There Will Be Lasting Societal Damage When the Protest Is Over

Posted February 18, 2022

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that.” Those deeply offensive words by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election campaign galvanized the many American Trump supporters who did not fit any of those characterizations. That speech may have cost her the election.

It came to mind on January 27th when Prime Minister Trudeau denounced the participants in the trucker convoy as a “small fringe minority” of people who hold “unacceptable views.”

It is clear that they are not. Yes, there were a few right-wing extremists and others who subscribe to bizarre conspiracy theories. But most of the truckers, including many who are vaccinated, came intent on determined but peaceful protest. The convoy started in Vancouver and picked up supporters en route. It was significantly larger when it pulled into Ottawa.

Trudeau was rightly criticized from an unexpected direction, Quebec Liberal MP Joël Lightbound: “From a positive and unifying approach, a decision was made to wedge, to divide and to stigmatize. I fear this politicization of the pandemic risks undermining the public’s trust in our public-health institutions. This is not a risk we ought to be taking lightly.”

The convoy was triggered by the Liberal’s January 15th decision to require unvaccinated Canadian truckers re-entering Canada from the United States to get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine themselves. The quarantine requirement was designed to punish the unvaccinated.

This was at a time when there had been community spread of the Omicron variant across Canada, averaging more than 40,000 new cases a day. The government overruled a decision to drop the requirement by the Canada Border Services Agency.

In the same vein Canadians were urged to avoid non-essential travel outside Canada, regardless of vaccination status. If they did, families with children under five who go abroad must quarantine together for 10 days upon return. That urging has been widely ignored, and has subverted respect for other, more valid public health measures.

The protest is beginning its fourth week, noisily annoying Ottawa residents but not violent. Many of the occupiers say that they will remain until all the mask and vaccine mandates are removed. Copycat protests have occurred in other Canadian cities and border crossings and in other countries.

In notable evidence of peaceful intentions, the protesters blocking the Coutts, Alberta border crossing chose to voluntarily disband after a small splinter group was found to have a stash of weapons and ammunition.

Fatigue with the covid restrictions encompasses most Canadians. Many have a silent resentment of one or another of the rules that have been put in place.

Trudeau telling those Canadians that they have “unacceptable views” is neither helpful nor persuasive. Neither was his announcement that there were going to be “severe consequences” for the protesters.

Since then the Ottawa police have been criticized for being too chummy with the truckers. The chief has resigned. Edmonton police have been criticized for being more rigorous with counter-protesters than with the truckers.

As a practical matter, the progress that has been made has not been accomplished by Ottawa. The opening of the Coutts border crossing was managed in Alberta.

Keeping borders open should be a federal responsibility, but in Ontario it was Premier Doug Ford who acted. He declared a state of emergency and threatened fines of $100,000 Canadian dollars and up to a year in jail for anyone illegally blocking roads or other critical infrastructure. That and a large contingent of police enabled the reopening of the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest land border crossing between the U.S. and Canada.

On Monday, Trudeau invoked the federal Emergencies Act, for the first time in Canada’s history, to give the federal government temporary powers to handle ongoing blockades protesting pandemic restrictions. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino warned Wednesday that those joining convoy protests in Ottawa risk being arrested, which would be at odds with Trudeau’s assertion that Canadians’ constitutional rights would be protected.

On Friday, police started an intervention to bring the occupation to an end. Offensive flags have been waved and the citizens of Ottawa tormented with horn blowing. Some thought they were there to upend the government. But most thought it was about eliminating covid restrictions. It has been largely peaceful during the three weeks of occupation. At time of writing it is not clear whether the operation will finish without a violent confrontation.

What is clear is that Joël Lightbound is right. Trudeau’s words create division and stigmatize groups of people that are far more numerous than the protesting truckers. There will be lasting damage to the social fabric of the country.

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  • Thanks for this Bill. It’s 90% simple fact with a bit of opinion between the lines. Of course, Canadians are free to disagree about opinions, yours or anyone else’s. What we need to worry about is when Canadians start to disagree about facts.

    Let me add an optimistic note, or at least a glass half full view of the events of the last few weeks. There are few, if any, other countries in the world where a complex, emotional, widespread and long lasting public protest could begin and end (hopefully) with no deaths or serious injuries or even serious property damage.

    I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that the whole thing has been a huge success for the legitimate protesters who have made their point and for the enforcement agencies who have demonstrated both their patience and their determination in avoiding more serious outcomes.

    Hopefully, the Supreme Court will eventually provide some useful guidance around the use of the Emergency Measures Act and hopefully it will be used in this case for only the most egregious behaviour. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees just what its title says. If public confidence in the protection of the Charter is eroded by over-zealous intervention by government in the lives of ordinary Canadians, then our social fabric may be torn beyond repair.

    It’s time now for politicians of all stripes and for all leaders of civil society to lead without preaching and judging. We may be too near the edge.

    Ron Smith | February 23, 2022

  • Just wondering, as I have often, if you have considered a late-in-life career as a speech writer for Jason Kenney? As a former Alberta resident and, dare I confess, the campaign manager of the first NDP elected to the Alberta provincial legislature (1965 Garth Turcott) I realize my “leftist” views will arouse your self-righteous indignation to dangerous levels, but really your conservative rhetoric does deserve a more welcoming home. I’m confident Jason Kenney would approve.
    Reply from Bill Black:
    I am no fan of Jason Kenney nor many of the other prominent voices in the federal Conservatives.
    I have been challenged by another reader to write about it, which I will do if I can think of a text that goes beyond that statement.

    Paul Robinson | February 21, 2022

  • I typically enjoy reading your column. In political terms I lean towards a Liberal stance in thoughts and my opinions. My belief, from reading your columns on a regular basis, is that you are of a more progressive conservative, or at times conservative bent.
    I read your columns to lend balance to my views, to ensure I hear all sides.
    However when reading Saturdays column, I stopped at the end of the 6th paragraph when you state, as if it was a substantiated ‘fact’, that “The quarantine requirement was designed to punish the unvaccinated”.
    That statement, expressed as a fact, not just your opinion, is just as much a ‘wedge’ political statement as what you are claiming Mr Trudeau is doing. It is also not a ‘fact’ as I’m sure you well know, falling into the bucket of ‘alternative’ facts such as those regularly spread by the ex president Mr Trump.
    A statement like that you have made sort of ‘poisons’ this reader in that I start to wonder about the truthfulness of any further ‘facts’ you may espouse in the remainder of your article.
    Food for thought.
    Reply from Bill Black:
    Richard thank you for that.
    I certainly intended it to be a statement of my opinion but agree with you that it can be interpreted as a statement of fact. It should have been more clearly phrased.

    Richard | February 21, 2022

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