so far, and have found creative and rewarding ways to while away the lockdowns.
The problem with your "analysis" is that you equate medical science and the scientific method to "lies." I certainly hope you don't equate ALL science to lies, otherwise you'd have to never leave your home and would have to stay away from anything electronic, made in factories or anything remotely based on research and stringent testing.
If you choose to remain unvaccinated, then please stay away from other people who you are clearly putting at risk. This is not about you. It's about them.
I am sorry to have to cancel my subscription to the NO. More hate literature from Max Fawcett who keeps framing the Covid issue as vax/antivax. He is totally oblivious to the real controversy about this genetic experiment and the use of mandates. I am disappointed with this left wing/right wing framing as well. For me it is clear, media like the NO has lost its compass. The lack of presenting the scientific arguments against this experiment and constantly showing opponents as right wing fanatics does it for me. This is distortion at its best.
I'm afraid you have been relying on false information from creepy sources.
Would you care to enlighten us as to the source from which you obtain your so accurate information. From mainstream media? And also how do you judge or guess about the accuracy or truth of it?
I will not yet go so far as to cancelling my subscription but as stated, do strongly object to Mr. Max Fawcett's opinions rather than fact-based reports as a journalist should provide. Also very pleased not to be the only subscriber with this opinion.
I don't normally link to my own blog from a comment, but today's was practically a direct reply (of disagreement) to this concern:
http://brander.ca/c19#trucknutz
Keep in mind, that in the States, these types have their own major party, and here, they managed to bump the PPC from 1.6% to 5.1%. They're a marvel (in a bad way), but just not numerous enough to change the country.
True enough, but it’s worth noting the rise of PPC, Wexit, Maverick and who all else, is at the expense of the main contingent of the CPC (which a significant number of moderate centre-right and Red Tories have ready abandoned).
What we’re seeing in UK, USA and Canada is the disintegration of the political right as it tilts further toward oblivion of its own accord.
No don’t doubt there’s an element of tRumpublicanism in the so-called “Freedom Convoy” but “insidious spread” of that American affliction into Canada grossly overstates the threat.
It is neither insidious —which by definition requires patiently sitting in cunning ambush—nor much spreading: the convoy, like “United We Roll” in 2019, once again nucleates in Albetar and, since we’ve already seen it all before, the same kind of indiscreet rhetoric and sloganeering, and been reminded of it constantly ever since the CPC didn’t win in 2019, during the US 2020 and Canada 2021 elections, and by nonstop Covid caterwauling right up to the present, it hardly achieves the tactical element of surprise.
The convoy is analogous to a guerrilla raid, and an expected one, at that. But it’s strategy is even more unlikely: to gain sympathy of the people in concert with Covid fatigue in the middle of winter when their mood is most irritable (the timing, at least, makes sense: seasonal blues will soon lift with warmer weather and that window of opportunity will close).
Soften outlaw cowboy-strumming with sweet pedal-steel glides, yodel mirthfully about freedom and rights out on the range to initiate that flehman response, and every kind of bull will be herd along the trail. Blow a big rig’s horn and Six Days On The Road worth of cultural icon rolls like a wagon train of flashing billboards driving toward the Ottawa Corral. Before even getting saddle sores, organizers are already predicting the left-wing media is trying to portray their “Take-Back-Canada” paean as bigoted. See, it’s dang smart to get out in front of criticism.
A handful of greenhorns and grass feeders who weren’t there last time joined the drive, unvaccinated, along with a few muleskinners with some legitimate beefs about trail conditions through mountain passes, but whatever strategic value there might be in out-bellowing bellyaching as bellicosity and losing even more public sympathy than last time only the belligerents might know—and even that’s a definite maybe.
“United We Roll” 2019 is history but if January-6-2021 was tragedy, the “Freedom Convoy” 2022 is farce. What percent of the convoy knows from whom that was paraphrased?
Now they’ve got everybody’s attention, mules in the train are kicking up dust over which piece of the action they want to own and which they really, really don’t. With so many who pretend they don’t know each other, it’s a wonder they don’t practice safer spacing. O’Toole’s riding round in circles so fast trying to not to offend any convoy faction while condemning them all, he’s eating his own road apples. The Maverick trail marshals denounce accusations of far-right militancy with, “Them’s fightin’ words!” Both the truckers’ association and union condemn the convoy blocking public roads and bridges, and that small fraction which refuses to get vaccinated. Lisa Raitt gives the protest very low marks. But hey!—Maxime Bernier’s all over it like a cheap suit.
Need any more proof that the protest has been commandeered by particularist interests for their own, ulterior ends, just check out wannabe cowboy Jason Kenney hittin’ the ole “Don’t-Take-No” Harper Trail down to Washington DC to support some of the issues “Freedom Convoy” is protesting—uh—make that ‘wannabe prime minister Kenney’ attending the Governors’ Association meeting as if a national representative for Canada. Wonder what the Democratic-controlled Capitol will make of Kenney’s sympathy for a protest of Make Albetar Great Again agitators calling for a Canadian version of January 6.
(Maybe he’ll take a selfie like Scheer did with one of the Queen’s Guards—after, that is, PM Theresa May politely shooed Scheer’s embarrassing pretence of negotiating a Canada-UK trade deal when he wasn’t in government right out the door, duly sated with a quick cuppa, biscuit and a souvenir coaster. Kenney of course has his own predicament in Albetar —which surely his puzzled hosts are too polite to broach. Unless he brings up that Keystone Pipeline thing again. Sure, maybe that’d be three times “No”, but getting some a that Freedom Convoy spotlight’ll be worth it—or so imagines the Great White Sasquatch Hunter whose popularity is so deep in loser territory it looks like his first test of provincial government incumbency will fail.)
