For the past few days truckers in Canada have been demonstrating against vaccine mandates. Five days ago the convoy organized in Alberta and pushed towards Ottawa, converging yesterday at a rally in Parliament Hill. The media reporting on this group has at best characterized them as a nuisance, and at worst as useful idiots taken over by extremist groups and fascistic Nazis.
It’s disappointing that many journalists, particularly from the CBC, are mostly interested in seeking out the worst of the group. Of course when you have any protest, there will be some opportunistic loons. There are a large swaths of ideologies that have united in their position against vaccine mandates. There are accusations that racism and Nazism are inherent the protests, as photos proliferated by these mainstream groups focus on the handful of individuals demonstrating with extremist symbolism. The vast, vast majority of individuals attending the protest aren’t “accelerationists” who want the Canadian government to crumble, but are working class citizens that are simply tired of having their lives managed by state orders.
The media focus is broadly on the extremists within the protest group, but much like the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, it is debatable whether or not the most extreme sects of the group can usefully define the entire movement. Further, the Freedom Convoy is hardly comparable to the BLM riots both in scale and fervor.
Justin Trudeau’s response to the protests has been abysmal. His absence, ostensibly due to Covid-19 exposure, is seen as opportunistic — a means for him to avoid addressing the convoy in any real sense. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has completely written off the convoy as dangerous, likely in an attempt to save face amongst his supporters given that his brother “accidentally” donated CAD $13,000 to the group through their GoFundMe page. Both the establishment and their connected media agencies are doing what they can to coalesce the messaging of the protests as a far-right extremist demonstration, which is wholly at odds with the reality of these ordinary working class citizens. They have no interest in engaging with the ideas and grievances espoused by the alienated members of the working class, who in this instance are an identifiable subset of a critical labor sector. Without their work throughout the pandemic, crucial resources would have no way of reaching citizens throughout Canada.
Ideally the Canadian media and political establishment engages with these protesters and stops pushing harmful stereotypes on this diverse coalition of protesters. This is obviously unlikely to happen - and the fallout, socially across North America, and politically in Canada, will say a lot about the willingness of democratic leaders to engage with a grassroots popular movement that does not fit neatly into their vision of a legitimately aggrieved class.
Image source:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fworld-us-canada-60190452&psig=AOvVaw0o3Iih6l4x7Sy-ztk2Std-&ust=1643684505954000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCIiBjI2A2_UCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
It has been the weirdest experience, particularly this year. There was a time from 2020-2021, where we could hold out hope that the Canadian government was just trying it's best to protect the citizens of this country. However, with their increasing push back on our own defense of constitutional rights and freedoms, it has laid bare their allegiances are not to the citizens, but rather to foreign powers. Globalism is truly the enemy of humanity.
I think a lot of the vitriol that comes from official new sources in regards to the trucker convoy is driven by a (maybe instinctual) desire to control the narrative. So much of our political interaction is based upon legitimizing one or other narratives through a mass media complex. If the truckers are allowed to air their grievances in a way that is public and effectual then the government must then be self reflective in regards to the vaccine mandates. That opens the possibility for the government to be challenged on other issues and it loses authority as a result.