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.
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.
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.
I agree that there will be lasting damage to the social fabric of the country.
I am not anywhere near as sympathetic or supportive of the protesters as you appear to be. The protest may not have been violent but I would hardly call the occupation peaceful. Noisily annoying Ottawa residents? Come on, Bill. Have you listened to the interviews with residents and business owners who had to live through this? It’s one thing to have a protest; it’s another to occupy, intimidate and terrorize people. A freedom protest? What about the rights of the Ottawa residents to enjoy their freedom. The protesters behaved as if they were above the law. It was disgusting. It was never simply a protest – the organizers had much more in mind. Who knows how long the occupation would have lasted had not the combined police forces intervened?
There are many that compare the Coutts border and Ambassador Bridge to what happened in Ottawa, however the scope and complexities were very different.
To your point that keeping borders open should be a federal responsibility, I agree, it SHOULD be. But that’s not the way it is. Policing currently falls under the authority of the provinces.
If anything, bringing in the Emergency Act provided the combined police forces with expanded capabilities to clear out the occupiers. I’m glad that they did that. I wish it had happened sooner.
I am disappointed that politicians of all stripes have not united against the occupation in Ottawa. The occupation is not democracy in action and goes against the rule of law.
Reply from Bill Black:
The initial plan and response by the Ottawa police appear to have been very poorly considered. They could have blocked off the whole area around parliament hill and kept the big trucks out.
Everyone is feeling a degree of stress because of the prolonged COVID restrictions. I believe the truckers and many others were triggered by the arbitrary and unjustified federal rules on cross-border travel. Trudeau made it worse by describing them as vile and dangerous people. It is a dangerous moment when the prime minister tells a block of citizens that their views are unacceptable.
What the people of Ottawa had to endure was wrong. But the concluding police action did not encounter violent resistance.
I wish the Conservatives had been more coherent in supporting the right to protest while disowning illegal action.
I am NOT a Trudeau fan and I have my Conservative card on my desk ready to cut it up if there is not a better choice than Poilieve and Bergen.
The citizens of Ottawa were not JUST having horn problems – some have lost their business since this started. I listened to one of the Ottawa government people this morning and they had far too many doing nothing or backing the “truckers”. This was NOT really about truckers-this was about very bad people wanting to overthrow the government. Naïve people got sucked in.
Years ago living in Seattle we could not get to our home for two weeks. The original BLM people.
Surette’s column has it right today.
I am not quite sure how you, or anyone else can accuse Mr. Trudeau of ‘wedge politics’ when the point he is making — and correctly so — that unvaccinated people endanger the health and lives of their fellow Canadians. The first obligation we have to those around us is to help them to remain healthy and secure. Even the preamble to the American Constitution says that our first right is the right to life, and only secondly to liberty.
I assume that you read the columns by Gail Lethbridge. Today’s column by her is a cry from the heart for all those involved in health-care, and I agree one hundred percent with her.
Years ago when I was studying at the Catholic (now Radboud) University in the Netherlands I attended a lecture by a philosophy professor who spoke on the origins of Western individualism and where, in his opinion, it will eventually lead. His argument was/is a plausible one, namely that Western individualism will eventually lead to the demise of Western civilization. And the refusal to be vaccinated, and that for very spurious reasons in most instances, is an outgrowth of Western individualism. My right to freedom, and to do as I see fit, takes precedence over your right to life.
I am almost always aligned with your views.
This topic has so many facets that there are much too many ways to pick holes in your position.
To suggest that the social fabric of Canada could be shredded is a stretch too far.
Each side of each position on the various aspects of this topic can find a reason to disagree with the government action.
The bottom line is we should be aware that nefarious actors are trying to damage democratic structures under false pretenses.
A lack of clarity, such as your article provides, contributes negatively to the conversation.
One sentence in Bill Black’s excellent piece on Trudeau’s wedge politics (Feb 19) says it all; “The government overruled a decision to drop the (vaccination) requirement by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).” As a result of this arrogant overruling of the one agency put in place to protect our borders, Trudeau’s Liberal government set us on the path to almost a month of civil unrest, including the closing of vital border crossings between Canada and the USA, and the occupation of downtown Ottawa.
As a result of this megalomaniacal decision the whole world watched as hundreds of police had to be activated from across the country to forcefully liberate the downtown of the capital of what used to be the world’s most peaceful country. This could all have been avoided had Trudeau allowed the CBSA to do its job and allow unvaccinated truckers to ride the roads, alone in their cabs where they could infect no-one.
The government’s job is to convince Canadians that they should get vaccinated to protect another, for the good of society as a whole. It is not their role to bludgeon Canadians in order to force them to do something they have the constitutional right to refuse.
I find it interesting that your entire article this week is about Trudeau damaging the social fabric of Canada.
I trust that next week you will be talking about Candice Bergan, Pierre Poilievre and Jason Kenny and how they are demolishing The Conservative Party.
It is with regret that I have had to stop supporting and calling myself a Tory. The Party I grew up with no longer exists. For me Trudeau is the lesser of two evil. As my late father used to say “sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t”. We know what to expect from Trudeau and I don’t feel that he is under the thumb of Trumpism.
I pray that the Tories named above do not tear the Party apart and cause lasting damage.
Reply from Bill Black:
I share your view that the Conservatives are making a mess. Beyond that statement I have not figured out what to say.
But will think about it.
I find it interesting that your entire article this week is about Trudeau damaging the social fabric of Canada.
I trust that next week you will be talking about Candice Bergan, Pierre Poilievre and Jason Kenny and how they are demolishing The Conservative Party.
