Ottawa's Response to the Trucker Protest Was Doomed from the Start
June 27, 2024 8:18 AM Subscribe
The thing about using vehicles as part of your protest is you can have a greatly outsized effect if the number of protesters is tiny. A crowd of 2,000 protestors on foot is easily corralled, gassed, and beaten by riot police. Dealing with 200 cars is more difficult.
But not impossible. Portland police freely slashed the tires of slow moving cars during the George Floyd protests, which were driving alongside protesters because people had started ramming into crowds with their trucks. (Of course, conservative protesters would never get this treatment.)
posted by AlSweigart at 8:42 AM on June 27 [16 favorites]
But not impossible. Portland police freely slashed the tires of slow moving cars during the George Floyd protests, which were driving alongside protesters because people had started ramming into crowds with their trucks. (Of course, conservative protesters would never get this treatment.)
posted by AlSweigart at 8:42 AM on June 27 [16 favorites]
“I’m a small Asian woman. I wore a mask most of the time due to the situation that was going on. It made you a target because it signalled to the people on our streets that we were not supportive of their cause and that we were not one of them. And in turn, they would increase their honking, and target their honking, and shout at us, shout at me, about how they were doing things for us and that they were fighting for our freedoms when, at the same time, I was unable to walk the streets feeling safe.”
Reporting on what fascists say at face value is repeating fascist propaganda. Never buy their claims that they care about freedom or bodily autonomy (or free speech or freedom of religion). They say whatever they have to in order to gain power, at which point they wield it to oppress marginalized people.
The protesters laughed at the residents’ objections. They saw them as Trudeau voters and Liberal mandate-supporters who deserved what they got. “The honking will continue until freedom improves,” ran one slogan.
They are protesting for the right to stay ignorant, which only works if everyone else agrees with their ignorance. We'll never know how many hundreds of thousands of needless deaths there were because they DEMANDED there be ZERO effort to stop the pandemic: no lockdowns, no vaccines, no masks for anyone.
posted by AlSweigart at 8:47 AM on June 27 [35 favorites]
Reporting on what fascists say at face value is repeating fascist propaganda. Never buy their claims that they care about freedom or bodily autonomy (or free speech or freedom of religion). They say whatever they have to in order to gain power, at which point they wield it to oppress marginalized people.
The protesters laughed at the residents’ objections. They saw them as Trudeau voters and Liberal mandate-supporters who deserved what they got. “The honking will continue until freedom improves,” ran one slogan.
They are protesting for the right to stay ignorant, which only works if everyone else agrees with their ignorance. We'll never know how many hundreds of thousands of needless deaths there were because they DEMANDED there be ZERO effort to stop the pandemic: no lockdowns, no vaccines, no masks for anyone.
posted by AlSweigart at 8:47 AM on June 27 [35 favorites]
An astonishing amount of deference to protestors whose stated aim was overthrowing the government.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:52 AM on June 27 [29 favorites]
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:52 AM on June 27 [29 favorites]
I love* that good ole Randy Hillier was quoted in the article.
*i wish to see him beaten with sticks
posted by Kitteh at 8:58 AM on June 27 [6 favorites]
*i wish to see him beaten with sticks
posted by Kitteh at 8:58 AM on June 27 [6 favorites]
I heard Randy "Suspenders" Hillier was into UFO conspiracies these days.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:02 AM on June 27 [1 favorite]
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:02 AM on June 27 [1 favorite]
An astonishing amount of deference to protestors whose stated aim was overthrowing the government
No accident that American flags were waved here. The failure to nip Fascist movements in the bud seems to be proving the weakening and downfall of democracies worldwide.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:05 AM on June 27 [10 favorites]
No accident that American flags were waved here. The failure to nip Fascist movements in the bud seems to be proving the weakening and downfall of democracies worldwide.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:05 AM on June 27 [10 favorites]
As a native Southerner, I went fucking apolectic at the presence of the Confederate flag on these trucks. You bring that symbol of hate up here, fuckwads? Yeah, I am gonna rip a strip off your ass.
posted by Kitteh at 9:08 AM on June 27 [13 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 9:08 AM on June 27 [13 favorites]
Kitteh I don't know if you watched any of the various live feeds that turned up on Tiktok or Youtube or elsewhere that were just a continuous shot walking through the encampment but along with the Confederate flag I saw white supremacist codes, neo-nazi symbols, those white guys who pretend to be Natives, and of course the now ubiquitous Diagolon symbols... I get that some feel that we should have the right to protest but these were largely not everyday people concerned about "freedoms" and "government overreach".