This is an insidious threat? This is spreading tRumpublicanism?
The convoy risks becoming a joke if Kenney, O’Toole and Jay Hill haven’t made it one already. Only conspiracy theorists can elaborate how Canadians will embrace the current American culture war—and actually believe it.
Meanwhile, down Elgin Street in Ottawa, a silhouetted matchstick juts out from under the brim of a Vaquero hat as the Son of “Just-Watch-Me” Trudeau awaits, arms crossed, his back and the heel of one boot leaning against the National War Memorial, silently contemplating uttered threats of violence against him and his duly elected government, the memorials of those killed in service of Canada—over 100,000 military personnel, thousands of merchant mariners, The Unknown Soldier, the Deputy Premier of Quebec Pierre Laporte, and Corporal Nathan Cirillo. And certain convoy yahoos making pointed references to January 6, 2021 before they arrive in our nation’s capital.
Indeed, that should be taken seriously.
Hahaha, still chuckling; thanks for the hilarious allegory, very well-written and spot-on. But a better name for Alberta is found in the facebook group, "Alberduh Freedumb Fyters."
The whole thing is truly a national embarrassment, but note the various posts, even here on the NO, all women, that lean toward those proud boys on the right, wringing their hands in a protective, motherly fashion, admonishing us all about "grey" in the face of what is straight-up black and white, as if THEY are the subtle ones. Ha! The phrase, "stay in your lane" comes to mind, sort of encompassing the whole problem.
Rule of thumb for understanding the current right wing--whatever they say, the complete opposite is true.
:-D
So, let's take the Convoy seriously and watch the 90% of vaccinated Canadians react. Will it be just a bunch of loudmouth ranters raging over bullhorns punctuated by blasting truck horns during a 6-hour traffic jam on Wellington Street (cue shaking heads and rolling eyes), or will hundreds of armed goons swarm the empty Parliament buildings (cue disgust and resolve to avoid the Conservative and PP)?
I can see Mary Simon calmly offering them coffee and cookies on the front steps of Rideau Hall, but also admonishing them that changing governments comes only through elections, not frothing-at-the-mouth wild eyed mobs with big trucks hauling male insecurity. Many of them will be shocked to discover she's Indigenous. Oh, the irony given some of the acrid racist, misogynist rhetoric following the convoy around like half-digested bad chilli.
Yeah, let's take this episode as a serious attempt to take down the national government, just as Wexiters, Mavericks and Buffalo whatchamacullits plan to have an actual referendum on Alberta separation. I heard all the bombastic bellyaching over 50 years ago growing up in Calgary. Put up or shut up.
I also can testify that the conspiracy theory about Bill Gates' microchips being embedded in one's brain through Pfizer and Moderna injections is only half true. The little voice saying Dump Apple Go PC is easy to ignore.
God Max you are my least favorite type of progressive. Youre really blind-sided by partisanship and I dont know what else. I love National Observer but Ive considered unsubscribing multiple times because of your divisive, ignorant and un-progressive rhetoric. We all have to get out of our bubbles and listen to people, this convoy, while some organizers have ties that are questionable and should be criticized, is full of people who are seeing government overreach and corruption and this is the only outlet they have.
It's not "the only outlet they have." Who ever said "I have a problem with a government policy so the only thing I can do is get a bunch of people to drive to Ottawa with me and that will fix everything." What outcome do they expect? These people are genuinely upset and they need therapy for that. They also need thinking lessons. It doesn't come naturally to a lot of people.
Maybe the most important thing is that the mandates are PROVINCIAL. Trudeau can't do anything about them anyway.
Exactly, thinking lessons, no kidding, but unfortunately I think you're right that critical thinking skills are kind of like "people skills;" you either have them or you don't. Remember the kids in school who didn't do well on reading comprehension? Well, they went on to NOT become readers for the most part who never subscribed to newspapers or magazines either, just followed sports and their other personal interests, and so were shut out of much, but then social media offered them a platform where they found all the other people that also sucked at school.....so now we're experiencing the phenomenon of how a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Watching the news footage it's like a rally before a sports event, celebratory, self-congratulatory, and as tribal as hell. They want to smash things mainly and yell their asses off while they're doing it. Boys will be boys after all, and these are mainly a bunch of bad ones, or at least wannabe bad ones.
And a lot of this is about the dangerous, irrational hatred of Trudeau. Social media has absolutely bred that, along with all the other right wing crap. If only we could shut it down before it does the same to fragile democracy.
I guess you missed the memo that our politics has officially become binary since the right wing officially lost its mind.
So in this climate you're like a Catholic apologist addressing our indigenous people.
People have the right to refuse to be vaccinated but there are major consequences to that decision. First, they can contaminate other people including their own family. Second, they will get eventually sick themselves and have to be hospitalized.
The numbers show that almost three quarters of people hospitalized with Covid symptoms are unvaccinated. People who refused to be vaccinated and end up using hospitals beds and resources (especially staff resources) deny access to other people who need urgent surgery, proper cancer treatment or other interventions that need to be taken care of.
I'm not suggesting that we should deny unvaccinated people hospital care, but these people should realize that their decision could mean that somebody else will get sicker, or even die because they can access the medical care that they need.
Unvaccinated people should at least stay at home if they feel sick, take all the precautions around other people (wearing a proper mask would be a minimum).
I consider protesting against people (hospital staff, doctors, scientists or even politicians) who put their life on line to help other people shameful and inconsiderate.