Canada tries to break up trucker protests
What happened
Canadian police cleared demonstrators who were blocking a key U.S.-to-Canada bridge this week, the first success in ending the protests against vaccine mandates that have paralyzed Ottawa and other cities. Officers in Ontario arrested 46 people and seized 37 vehicles halting traffic at the Ambassador Bridge to Detroit, the conduit for a third of U.S.Canada manufacturing trade. The six-day blockade caused more than $300 million in lost commerce and forced Ford, Honda, and General Motors to cut production. Protesters were also dispersed from the border crossing at Coutts, Alberta, where authorities seized weapons, as well as from crossings in Manitoba and British Columbia. But the capital, Ottawa, remained the epicenter of the protests that began Jan. 29 against a requirement that cross-border truckers be vaccinated against Covid. The crowd there swelled to more than 4,000, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers. Ottawa police said protesters who don’t leave will face criminal charges.
Similar protests appeared in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he was “all for” Americans gathering to likewise “clog things up” and “make people think about the mandates.” Americans are already involved: While GoFundMe refused to release money raised for the “Freedom Convoy,” saying it wouldn’t back illegal activity, a hack of Christian fundraiser GiveSendGo revealed $8.6 million in donations, some 40 percent from U.S. donors. One protest with dozens of cars began in Buffalo, and a California-to-Washington convoy was scheduled to embark March 4. But the Department of Homeland Security said plans for widespread blockades are so far merely “aspirational.”
What the columnists said
So much for the “cherished mythology” of the congenitally nice Canadian, said Catherine Porter in The New York Times. What began as objections from the 10 percent of Canadian truckers who remain unvaccinated has exploded into multidirectional rage from a noisy minority. “Normally placid” Ottawa has been overtaken by diesel-belching trucks and protesters flying Nazi and Confederate flags along with banners saying “F--- Trudeau.” The prime minister responded with the first-ever invocation of the 1988 Emergencies Act, which permits drastic actions such as “banning public assembly, seizing trucks and other vehicles used in blockades, and restricting travel.”
It’s no surprise that Trudeau, leader of the Liberals, is treating the right-wingers of the Freedom Convoy as “hateful kooks,” said Rich Lowry in National Review. But they have legitimate grievances. Although three-quarters of Canadians polled want an end to the protests, 44 percent expressed sympathy for the truckers. They realize that a vaccine mandate for largely solitary workers “simply isn’t a very important policy.”
Here in the U.S., said Dean Obeidallah in CNN.com, many Republicans are cheering for the Canadian protesters and say they would welcome a convoy to Washington, D.C. Have they suddenly embraced civil liberties, after condemning 2020’s racial justice protests? Or do they figure that trucker protests “will disrupt supply chains,” damage the economy, and further sink President Biden’s popularity? If American truckers feel unheard, “they should protest”—but they should also resist being exploited to “score political points.”