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:14 AM on June 27 [8 favorites]
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:14 AM on June 27 [8 favorites]
I couldn't watch any of them without getting so intensely angry. Their "protest" was just a reason to be outwardly racist and shitty and trying to pwn Trudeau.
I definitely lost a friend from my old workplace who blindsided me with their support of this stupidity. I mean, I didn't notice until much later but eh. No loss.
posted by Kitteh at 9:25 AM on June 27 [8 favorites]
I definitely lost a friend from my old workplace who blindsided me with their support of this stupidity. I mean, I didn't notice until much later but eh. No loss.
posted by Kitteh at 9:25 AM on June 27 [8 favorites]
Added: a doctor who administered "medical" care during this bullpuckey suspended after an undercover probe
posted by Kitteh at 9:34 AM on June 27 [4 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 9:34 AM on June 27 [4 favorites]
These are the same assholes who pushed back against seatbelt laws and indoor smoking bans. Why is it the ones who complain about the "nanny state" who are always pissing in the swimming pool?
posted by AlSweigart at 10:16 AM on June 27 [6 favorites]
posted by AlSweigart at 10:16 AM on June 27 [6 favorites]
Mod note: No comments deleted so far, but let' please avoid recentering this (or any) thread around the US.
posted by loup (staff) at 11:11 AM on June 27 [9 favorites]
posted by loup (staff) at 11:11 AM on June 27 [9 favorites]
The conciliatory tone of this article bothers me. Those protestors would not have "negotiated" - nothing less than pretending the pandemic wasn't happening would have been good enough for them. While it was going on, I chatted with several protestors on Tiktok lives, to a one, when I asked what policy or law they disagreed with or wanted to change, they replied "Freedom" - now admittedly interviewing people on Tiktok live has its limitations - it's a very public forum and not really conducive to nuanced discussion - but I spoke to maybe 20 different people and not one, not a SINGLE ONE, had a cogent reason for being there. On those lives I also saw a swastika flag, Trump flags, confederate flags, and Canadian flags being flown upside down. I'm trying not to be classist here (I am one of the folks who can "make a living on a macbook at a cottage") but if these folks had wanted any sympathy from me at all, they would have kicked every last one of those jokers out. You wanna fly a Trump flag in Canada? I am the last person to cheer for the police, but come the f*&% on. They were shitting in the street, lighting fires, assaulting people, making the city unliveable, and it was clear talking to them (especially with the presence of self-styled leaders like Pat King, who was just there to make a buck off the folks who legitimately felt aggrieved and wouldn't have stopped for anything while he was still raking in donations) wouldn't be productive. There's no negotiating with "stop trying to mitigate the pandemic"
I have some sympathy for folks who felt railroaded into getting a vaccine they didn't feel safe getting. Did their beliefs have any basis in scientific fact? Not at all - but the fact that so many people had been taken in by conspiracy theories and a lot of Canadians just kind of collectively dismissed them as total idiots is concerning. There's legitimately a problem when so many people are willing to accept fantasy as fact, and I feel that Canada is just at the beginning of what may become a very dangerous time. We have to do something about disinformation. God knows what - a class in elementary school maybe, I don't know.
posted by signsofrain at 11:12 AM on June 27 [20 favorites]
I have some sympathy for folks who felt railroaded into getting a vaccine they didn't feel safe getting. Did their beliefs have any basis in scientific fact? Not at all - but the fact that so many people had been taken in by conspiracy theories and a lot of Canadians just kind of collectively dismissed them as total idiots is concerning. There's legitimately a problem when so many people are willing to accept fantasy as fact, and I feel that Canada is just at the beginning of what may become a very dangerous time. We have to do something about disinformation. God knows what - a class in elementary school maybe, I don't know.
posted by signsofrain at 11:12 AM on June 27 [20 favorites]
The thing about using vehicles as part of your protest is you can have a greatly outsized effect if the number of protesters is tiny. A crowd of 2,000 protestors on foot is easily corralled, gassed, and beaten by riot police. Dealing with 200 cars is more difficult.
