Ottawa under siege: the truckers’ revolt
Most Canadians were shocked and saddened by the assault on the US Capitol on 6 January last year, said Kevin Lynch and Paul Deegan in the Toronto Star. We comforted ourselves, however, with the knowledge that such events could “never happen” in our country, where “peace, order and good government” prevail. Yet for the past two weeks, it has been our own capital, Ottawa, that has been “under siege” by a “rag-tag group of occupiers”. It began when a so-called “Freedom Convoy” of truckers arrived in late January to protest against the rule that all truck drivers crossing Canada’s borders must be vaccinated. But it has grown into a protest against all Covid public health measures. “Anti-government zealots”, right-wing extremists and thousands of truckers have blocked streets with 18-wheelers, blared their horns at all hours, bullied journalists and harassed mask-wearers. This week, PM Justin Trudeau declared a state of emergency, after the protests spread to Vancouver and Toronto, and showed little sign of dissipating. Canadians are at the mercy of a “mob”.
“Everyone should calm the hell down,” said Terry Glavin in the National Post (Toronto). Yes, there’s been some “hooliganism” in Ottawa, and it’s “appalling” that swastikas and confederate flags have been spotted. But the idea that all these protesters are dangerous far-right lunatics is an overheated fantasy. Most are peaceful, and polls show that nearly half of vaccinated Canadians sympathise with their gripes. No wonder, said Karys Rhea in Newsweek (New York). Canada’s Covid response has been characterised by astonishing “government overreach”: witness the extraordinary admission by its Public Health Agency in December that it secretly tracked data from 33 million devices monitoring people’s movements in lockdowns. I’m not surprised people are angry.
The protesters’ libertarian message has resonated far beyond Canada’s borders, said Catherine Porter in The New York Times. There have been copycat demonstrations from France to New Zealand; US truckers want to stage a convoy of their own. Funding has flowed in from abroad, particularly the US. These protests were clearly “made in America”, said Andrew Cohen in the Montreal Gazette. Their chants (“Freedom!”, “Don’t tread on me!”), their outrage and their scepticism all come from the US “messianic Right”. We have seen during the Trump years where this will lead. Alas, it seems that as the US “descends into chaos, the far-right wants to take down Canada too”.