Response to carbon tax convoy shows police can actually disband protests

But there seems to be a double standard at play

When the Nationwide Protest Against the Carbon Tax kicked off on April 1, the basic plan was to mount a less confrontational version of the Freedom Convoy.

Large gatherings of vehicles would be stationed at “provincial borders and other key locations,” with the vow to stay there until they’d obtained the “total abolition of the carbon tax.”

Nearly two weeks in, an overwhelming police response has headed off virtually all of the group’s attempts to block roadways or marshal protest convoys. While the movement never had quite the same momentum as the Freedom Convoy, the standoff seems to illustrate that Canada does indeed retain the ability to disband an organized protest blockade if it feels like it.

When carbon tax protesters began gathering at a section of the Trans-canada Highway west of Calgary early last week, some noted that at least a dozen RCMP officers were already there to prevent the demonstration from spilling onto the roadway.

“Alberta RCMP and partner organizations will be present to ensure that the impact on travellers will be minimized and to ensure traffic disruption will not affect public safety,” the Cochrane RCMP had announced in a statement.

Video uploaded by journalist Mocha Bezirgan on April 2 showed a line of nearly 100 RCMP officers — some clad in emergency response gear — standing between the highway and a gathering of demonstrators.

One April 2 web video shows a neighbouring Petro Canada gas station filled with more than a dozen RCMP vehicles, including at least five multi-passenger Mercedes Sprinter vans, presumably for carrying large numbers of additional Mounties.

As of April 8, video uploaded by the Alberta demonstrators showed a large encampment complete with a full tractor-trailer done up in Axe the Tax livery and a crane used to hoist a banner that also reads “Axe the Tax.” But all of it was strictly contained to a side road well away from the main highway.

In Saskatchewan, carbon tax demonstrators have been issued with a letter from the RCMP informing them that “blocking any portion of a road or highway” would result in their arrest.

“Police will be on site to help assure you can exercise your right to protest in a way that is lawful and safe for all,” it reads.

Meanwhile, the official Facebook group for the Nationwide Protest Against the Carbon Tax is filled with posts noting the heavy police presence.

“SOS POLICE AT 401/A20 Border shutting us down come help please!!” reads an April 9 update from a demonstration at the Quebec-ontario border. An update reads “we were outnumbered and forced to leave.”

On April 8, a video uploaded from an entrance ramp to Ontario’s Highway 417 showed a line of tractors and other protest vehicles being hemmed in by a police roadblock to prevent the convoy from moving onto the freeway.

‘Police (were) nice but very unco-operative to allow a real protest (within) the law,” read a caption. Ottawa-area carpenter Chris Dacey has been documenting Ottawa-area demonstrations ever since the days of the Freedom Convoy in early 2022. On April 6, he circulated video showing a roadblock of five police vehicles preventing the passage of a carbon tax convoy near the Ontario-quebec border.

“The police vehicles are blocking the entire service road and both shoulders,” Dacey wrote in a caption.

On April 4, spokesmen for the Nationwide Protest Against the Carbon Tax even delivered an Ottawa press conference in which they framed the police response as being too heavy-handed.

“Protesters are getting confused by what appears to be continually changing rules from law enforcement in some locations,” said protest spokesman Karl Douville.

The treatment of the Nationwide Protest Against the Carbon Tax has differed sharply from law-enforcement responses to other protest blockades.

It was only four years ago that small groups of anti-pipeline protesters with roughly the same level of organization were able to able to stage days-long blockades of Canadian rail infrastructure, including a near-complete shutdown on Feb. 13, 2020 of eastern portions of the Canadian National Railway.

More recently, anti-israel protesters in Toronto were able to maintain a two-week blockade of a highway overpass servicing a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood. Only after intense political pressure did Toronto police announce that blockaders would be arrested.

The Nationwide Protest Against the Carbon Tax began on April 1, the date an automatic hike to the tax kicked in, bringing it to $80 per tonne of carbon (the equivalent to 3.3 cents per litre of gasoline).

Although the movement shared many of the participants and symbology as the Freedom Convoy, the key difference this time was that demonstrators would never mount a total blockade, and they’d lay off the anti-trudeau rhetoric. In official literature, demonstrators were told to “maintain at least one centre lane open for traffic.”

An introductory press release, meanwhile, outlined that they stood “firmly apart from any political party or movement.”

ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS WERE ABLE TO MAINTAIN A TWO-WEEK BLOCKADE.