The horns were also an outsized effect much louder than actual voices. It was a technology assisted protest, much bigger and louder than the numbers actually were.
posted by mazola at 11:13 AM on June 27 [8 favorites]
The horns were also an outsized effect much louder than actual voices. It was a technology assisted protest, much bigger and louder than the numbers actually were.
posted by mazola at 11:13 AM on June 27 [8 favorites]
Under pressure from miserable residents, police chief Peter Sloly tried to take action, but he was stymied, in part, by front-line officers who were reluctant to confront the protesters. Frustrated, he lashed out at his subordinates, which only made things worse. Raids he ordered did not happen. He wanted more officers from the Ontario Provincial Police, but the operational plans he sent to that force were deemed inadequate, and his request went unanswered.
Ottawa was not being policed. Ticketing didn’t start for days. Tow-truck companies hesitated to move illegally parked trucks for fear of losing business from truckers after the protests ended. Protesters were refilling their trucks with jerry cans of diesel. When the police were ordered to put a stop to that, protesters began to carry empty jerry cans en masse to overwhelm law enforcement, but they needn’t have bothered: front-line officers were not following orders to stop them from gassing up. There were reports that sympathetic officers were sharing police intelligence with protesters. Anything the police did could backfire. Families with children were living in some of the trucks, and there were reports of firearms in others.
So there was mass insubordination by armed police in support of a movement that demands the end of the elected government. You have armed insubordination in the mcfucking capital supporting a "protest" to end the government but somehow the Emergencies Act isn't justified because there may, possibly have been some legitimate protestors?
posted by Slackermagee at 11:29 AM on June 27 [25 favorites]
Ottawa was not being policed. Ticketing didn’t start for days. Tow-truck companies hesitated to move illegally parked trucks for fear of losing business from truckers after the protests ended. Protesters were refilling their trucks with jerry cans of diesel. When the police were ordered to put a stop to that, protesters began to carry empty jerry cans en masse to overwhelm law enforcement, but they needn’t have bothered: front-line officers were not following orders to stop them from gassing up. There were reports that sympathetic officers were sharing police intelligence with protesters. Anything the police did could backfire. Families with children were living in some of the trucks, and there were reports of firearms in others.
So there was mass insubordination by armed police in support of a movement that demands the end of the elected government. You have armed insubordination in the mcfucking capital supporting a "protest" to end the government but somehow the Emergencies Act isn't justified because there may, possibly have been some legitimate protestors?
posted by Slackermagee at 11:29 AM on June 27 [25 favorites]
Any analysis of this that doesn’t focus on the police acting as a force multiplier for right wing protest is going to be worthless.
posted by Artw at 11:51 AM on June 27 [21 favorites]
posted by Artw at 11:51 AM on June 27 [21 favorites]
Maybe I've been unlucky but I counted half a dozen RCMP officers or hanger ons as friends or family prior to the pandemic. 80% were pro convoy. As blatant example of ACAB as their ever was.
posted by Mitheral at 12:05 PM on June 27 [9 favorites]
posted by Mitheral at 12:05 PM on June 27 [9 favorites]
years from now, and assuming we have things like 'society' and 'research/investigative journalism' and things that are published, I wonder if this will be among a series of footnotes on weird shit that happened before people gradually stopped acting like fucking ignorant shitheads, or will this be a salutary moment among others in the fights for freedom that led to the brave new world where I'm either dead or incarcerated for my wrongthink lib wokeness
posted by elkevelvet at 12:07 PM on June 27 [7 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 12:07 PM on June 27 [7 favorites]
Man, after reading the article all I can say is damn people just need somewhere to belong to. Sounds like no one really knows what they want they just want to feel heard and belong somewhere.
