A pandemic protest potpourri

The trucker convoy has become something of a spotlight, shining brightly upon matters otherwise hidden. Herewith a pandemic protest potpourri.

Let’s start with the least important, but most confounding. Jagmeet Singh, NDP leader, champion of the workingman, does not particularly care for this group of workingmen. Too many untoward opinions in that group, he huffed.

You would think that he might be more sympathetic to the problem of fellow-travellers, as just this week on Twitter, Winnipeg NDP MP Leah Gazan denounced Canada’s modest economic aid for Ukraine as supporting an “anti-semitic, neo-nazi & fascist militia,” and characterized Ukraine as a “horrifying” bastion of “white supremacy and fascism.”

If the whole is to be condemned for the part, then the entire NDP federal caucus should be confined to rhetorical quarantine on foreign policy matters.

Then there was the matter of Singh’s brother-in-law, Jodhveer Singh Dhaliwal, being one of the largest donors to the trucker convoy. He gave $13,000 to the Gofundme campaign. It was nice reminder of the wealth of the Singh family, champions of the downtrodden; Jagmeet of the bespoke suits and his education at a very expensive private school in the United States.

Once Dhaliwal discovered “what the money was used for,” he asked for his money back. Maybe Leah Gazan told him it was really funding Ukrainian antisemitic militias.

Or perhaps Singh had a word with his brother-in-law, echoing his public comments that, “We have to very clearly denounce hate and give it no air to breathe and no space to take hold.”

The image comes to mind of Singh administering a dose of hate-denouncing, air-denying ju-jitsu — he is a former Toronto martial arts champion — to Dhaliwal, persuading him to make alternate arrangements for his philanthropy.

The other opposition leader, Erin O’toole, did a bit of tactical jiu-jitsu himself, announcing that he would meet the trucker convoy, having, as is his custom, said the opposite earlier.

The old Teamster line is that, “If you got it, a truck brought it.” Perhaps somewhere in that long line of trucks, O’toole might find a consistent set of principles and policies. He hasn’t got it yet; perhaps the truckers will bring it. Or failing that, they might lend Conservatives the latest GPS device to figure out where O’toole might be taking his stand on any given day.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in a rather serendipitous COVID isolation for a few days. Whether he will really be at home or in Tofino,

B.C., remains to be seen, as PMO press bulletins on such matters are notoriously duplicitous.

Before disappearing from public view, Trudeau made it clear that the truckers were a “fringe minority.” Which would usually be a compliment, as Trudeau’s entire approach to identity politics is to celebrate the minority, the tinier and fringier the better. Some fringes are apparently more equal than others.

Meanwhile, on the local level, the convoy passed by us Kingston, Ont., on Thursday. Not only did it slow traffic, but the convoy itself was slowed down by the numerous well-wishers who wanted to show their support. It all passed without incident, with the local constabulary at their posts.

“While not condoning or approving of the convoy, Kingston Police is working in conjunction with the Ontario Provincial Police, Kingston Fire and Rescue, Frontenac

Paramedic Services and various departments with the City of Kingston to reduce any impact on the Kingston community and surrounding area,” stated the police, detailing the veritable convoy of public officials on hand.

Now, if memory serves, when almost exactly two years ago the Ontario Provincial Police were out shutting down transport corridors to accommodate Indigenous blockades of railways and such, no explicit disclaimer was issued that the police did not condone or approve of the protesters’ actions. A blockade, by the way, is against the law. A convoy is not. It might not make a difference politically, but it should to the police.

A final note. “Extremism” is a many-splendoured thing. There is racial extremism, rhetorical extremism, regulatory extremism. One might say extremism is contagious.

Perhaps there are extreme positions, even racism, amongst the trucker convoy, though it seems that the media reports of such always cite random internet postings.

There is rhetorical extremism, offered up by the NDP MP from Winnipeg.

And there is regulatory extremism aplenty. It is not as noticeable because it is so widespread, like breathing smog in Beijing. You get used to it. But it is real.

It is extremist to impose a workplace vaccine mandate, at pain of dismissal, upon workers who never visit the workplace, as they are mandated to work from home. And it is regulatory extremism to impose a vaccine mandate — on both sides of the border, by the way — upon truckers who have been happily crossing the border for two years with no evidence of causing outbreaks, at a time when 90 per cent of them are already vaccinated and supply chains are stretched thin.

Should it escape the regulatory overseers, truckers are likely the least in need of a vaccine mandate on public health grounds. They spend more time alone, in isolated cabs across the vast Dominion, than perhaps any other occupation in the land, save for the RCMP detail guarding 24 Sussex Drive, where, evocative of our national leadership class, no one is home.

SOME FRINGES ARE APPARENTLY MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.