They'll Still Be Bitter

Justice Rouleau still has to write his report. But, already, a few conclusions can be reached about the Rouleau Inquiry. Max Fawcett writes:

For those who approached the proceedings with a more open mind, though, it’s hard not to see a certain beauty in the way events unfolded over the last six-plus weeks. By and large, the hearings were defined by respectful disagreements, exactly as Justice Rouleau said he hoped at the outset. Lawyers were able to ask pointed questions of elected officials, citizens had their concerns heard out and law enforcement agencies were asked to account for their choices in full view of the public. Canada, a country that has long been defined by its commitment to “peace, order and good government,” can be proud of this process.

But don't expect the convoy's organizers to be happy:

 As he wrapped up the public testimony last week, Rouleau said: “I think this process, I hope, will be of assistance to people to understand and move forward.” But that assumes that everyone involved wants to do those things — and when it comes to the convoyers and their various political, legal and media enablers, that’s clearly not the case.

They were a rag-tag group:

As the Toronto Star’s Tonda MacCharles and Alex Ballingall noted, “The overall picture that emerged this week was of a gathering of infighting protest groups that had differing and sometimes competing agendas, and lacked the ability for any one faction to control another.”

And, as the rise of Danielle Smith makes clear, they're not going away.

Image: Justin Tang/Canadian Press

No Longer The Peacable Kingdom

The events of the last three weeks have exposed the failure of multiple governments across Canada. At the root of it all, Susan Riley writes, is a failure of leadership:

We desperately need a confident leader, not just to stare down the incoherent bullies that have been tormenting the citizens of downtown Ottawa and wreaking economic havoc at our borders, but someone who could lead, or even inspire, a massive groundswell of hope and unity after the insurrection and the pandemic are over. Someone with a sharp mind, a kind heart and the courage to speak for the majority of reasonable, law-abiding Canadians whose voices have been drowned out lately by extremists and their enablers.

At the moment there appears to be no such person in sight:

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh arose from his torpor last week to insist the prime minister “show leadership,” and “use the resources at his disposal” to end this thing immediately. He didn’t suggest what resources, but if the PM summoned the army to help move trucks (the only practical option, say some), Singh would be likely the first to denounce the intrusion on human rights.

Meanwhile, amid lame scoldings from Trudeau, the very late arrival Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the useless hand-wringing of mayors and police chiefs, the braying contempt of Conservative MPs concerned only for their own electorate prospects, an astonishing web of lies has risen almost unchallenged—from the basic to the truly bizarre.

Then there is Justin. He's been long on meetings and short on actions:

There is an air of privilege surrounding Trudeau, given his pedigree and his personal wealth (although he is probably no richer than that champion of the little guy, career politician Poilievre) and a lot of his critics hate him for it. And hate isn’t too strong a term.

The protesters have taken their inspiration from the American Alt Right:

The protest is no longer about truckers, or mandates, or even Bitcoin—a tangent that emerged last week. But it is definitely about harassing, intimidating, and trying to silence reporters covering the event. The convoy’s clamour for “freedom” apparently does not include freedom of the press, a requirement of every robust democracy. Is the bullying of individual reporters not deserving of outrage from some politician? Anyone? Not the careful “tut-tuts,” or scripted rebukes we have heard so far, but real conviction, real fire?

And who is speaking for Canadians who have played by the rules -- those who do not bathe in hot tubs in the streets?

And who, in all this, is passionately defending the majority of Canadians who are fully-vaccinated? Who speaks for those who lost parents, spouses, loved ones to this virus—or for the exhausted health-care workers so frequently lauded, so inadequately resourced, the teachers and parents and everyone else, just as fed up with life under COVID as the petulant, self-interested supporters of the protest? (And, as an aside, how many protesters benefited from CERB, or the other federal supports that helped mitigate the pain?)

Historians used to call Canada The Peaceable Kingdom. We are no longer that place. This is not a protest. This is sedition. Who will save our democracy?