Like if we don’t have religion or some kind of fanbase group (lookin at you swifties), people are going to find their group euphoria somehow.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:52 PM on June 27 [4 favorites]
Like if we don’t have religion or some kind of fanbase group (lookin at you swifties), people are going to find their group euphoria somehow.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:52 PM on June 27 [4 favorites]
Aside for the folks outside of Canada: in the province of Ontario policing is primarily done by the OPP, the Ontario Provincial Police. Cities inside Ontario, like Ottowa, primarily draw their policing staff from the OPP or directly from the OPP training system, and a few from other services like the Quebec system or the RCMP.
The culture of the OPP and its evil twin Sûreté du Québec are rather different than the RCMP (aka the Mounties). The article doesn't fully get into it but the jurisdictional turf war between the federal RCMP and the local yocals would have been a significant issue.
posted by zenon at 1:26 PM on June 27 [7 favorites]
The culture of the OPP and its evil twin Sûreté du Québec are rather different than the RCMP (aka the Mounties). The article doesn't fully get into it but the jurisdictional turf war between the federal RCMP and the local yocals would have been a significant issue.
posted by zenon at 1:26 PM on June 27 [7 favorites]
At the very least, the Trucker Convoy and the subsequent aftereffects should disabuse Americans of the idea that Canada is some socialist paradise they can flee to if the US goes pear-shaped. The people who Google about moving here after elections aren't escaping anything, really.
posted by Kitteh at 1:38 PM on June 27 [11 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 1:38 PM on June 27 [11 favorites]
The article contains the word
posted by scruss at 1:52 PM on June 27 [6 favorites]
conspiracism, and it's the first time I've seen that used. It's explained as
... the toxin that spread through algorithmic social media networks during the pandemic, boosted by anti-vaxers selling quack COVID-19 cures, attention-seeking wellness hucksters, antisemites, and foreign propagandists who wanted to increase discord in our society.It's rather apt that the word coincidentally contains "racism", too
posted by scruss at 1:52 PM on June 27 [6 favorites]
I am indescribably angry that so many Canadians refused to help save lives during the pandemic. They've succeeded in convincing half the country that Trudeau should be turfed because he made them get a needle that one time. And they still feel hard done by because they weren't allowed to camp in downtown Ottawa indefinitely. Selfish babies.
posted by Popular Ethics at 1:58 PM on June 27 [6 favorites]
posted by Popular Ethics at 1:58 PM on June 27 [6 favorites]
policing is primarily done by the OPP,
I disagree. There are 43 municipal police forces in Ontario. That would include Metropolitan Toronto. Peel regional, City Of London, Kingston Hamilton, etc.
Every city or town of any size has it's own
A huge portion of the population is policed by municipal police forces ( 80% or more ) ,not the OPP
Some smaller towns like Timmins or Kirkland Lake gave up their municipal police opting for OPP
instead. But these are small towns.
The vast majority of policing is municipal.
OPP will police small towns , the provincial highways but not the cities.
Cities inside Ontario, like Ottawa, primarily draw their policing staff from the OPP or directly from the OPP training system,
Again I disagree.
Every police officer in Ontario attends the Ontario Police College
You cannot apply as an individual.
First you must apply to the municipal police you wish to join. Then if accepted by that police force you will be admitted to the Ontario Police College
In addition if you are a Toronto police you will attend Toronto Police College
if you were OPP, in addition to the Ontario Police College, you would attend the Orillia Provincial Police Academy.
It's not OPP training per se
It's that every cop must attend the Ontario Police College which is not the OPP
posted by yyz at 2:45 PM on June 27 [4 favorites]
I disagree. There are 43 municipal police forces in Ontario. That would include Metropolitan Toronto. Peel regional, City Of London, Kingston Hamilton, etc.
Every city or town of any size has it's own
A huge portion of the population is policed by municipal police forces ( 80% or more ) ,not the OPP
Some smaller towns like Timmins or Kirkland Lake gave up their municipal police opting for OPP
instead. But these are small towns.
The vast majority of policing is municipal.
