In the latest instalment of the As the Nuthouse Turns, we have the Freedumb Convoy, a collection of anti-vaxxers who have blockaded downtown Ottawa to protest against vaccine mandates and other Covid restrictions. The protesters were initially angry about quarantine rules for truckers crossing the border, but it has morphed into a long list of grievances and accusations, as befitting a pack of whiners who can’t see themselves as anything but victims.
The right to protest should not be circumscribed, irrespective of the views behind them. While some have portrayed the convoy as a lawless mob, I wouldn’t characterize it as such; it seems like most of them are behaving reasonably – well, as reasonably as can be expected for people with only a passing acquaintance with reality. Protests are always problematic; organizers can't control who shows up at a protest, so there are often bad actors who use the cover of the crowd to commit crimes, which then reflects badly on all the protesters. In addition, the anger that feeds a protest can be kindled into rioting by the slightest trigger. So the police in Ottawa were right to initially take a careful approach - with several thousand protesters in a densely populated urban area, things could get ugly in a hurry.
But there is a line where protest, even if mostly peaceful, turns into civil disobedience. The protesters have made their point, whatever that may be. There has to come a time when they either pack it up or the police start to move them out, and we are definitely past that point. In addition to the multiple reports of vandalism, harassment, and assaults, the blockade has caused many serious issues for people who live and work in the area. The protesters have been running their diesel trucks 24/7 and blowing their horns all through the night. They’ve blocked access to local businesses, government services and daycares. Some protesters barged into the local soup kitchen and demanded food and harassed the volunteers working there. So far, the Ottawa police have done very little about any of this; there have been only a handful of arrests.
Let’s compare how this protest has been handled versus another one this past summer. At the Fairy Creek logging site, protesters attempted to block equipment and workers, but no 'civilians' were impacted because it was happening in a remote location. Nevertheless, the RCMP used very aggressive and potentially illegal tactics to try and end the protest – they showed up heavily armed and quickly began to forcibly remove people, even those who weren’t engaged in active civil disobedience. There were accusations of police brutality and claims that the cops vandalized protesters cars and other possessions. The media was kept away by the RCMP, unable to witness and report on the events (this certainly hasn't occurred at the anti-vax protests). Whatever your views on logging, does this police reaction seem in any way similar to the way the Ottawa police are handling the Covid protesters? No, it certainly does not.
The Covid protests have spread to other places in Canada, including the Coutts border crossing in Alberta, where truckers have used their vehicles to block and delay access. So why isn’t the Kenney government’s shiny new Bill 1, aka the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act, being used to end this blockade? Is the border not the very definition of “critical infrastructure”? Other truckers – you know, the ones actually working while this is going on – have reported having to take long detours to avoid the Coutts crossing. Considering the amount of goods and people that cross there every day, the economic cost of the blockade is significant.
Bill 1 was controversial when it passed, because its very imprecise and open-ended language made it possible to use the law to ban just about any protest the government didn't like. Kenney talked tough about how his government would use the law to prevent protesters from derailing work on pipelines and other projects. He said that Bill 1 was necessary to protect the economy and public safety. But like so many things the premier says, his words were no match for his hypocrisy and political cowardice. If environmentalists or First Nations people were blocking the border, do you have any doubt they would have been forcibly removed already? Instead of using Bill 1 to end the blockade and arrest the truckers, Kenney incredibly thanked them.
Remember also that Kenney claimed that pipeline protesters were funded by Americans, thus implying that their concerns were somehow invalid or that their motivations were dark and sinister. He even wasted millions of taxpayer dollars establishing a formal panel of inquiry – which embarrassed itself almost daily – to investigate this claim. Well, it's pretty clear that the Freedumb Convoy is being funded mostly by US donations. What have we heard from Kenney about this? Crickets…
As issues become more contentious and political views grow increasingly polarized, we could be entering a period of greater civil unrest. The uneven application of law hurts each and every one of us, irrespective of our views, because it throws into question the legitimacy of our entire system. Our authorities and our legal system need to figure out a fair-handed way to deal with mass protests and civil disobedience, and badly written junk legislation like Bill 1 is clearly not the answer.
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