Covered with disgrace
The tactics of political protestors are to a) shame those in power, b) rally support from the public, and c) make a nuisance of themselves (within limits). The goal of protest is to effect some kind of desired change on the part of the powerful (or within the larger society), or at least sow the seeds for eventual change by the protestors’ witness. The convoy of truckers currently protesting against the government of Canada have employed all these time-honored protest tactics to try to get vaccine mandates revoked.
The tactics of the government of Canada against the truckers – whether you support their cause or not – are horrifying and abusive. Defining ordinary protestors as Nazis, white supremacists, and terrorists is over the top – particularly when done by a Prime Minister who himself participated in protests that included burning down churches across his own country just last year (in response to accusations that were shown to be unfounded, to boot).
Meanwhile, private banks have been recruited to freeze bank accounts of protestors. People who have donated material support, like food or gas, have been threatened with arrest or doxed (with the accompanying anonymous threats by those who feel they have a free pass to hate those they define as hateful). The police have said that they will seize the truckers’ pets and hold them for seven days, after which they will be euthanized if the truckers haven’t managed to extricate themselves from custody.
This is shameful. This is evil. If you think the truckers are wrong, if you think they ought to be arrested, fine. Being willing to be arrested is part of the risk of protesting. But the tactics of the government, and the howling rage of those who think they get a free pass to hate, this is disgusting. I have never seen anything like it north of the border. And as rowdy as US political life sometimes gets, I have not seen the government here do anything remotely like this since Bull Connor’s firehoses or the shots fired at Kent State.
The pandemic has put everybody under a lot of stress. It’s time to get back to normal. No amount of “safety” is worth living under a regime that treats its own citizens this way. In saying so, I’m not just pointing fingers at Canada. There are little tin-pot dictators all over western society, in every country and in every neighborhood and institution. And I am done with them all. A day of reckoning is coming.
The tactics of the government of Canada against the truckers – whether you support their cause or not – are horrifying and abusive. Defining ordinary protestors as Nazis, white supremacists, and terrorists is over the top – particularly when done by a Prime Minister who himself participated in protests that included burning down churches across his own country just last year (in response to accusations that were shown to be unfounded, to boot).
Meanwhile, private banks have been recruited to freeze bank accounts of protestors. People who have donated material support, like food or gas, have been threatened with arrest or doxed (with the accompanying anonymous threats by those who feel they have a free pass to hate those they define as hateful). The police have said that they will seize the truckers’ pets and hold them for seven days, after which they will be euthanized if the truckers haven’t managed to extricate themselves from custody.
This is shameful. This is evil. If you think the truckers are wrong, if you think they ought to be arrested, fine. Being willing to be arrested is part of the risk of protesting. But the tactics of the government, and the howling rage of those who think they get a free pass to hate, this is disgusting. I have never seen anything like it north of the border. And as rowdy as US political life sometimes gets, I have not seen the government here do anything remotely like this since Bull Connor’s firehoses or the shots fired at Kent State.
The pandemic has put everybody under a lot of stress. It’s time to get back to normal. No amount of “safety” is worth living under a regime that treats its own citizens this way. In saying so, I’m not just pointing fingers at Canada. There are little tin-pot dictators all over western society, in every country and in every neighborhood and institution. And I am done with them all. A day of reckoning is coming.