The People Speak : Government is Deaf

Streets in downtown Ottawa are quieter after a massive police operation cleared protesters and convoy trucks demonstrating for weeks in the city's core. Ottawa Police Service says it would maintain a police presence and continue to identify and charge protesters. CBC

The Truckers Freedom Convoy that has paralyzed the capital city of Canada for three weeks has been dispersed.  Canadian truckers were outraged when the Trudeau Liberal government mandated that all truckers, beyond the 90 percent of Canadian truckers already vaccinated, must be inoculated against COVID-19, or their licenses would be suspended. There was already an acute shortage of truckers employed in the industry before the mandate. With delivery delays and supply lines impacted by the pandemic, the mandate would mean increasing the shortage of drivers, impacting on the reliability of deliveries even more seriously.

Truckers were outraged and vowed they would drive to Ottawa from all points of the Canadian geographic compass. As they drove to their destination, other Canadians came out to cheer the convoys on, sharing with them an anger over years of lockdowns and government control at all levels, particularly laws that seemed to make little sense. Above all, mandates that deprived people of t heir livelihoods. People were tired of being harassed, of a lack of normalcy in their lives. Many people understood what the truckers were protesting.

Police enforce an injunction against protesters, some who have been camped in their trucks near Parliament Hill for weeks, on Saturday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

As always with any protests, they were joined by groups having nothing to do with delivering the truckers' message; nationalists, far-right groups, racist groups and provocateurs. Other, shiftless louts came along to party as the Parliamentary Precinct became locked in with semi-trailers and other large trucking rigs, alongside smaller vehicles, blocking major streets and extending blockages to nearby residential areas. No one in authority at the municipal, provincial or federal level met with the organizers to discuss their grievances.

So they stayed on, capturing the centre of the city, blaring horns, keeping their rigs running continually, fouling the atmosphere with diesel fumes and loud noise. There were alcohol-infused night street parties and during the day harassment of locals. Public statements from the prime minister characterized the truckers as a 'fringe group' of 'racists, homophobes and fascists'. He had no intention of speaking with them, of making any effort at defusing the situation. Finally, he chose to bring in the Emergency Act, designed to deal with extraordinarily dangerous situations threatening government and society.

Police continued their efforts on Saturday to clear parts of downtown Ottawa of protesters. The Ottawa Police Service tweeted Saturday that officers at the scene would be wearing helmets and carrying batons for their safety. (Blair Gable/Reuters)

He did this at a time when protest blockages at major international crossings impeding vehicular passage serving trade between Canada and the U.S. were being broken up by law enforcement and normalcy was returning, even as Canada's trucking protest had served as an example, igniting similar protests elsewhere around the world. In New Zealand, Reuters reported Police Commissioner Andrew Coster saying that negotiations and de-escalation were the only safe ways to resolve the protest there.

Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, is on record as having criticized other world leaders dealing with protesting citizenry, urging them to 'listen to the people'. A message that fit snugly with his public persona of a crusader for justice and equality, a feminist and champion of the underdog. Indian Prime Minister Modi was chastized by Trudeau for not 'listening' to the protests launched by the farming community over new legislation being brought in that was meant to modernize the industry in India, but which farmers felt would disadvantage them. That protest was a year long in New Delhi and led to the legislation ultimately being withdrawn, the protesters returning to their farms.

In May 2021 there was conflict in Israel with Gaza, where rockets were being launched by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad at civilian enclaves in Israel. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saw fit to issue a statement urging Israel to practise "restraint", "to act in accordance with international law". This, at a time when 3,500 rockets were being shot off into Israel and the Israel Defense Forces were engaged in self-defence. Trudeau added a week later that "peace-building initiatives" to "support dialogue and co-operation between Israelis and Palestinians" had his ongoing support. Whose support would those expedients not have? Terrorists.

A truck is towed from in front of Parliament Hill as police work to restore normality to the capital after trucks and demonstrators occupied the downtown core for more than three weeks to protest against pandemic restrictions. Photo by Patrick Doyle / Reuters

Canadian truckers are not terrorists. Trudeau steadfastly expressed his contempt for the protesters. And instead of acknowledging the complaints of people protesting in Ottawa and elsewhere across Canada, he continued to use pejorative language in referring to them. Portraying the protesters as despicable misfits and dangerous fascists and racists, the prime minister of Canada accelerated the momentum of the protest, convincing other Canadians to join in a raucous disavowal of their trust in government.

What was a deplorable situation in Belarus when citizens mounted large protests against their dictator's faux re-election and the violence unleashed by government security forces against the populace, was a sight commonly seen in dictatorships when people rebel and they're pushed back harshly with maximum penalties involved for those who challenge such governments, but unusual-to-rare in democratic societies. Canada's example has inspired similar protests elsewhere in democratic societies. We can only hope that other countries handle their peoples' dissatisfaction in a manner befitting democracies.

 Canada's government did not.

Demonstrators continue their protest as police deploy to remove them on Feb. 19, 2022. Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP via Getty Images