OPP will police small towns , the provincial highways but not the cities.
Cities inside Ontario, like Ottawa, primarily draw their policing staff from the OPP or directly from the OPP training system,
Again I disagree.
Every police officer in Ontario attends the Ontario Police College
You cannot apply as an individual.
First you must apply to the municipal police you wish to join. Then if accepted by that police force you will be admitted to the Ontario Police College
In addition if you are a Toronto police you will attend Toronto Police College
if you were OPP, in addition to the Ontario Police College, you would attend the Orillia Provincial Police Academy.
It's not OPP training per se
It's that every cop must attend the Ontario Police College which is not the OPP
posted by yyz at 2:45 PM on June 27 [4 favorites]
People were full of outrage at protestors whose demand was to act as if the pandemic didn't exist ... and then within a few months, almost everyone was acting as if the pandemic didn't exist. Weren't the protestors just running ahead of consensus?
posted by MattD at 3:02 PM on June 27 [1 favorite]
posted by MattD at 3:02 PM on June 27 [1 favorite]
Ultimately the side that they were on won, yes. Though centrist liberals did as much as the far right there.
posted by Artw at 5:57 PM on June 27
posted by Artw at 5:57 PM on June 27
People were full of outrage at protestors whose demand was to act as if the pandemic didn't exist ... and then within a few months, almost everyone was acting as if the pandemic didn't exist. Weren't the protestors just running ahead of consensus?
No.
This completely wrong and ignores the vile, white nationalist politics of people like Tamara Lich and Patrick King, 2 of the primary organizers of this goon show, and is the real subtext for the convoy; white nationalism.
The masks and vaccines are, in a sense, the thing used to get people involved but there were people who actually expected to hand a list over to the government of their demands which included dissolving the sitting government. A coup by any other name.......
This is not consensus.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 5:58 PM on June 27 [11 favorites]
No.
This completely wrong and ignores the vile, white nationalist politics of people like Tamara Lich and Patrick King, 2 of the primary organizers of this goon show, and is the real subtext for the convoy; white nationalism.
The masks and vaccines are, in a sense, the thing used to get people involved but there were people who actually expected to hand a list over to the government of their demands which included dissolving the sitting government. A coup by any other name.......
This is not consensus.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 5:58 PM on June 27 [11 favorites]
the real subtext for the convoy; white nationalism.
maybe for some of the key instigators, but the whole thing would have gotten little traction if not for a whole lotta frustrated, annoyed, ill-informed "regular folks", who were were more on a "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" tangent than anything specifically racist.
posted by philip-random at 6:58 PM on June 27 [1 favorite]
maybe for some of the key instigators, but the whole thing would have gotten little traction if not for a whole lotta frustrated, annoyed, ill-informed "regular folks", who were were more on a "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" tangent than anything specifically racist.
posted by philip-random at 6:58 PM on June 27 [1 favorite]
People were full of outrage at protestors whose demand was to act as if the pandemic didn't exist ... and then within a few months, almost everyone was acting as if the pandemic didn't exist. Weren't the protestors just running ahead of consensus?
People who wanted to make peace with and become allies of Germany in 1939 were just a decade or so ahead of consensus!
(Consensus changes with the underlying situation. The level of vaccine uptake, the level of population-scale resistance, and the number of cases were all different under the protest, and after. The protest was taking place during one of the most intense and deadliest waves of covid infection, according the all data I can find, something that was not true of the period several months later.)
posted by Dysk at 9:59 PM on June 27 [2 favorites]
People who wanted to make peace with and become allies of Germany in 1939 were just a decade or so ahead of consensus!
(Consensus changes with the underlying situation. The level of vaccine uptake, the level of population-scale resistance, and the number of cases were all different under the protest, and after. The protest was taking place during one of the most intense and deadliest waves of covid infection, according the all data I can find, something that was not true of the period several months later.)
posted by Dysk at 9:59 PM on June 27 [2 favorites]
What the fuck did I just read.
Was that person alive during the flu klux klan convoy? Motherfucking idiot.
