State of emergency and supply cuts to stop the Freedom Convoy, but the protest spreads
Protests against vaccination obligations in Canada do not stop. More than a week after their arrival in downtown Ottawa, the Freedom Convoy truckers and their supporters have kept their word and are still permanently camped on Parliament Hill, where the Canadian Parliament is based.
However, the authorities seem willing to end the protest, so much so that the mayor of Ottawa has declared a state of emergency. Rather than a head-on collision, the strategy seems to focus on targeted interventions to weaken the resistance of the demonstrators: obsessive control of documents and insurance of truckers, some arrests to lead by example (there was talk of unspecified damage to private property), and above all blows to the supply chain, with the removal of a facility where fuel cans were crammed. The police also announced their intention to arrest anyone who brings gasoline or diesel and supplies of comfort to the truck drivers.
The intention is therefore to make life difficult for the demonstrators to lead them to spontaneously abandon the protest site, as happened in Quebec City, where a convoy left the city after threats of fines and vehicle hijacking.
But the game is far from over, as other Canadian cities are in a state of turmoil. Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina: the list of cities with protests against vaccination restrictions continues to grow, with marches, signs, maple leaf flags, the cry "Freedom!" repeated everywhere, and above all many motorists who honk their horns to show solidarity with the demonstrators. A border crossing in Alberta is still occupied by several truckers. And another group of protesters blocked the Ambassador Bridge, the most important border crossing, which connects the city of Windsor (Ontario) to Detroit.
CBC , Canadian state television seems to have adopted a slightly less pro-government approach: yes, it still favors voices condemning protesters, but has given some space to those who criticized the politicians who refused to meet them, and above all admitted that this is not such a small minority and that many supporters of the Freedom Convoy are calling for a return to normalcy: not the "new" one, made up of masks, children confined to the home and social distancing, but the only possible normality, that pre-pandemic.
Too early perhaps to conclude that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is no longer pleasing to an establishment that seems to be preparing to dump him, but of course there is a difference.
The protest has now attracted international attention to what is happening in and around Ottawa. It is said that when the elephant (the United States) sneezes Canada catches a cold. This time around, however, it seems to be the opposite, as American truckers prepare to follow the example of their northern neighbors. Trump also talked about it in his rally, calling Trudeau a crazy left-wing extremist.
GoFundMe 's decision not to release the remaining $ 9 million raised in favor of truckers, but to reimburse it to donors, aroused the outrage of Elon Musk (who accused the platform of being "professional thieves") and the anger of a Republican heavyweight, Senator Ted Cruz, who asked the Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation into GoFundMe 's behavior. Protesters turned to another Christian-inspired crowdfunding platform, GiveSendGo , raising over $ 4 million:
In this changing framework, the rising star of the Canadian Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, tries to make his way. Born in 1979, former minister in the Harper government in office until 2015, with a meaningful move he self-nominated himself as the next prime minister of Canada. Without even waiting for the primaries in a party still shaken by the ousting of leader Erin O'Toole (who is accused of being defeated in the last elections and having moved too far to the left, with his proposal for a carbon tax ), Poilievre tries to present himself as the new face capable of restoring traditional conservative values to the glories: state intervention reduced to a minimum, the fight against inflation that erodes wages, and an inevitable wink to the demonstrators, with a clear reference to the freedom of choice in terms of vaccinations.
His opposition to the prime minister in office is also clear, with a direct phrase: “Trudeau thinks he is the boss. And instead you are the boss, the architect of your own destiny ”. In short, a profound speech to Canada, that of freelancers and traders affected by the restrictions, to be opposed to the snobbish elite of the liberals .
After days of silence, Justin Trudeau returns to show up, declaring in Parliament that the demonstrations must stop because they damage democracy. His latest statements, which defined protesting truckers as "a small minority with unacceptable ideas" must not have met with much sympathy among those who believe that not thinking like him does not necessarily mean having unacceptable ideas. As well as the menacing "reassurance" that the army will not be employed for the time being.
However it will turn out, Trudeau has opened a wound that will be difficult to heal as long as he remains prime minister. It is impossible to forget substantial violations of the constitution. Federal regulations in fact impose the vaccination obligation on passengers departing from or entering Canada. Rules not quite in line with the Charter Of Rights, the part of the Canadian constitution that protects fundamental rights, including the right to move freely within the country, to leave it and to re-enter it. Charter Of Rights which, ironically, came into effect in 1982 at the instigation of the then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, the very popular father of the current Prime Minister.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL https://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/stato-demergenza-e-taglio-rifornimenti-per-fermare-il-freedom-convoy-ma-la-protesta-si-allarga/ on Tue, 08 Feb 2022 03:53:00 +0000.