By: Surjit Flora
In reaction to the Ottawa and US border truck blockades, Ontario’s premier proclaimed a state of emergency on Friday, vowing to push for new laws that would punish individuals who obstruct the free passage of goods and people.
Since Monday, hundreds of truck drivers have been blocking the Ambassador Bridge linking Windsor and Detroit, protesting Canada’s COVID-19 limitations and screaming against PM Trudeau. Over the last two weeks, hundreds of others have paralyzed downtown Ottawa.
These drivers, in reality, are individuals who ignore medical specialists and believe the rubbish spread by different self-promoters, foolish people, and right-wing extremists. These are the same obnoxious thugs that have harassed medical staff. Their protest is no more important than that of other anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists.
Even if the requirement they protest is repealed, the border will remain closed since the US has the same limitations. They are a crucial factor in the pandemic’s spread and the overcrowding of hospital systems. The same sort of idiocy has had a significant impact on the United States, resulting in a mortality rate three times that of Canada, with 600,000 people dying who would be living today if it weren’t for their influence.
They are dangerous to the public and believe that their so-called freedom is more essential than their fellow citizens’ lives.
The actual spark is the anti-vaxxers on the American right, who put their professed freedom ahead of public safety. They have no concept of Canadian heritage, as seen by their continuous references to their “liberty.”
The foundation ideals of Canada are ‘peace, order, and good governance,’ as stated in the 1867 BNA Act that established Confederation. That is why, according to the first article of the more modern Charter of Rights and Freedoms, all of these rights are subject to “reasonable restrictions, specified by law, which may be convincingly justified in a free and democratic society.” To put it another way, unlike right-wing Americans, all of our rights are subject to limitations that are necessary for the public welfare, such as preventing severe sickness and maintaining public health.
On the other side is the villainization of truckers, who are just ordinary Canadians who refuse to get vaccinated for whatever reason. It is a disgrace in and of itself, but it pales in contrast to PM Trudeau’s language, in which he called the truckers and others who have come out in favour of them “anti-Semites, Islamophobes, anti-black racists, and homophobes” in a tweet. It exposes him for what he is and has always been: an opportunistic virtue-signalling shallow politician in the strongest light possible.
It’s a case of dishonest Canadian politicians, including Trudeau, using double standards. They set fire to other nations and spray petrol on them in the name of rights. They’ve gone to great lengths to light the fires of oil and gas in India, but now that there’s no opposition, there’s no way out. They’ve been inundated with resolutions, tweets, and remarks throughout the year. When it’s their time, all rights are forgotten, and democracy is on the verge of collapsing.
Yes, our neighbours across the street or down the condo hall, our co-worker, next door, the classmate at the law school lecture on civil liberties, the clerk at a store, or the Amazon or Canada Post driver delivering the package you probably don’t need, or the expectant mother who is uncomfortable with the speed with which this vaccine went from nothing to being forced on all are among those refusing to be vaccinated.
Those are demonstrating a call for fundamental liberty to be protected since our governments and collaborators have trampled on our rights over the last two years. Follow the research, we are told, while the public is subjected to unscientific curfews, lockdowns, and other ineffective tactics.
Even though many protestors and their supporters are fully vaccinated, they recognize that vaccination mandates are unjust. Trudeau and his allies attempt to divide and conquer, or worse, divert attention away from their own failings. Too many of us continue to do what we are told, fearing that disobedience would bring the state’s entire might on us. All Canadians should be thankful to the truckers who have stood up to the plate (and the rest of the world has noticed).
As shown by the epidemic, the initial sin is the devastation of our healthcare system and the shutting of beds over decades in favour of photo opportunities for wasteful expenditure and the expansion of the bureaucracy.
The fact that the vax-tax was repealed, a warning shot, should not assuage our anxieties of an overreaching state and elitist politicians like Trudeau seeking to impose their wills on the rest of us, whether for Covid or the next existential catastrophe. With the help of experts, politicians can compel people to take vaccinations they don’t want; it won’t be long until we can’t eat meat or drive automobiles.
When that occurs, there may not be anybody left to speak up to stop it, whether truckers or others, since we are told it is all for our “common benefit,” with no criticism tolerated.