Yes Trudeau could/should have taken the high ground, but he was right not to meet them there was nothings to dicuss chiefly because those morons were not there to talk. And also... since nobody seems to remember, the US barred them entry without vaccination, there never was anything to protest in Ottawa.
The Ottawa police failed, the OPP also failed, Doug Ford is still a fucking dishonest moron, and yeah, the use of the EMA was stretching the law to its very limit, but when everybody is determined to make things worst because it suits them, somebody needs to act before things get out of control.
posted by WaterAndPixels at 8:09 AM on June 28 [5 favorites]
Was that person alive during the flu klux klan convoy? Motherfucking idiot.
Yes Trudeau could/should have taken the high ground, but he was right not to meet them there was nothings to dicuss chiefly because those morons were not there to talk. And also... since nobody seems to remember, the US barred them entry without vaccination, there never was anything to protest in Ottawa.
The Ottawa police failed, the OPP also failed, Doug Ford is still a fucking dishonest moron, and yeah, the use of the EMA was stretching the law to its very limit, but when everybody is determined to make things worst because it suits them, somebody needs to act before things get out of control.
posted by WaterAndPixels at 8:09 AM on June 28 [5 favorites]
People were full of outrage at protestors whose demand was to act as if the pandemic didn't exist ... and then within a few months, almost everyone was acting as if the pandemic didn't exist. Weren't the protestors just running ahead of consensus?
FUCK NO. If a house is on fire you help extinguish it or you get out of the way so that others can do it, you don't run into it and pretend everything is fine. The fact that later on the fire is extinguished and it's fine to go in the house (maybe...) and everybody wants to go back doesn't make you "ahead of the consensus".
posted by WaterAndPixels at 8:15 AM on June 28 [8 favorites]
FUCK NO. If a house is on fire you help extinguish it or you get out of the way so that others can do it, you don't run into it and pretend everything is fine. The fact that later on the fire is extinguished and it's fine to go in the house (maybe...) and everybody wants to go back doesn't make you "ahead of the consensus".
posted by WaterAndPixels at 8:15 AM on June 28 [8 favorites]
I am indescribably angry that so many Canadians refused to help save lives during the pandemic. They've succeeded in convincing half the country that Trudeau should be turfed because he made them get a needle that one time. And they still feel hard done by because they weren't allowed to camp in downtown Ottawa indefinitely. Selfish babies.
This but they also hate Trudeau because he sat by and didn’t do shit to tame housing prices / affordability crisis until Sophie divorced him and suddenly he realized that hey houses got expensive didn’t they? We could have lived through the pandemic and “muh freedoms” but to be scrambling to live after all that and to have drastically increased immigration (to tackle the future demographic crisis) without explaining or getting the public on board is political suicide.
Cherry on top, we are in the middle of a massive generational transfer of wealth that has served to prop up housing prices and will create this landed gentry class vs everyone else. Terrifying.
If Trudeau was thinking of more than just himself / his legacy, he’d be planning his political successor to continue to guide everyone without handing the election to a right wing candidate. As is, liberals will be turfed.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:45 AM on June 28
This but they also hate Trudeau because he sat by and didn’t do shit to tame housing prices / affordability crisis until Sophie divorced him and suddenly he realized that hey houses got expensive didn’t they? We could have lived through the pandemic and “muh freedoms” but to be scrambling to live after all that and to have drastically increased immigration (to tackle the future demographic crisis) without explaining or getting the public on board is political suicide.
Cherry on top, we are in the middle of a massive generational transfer of wealth that has served to prop up housing prices and will create this landed gentry class vs everyone else. Terrifying.
If Trudeau was thinking of more than just himself / his legacy, he’d be planning his political successor to continue to guide everyone without handing the election to a right wing candidate. As is, liberals will be turfed.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:45 AM on June 28
yyz aside: I meant that at the provincial level the policing work is primarily the OPP. I was unaware that the police college had any particular separation from the OPP. These provincial training systems are very insular relative to the RCMP process.
posted by zenon at 7:08 PM on June 28
posted by zenon at 7:08 PM on June 28
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posted by HearHere at 8:33 AM on June 27 [1 favorite]