Image: Sky News

Political Myopia

Glen Pearson writes that the trucker convoy has revealed our political myopia:

For the average Canadian attempting to muddle through the pandemic, the truck convoy that arrived in Ottawa seemed something of an anomaly – a fringe protest using its heavy rigs to make a statement.    Almost two weeks later, we are coming to understand that perhaps the most dangerous aspect of it all has been the political response.

What is apparent, however, is that the more radical right of the political spectrum, still furious of the result of the last federal election, has found another cause celebre with which to disrupt as much of Justin Trudeau’s tenure as it can.  The chaos it has caused in Ottawa, Windsor and Coutts, Alberta, has risen in importance in a way that makes official responses to the protests seem timid.  At first, it all appeared like the tolerant way Canadians have of dealing with such things, but the more gridlock that results, the lack of an effective response has likely emboldened the protestors.

It’s all fascinating theatre, reminiscent of developments south of the border, but the crucial story in it all has been the rise of the Right once more in a nation that is largely centrist.  By playing politics with it, the Conservatives hope to wrangle power out of all the tumult.  And it’s not just the fringe of the party.  The majority of the Conservative caucus tossed the more centrist O’Toole out the door, opening the floodgates for a free for all political season.

We used to think that these folks were the nutbars in the People's Party of Canada. But we forget that Maxime Bernier almost won the leadership of the Conservative Party. These people have been around for a long time. And ignoring them won't make them go away:

Canadians get it that large swaths of our population feel disenchanted, disconnected, and denied, but little in our national tendency has been towards hatred, anarchy, or violence.  And, yet, there are those moments like the trucker protest when we wonder if we are inching closer to the precipice of political and social chaos.  We understand that the truckers have the right to demonstrate, but others are attaching themselves to the protest who have nothing but democratic chaos on their minds.  There is a difference, and we can’t permit the former while coddling the latter.

These people must be confronted and called out for who and what they are.

Image: Global News

The Truckers And Fox News

Fox News has picked up the story on the truckers convoy. Kieran Levitt writes in The Toronto Star:

The convoy has received substantial air time from U.S. right-wing outlets and big-name American political commentators on social media all week.

Some American media experts say the story fits a perfect mould for an audience in the United States that has been fed an anti-vaccine narrative for months by outlets such as Fox News looking to make Biden look bad and, in turn, Donald Trump look good.

In short: vaccines, restrictions and Biden — bad. Trump and “freedom” — good.

The website of Fox News’ Sean Hannity blasted out a story this week with the headline “TRUCK YEAH: Canada Forms Freedom Convoy of 10K Trucks to Protest Vax Mandates, ‘Overreach is Over.’”

Of course, the story is full of exaggerations:

The convoy, by official measurements, is a fraction of that 10,000-trucks figure that’s been floating around online (some have even suggested the number is as high as 50,000). Officials in Ottawa — where the protesters began to arrive Friday — have pegged it as being between 1,000 and 2,000 vehicles.

Police in Kingston, Ont., said Friday that the convoy leaving that city had 17 full tractor-trailers, 104 tractors without trailers, 424 passenger vehicles and six RVs. Another large convoy is expected to arrive from Western Canada by Saturday.

American podcaster Joe Rogan commented on the convoy, saying Canada was a “country in revolt” on a recent show. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, declared that “Canadian truckers rule” on Twitter. Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro has been posting articles on his Facebook page all week about the convoy.

“Canadian truckers are rightfully demonstrating against authoritarian vaccine mandates,” Shapiro said Tuesday.

There's a big piece of the story that isn't reported: "The Canadian Trucking Alliance has denounced the protest, stressing that almost 90 per cent of Canadian truckers have already been vaccinated. Still, the group says about 16,000 could be sidelined due to the vaccine mandate here and the corresponding one for truckers in the United States.)"

But these days, on the right, facts don't matter.

Morons.

Image: The Toronto Star