![]() ![]() To the contrary, they have become quite used to preferred protesters, such as “indigenous peoples,” occupying things-including people’s houses-and the government doing essentially nothing for months or even years at a time. It’s not as though Canadians are unused to organized protests. The extent and disingenuousness of elite attacks on the protesters has astounded even me-a reformed Canadian who grew up on a steady diet of Canuckprop. They are understandably less keen on policies that are manifestly worthless for halting COVID and have significant trade-offs and costs, including empty shelves in Canadian supermarkets. But they have also said they are robustly for freedom of choice, not to mention the right of people to make a living. In fact, many of the protesters have said they are themselves vaccinated, as have many of the thousands of ordinary citizens who, also in sub-zero temperatures, cheered the convoys on as they passed. They cannot afford to take weeks off from whatever work remains to them and march around in minus 35-degree wind chills for frivolous reasons. These are not the laptop class but working people who live paycheck-to-paycheck and have families to feed. In the absence of genuine grievances, it would be impossible to convince thousands of people to act-people who are not, I should add, in the professional protesting class that forms an entire subset of Canadian society. Last week, as the convoys moved toward and converged on the capital from the east, west, and south-numbers are disputed, but it seems certain they formed the longest convoys in history -it became clear that the list of grievances had grown to include just about everything associated with some of the most enduring, draconian, and nonsensical COVID restrictions in the world.ĭespite the efforts of Canadian media to downplay and distort events in Ottawa, it is easy to see right through them. The trigger for this unprecedented protest is a vaccine mandate for long-haul truckers, whose big rigs now line the streets, horns blaring between a variety of protest chants, some of which are more printable than others (“Truck Trudeau,” and variations thereof, has been a common refrain). But this hasn’t stopped thousands of them from gathering near the parliament buildings in Ottawa to effectively shut down the central part of the city. Canadians are a notoriously compliant, unquestioning, deferential lot. ![]() Very odd things are happening in Canada, not the least of which is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fleeing the capital city for security reasons, or so officials say. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |