Michael Tennant
What does the Freedom Convoy want? Is it simply an end to the cross-border vaccine mandate? Or is it some recognition that the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Canadians matter just as much as those of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his compadres in the liberal-elite establishment?
Trudeau, of course, can’t be
bothered to talk to the truckers, let alone take their concerns seriously. He
prefers to denounce them as “racists” and “misogynists.”
One independent journalist,
however, did take the time to walk among the protestors, and after speaking to
nearly 100 of them, found that “not one of them sounded like an
insurrectionist, white supremacist, racist or misogynist.” In fact, wrote Rupa
Subramanya, they constituted a broad cross-section of Canadian society —
“vaxxed, unvaxxed, white, black, Chinese, Sikh, Indian” — who are “outraged with
a country that seemed to have forgotten they existed.”
“The convoy is spearheaded by
truckers, but its message of opposition to life under government control has
brought onto the icy streets countless, once-voiceless people declaring that
they are done being ignored,” observed Subramanya. “That the elites — the
people who have Zoomed their way through the pandemic — had better start paying
attention to the fentanyl overdoses, the suicides, the crime, the despair. Or
else.”
Many of those participating in
the convoy — including spokesman B.J. Dichter, who pointed out the irony in
being called a “white supremacist” given that he’s “Jewish” and has “family in
mass graves in Europe” — have taken the jab. The Canadian Trucking Alliance
(CTA), which represents about 4,500 carriers, owner-operators, and industry
suppliers, says “the vast majority” of Canadian truckers have been vaccinated.
Clearly, then, the issue at hand is not merely the cross-border mandate. If it were, the Freedom Convoy would hardly attract the already-vaccinated, let alone inspire copycat protests around the world. No, penned Subramanya, the Freedom Convoy is protesting something much bigger: “a sense that things will never go back to normal, a sense that they are being ganged up on by the government, the media, Big Tech, Big Pharma.”
This unease is reflected in
the fact that many of those who spoke to Subramanya refused to give their last
names, usually because they feared government retaliation or loss of
employment. Subramanya noted that this “was not entirely crazy” given that the
anti-Freedom Convoy CTA issued a statement warning truckers that “your behavior today
will not only reflect upon you and your family but the” rest of the industry.
The skyrocketing cost of
living is a major driver of the protests. Truckers told Subramanya “it was
getting really expensive to get by…. Almost everyone who was poor or even
middle-class was mired in debt.” Not surprisingly, therefore, “The divide that
already existed between the haves and have-nots largely mapped onto the new
chasm between those who supported the mandates and those who did not.” One
trucker, a Sikh immigrant from Montreal, told Subramanya he was protesting
because Quebec’s banning the unvaccinated from big-box stores has added $200 a
month to his family’s grocery bills.
Then there are the vaccine
passports and the division they have created. “If you’re not vaccinated,” said
Ontario trucker Peter, 28, “they treat you like garbage lying on the streets.”
One non-trucker, 24-year-old
Theo, told Subramanya he’d quit his previous job because he was forced to wear
a mask all day after refusing to get the jab because of a heart condition. His
younger brother, who is likewise unvaccinated, was taking law-school classes
online but now can’t complete his degree because some of the required classes
are in-person only — and the unvaccinated are forbidden to attend.
There are also those
protesting because of the insanity of the mandates. Mackenzie, 24, who works at
a downtown-Ottawa restaurant, had COVID-19 and doesn’t believe she needs to be
vaccinated against it. But thanks to the “follow-the-science” mandates imposed
in Ottawa, she isn’t allowed to dine in the very restaurant where she serves.
In the end, the Freedom Convoy
is not really about any particular mandate but about preserving a way of life.
“We came to Canada to be free — not slaves,” said Ivan, 46, who emigrated with
his wife from Ukraine. “We lived under communism, and, in Canada, we’re now fighting
for our freedom.”
Michael Tennant, New American, 11-2-2022
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