It is with regret that I have had to stop supporting and calling myself a Tory. The Party I grew up with no longer exists. For me Trudeau is the lesser of two evil. As my late father used to say “sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t”. We know what to expect from Trudeau and I don’t feel that he is under the thumb of Trumpism.
I pray that the Tories named above do not tear the Party apart and cause lasting damage.
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.
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 |
I agree that there will be lasting damage to the social fabric of the country.
I am not anywhere near as sympathetic or supportive of the protesters as you appear to be. The protest may not have been violent but I would hardly call the occupation peaceful. Noisily annoying Ottawa residents? Come on, Bill. Have you listened to the interviews with residents and business owners who had to live through this? It’s one thing to have a protest; it’s another to occupy, intimidate and terrorize people. A freedom protest? What about the rights of the Ottawa residents to enjoy their freedom. The protesters behaved as if they were above the law. It was disgusting. It was never simply a protest – the organizers had much more in mind. Who knows how long the occupation would have lasted had not the combined police forces intervened?
There are many that compare the Coutts border and Ambassador Bridge to what happened in Ottawa, however the scope and complexities were very different.
To your point that keeping borders open should be a federal responsibility, I agree, it SHOULD be. But that’s not the way it is. Policing currently falls under the authority of the provinces.
If anything, bringing in the Emergency Act provided the combined police forces with expanded capabilities to clear out the occupiers. I’m glad that they did that. I wish it had happened sooner.
I am disappointed that politicians of all stripes have not united against the occupation in Ottawa. The occupation is not democracy in action and goes against the rule of law.
Reply from Bill Black:
The initial plan and response by the Ottawa police appear to have been very poorly considered. They could have blocked off the whole area around parliament hill and kept the big trucks out.
Everyone is feeling a degree of stress because of the prolonged COVID restrictions. I believe the truckers and many others were triggered by the arbitrary and unjustified federal rules on cross-border travel. Trudeau made it worse by describing them as vile and dangerous people. It is a dangerous moment when the prime minister tells a block of citizens that their views are unacceptable.
What the people of Ottawa had to endure was wrong. But the concluding police action did not encounter violent resistance.
I wish the Conservatives had been more coherent in supporting the right to protest while disowning illegal action.
Jim | February 21, 2022 |
I am NOT a Trudeau fan and I have my Conservative card on my desk ready to cut it up if there is not a better choice than Poilieve and Bergen.
The citizens of Ottawa were not JUST having horn problems – some have lost their business since this started. I listened to one of the Ottawa government people this morning and they had far too many doing nothing or backing the “truckers”. This was NOT really about truckers-this was about very bad people wanting to overthrow the government. Naïve people got sucked in.
Years ago living in Seattle we could not get to our home for two weeks. The original BLM people.
Surette’s column has it right today.
Lisa Stewart | February 20, 2022 |
I am not quite sure how you, or anyone else can accuse Mr. Trudeau of ‘wedge politics’ when the point he is making — and correctly so — that unvaccinated people endanger the health and lives of their fellow Canadians. The first obligation we have to those around us is to help them to remain healthy and secure. Even the preamble to the American Constitution says that our first right is the right to life, and only secondly to liberty.
I assume that you read the columns by Gail Lethbridge. Today’s column by her is a cry from the heart for all those involved in health-care, and I agree one hundred percent with her.
Years ago when I was studying at the Catholic (now Radboud) University in the Netherlands I attended a lecture by a philosophy professor who spoke on the origins of Western individualism and where, in his opinion, it will eventually lead. His argument was/is a plausible one, namely that Western individualism will eventually lead to the demise of Western civilization. And the refusal to be vaccinated, and that for very spurious reasons in most instances, is an outgrowth of Western individualism. My right to freedom, and to do as I see fit, takes precedence over your right to life.
Gerry | February 20, 2022 |
Bang on! I found myself agreeing with the Economist’s opinion on the matter. Very rare
Maxwell Stanfield | February 20, 2022 |
I am almost always aligned with your views.
This topic has so many facets that there are much too many ways to pick holes in your position.
To suggest that the social fabric of Canada could be shredded is a stretch too far.
Each side of each position on the various aspects of this topic can find a reason to disagree with the government action.
The bottom line is we should be aware that nefarious actors are trying to damage democratic structures under false pretenses.
A lack of clarity, such as your article provides, contributes negatively to the conversation.
Wayne Armitstead | February 20, 2022 |
One sentence in Bill Black’s excellent piece on Trudeau’s wedge politics (Feb 19) says it all; “The government overruled a decision to drop the (vaccination) requirement by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).” As a result of this arrogant overruling of the one agency put in place to protect our borders, Trudeau’s Liberal government set us on the path to almost a month of civil unrest, including the closing of vital border crossings between Canada and the USA, and the occupation of downtown Ottawa.
As a result of this megalomaniacal decision the whole world watched as hundreds of police had to be activated from across the country to forcefully liberate the downtown of the capital of what used to be the world’s most peaceful country. This could all have been avoided had Trudeau allowed the CBSA to do its job and allow unvaccinated truckers to ride the roads, alone in their cabs where they could infect no-one.
The government’s job is to convince Canadians that they should get vaccinated to protect another, for the good of society as a whole. It is not their role to bludgeon Canadians in order to force them to do something they have the constitutional right to refuse.
David Parkes | February 20, 2022 |
I find it interesting that your entire article this week is about Trudeau damaging the social fabric of Canada.
I trust that next week you will be talking about Candice Bergan, Pierre Poilievre and Jason Kenny and how they are demolishing The Conservative Party.
It is with regret that I have had to stop supporting and calling myself a Tory. The Party I grew up with no longer exists. For me Trudeau is the lesser of two evil. As my late father used to say “sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t”. We know what to expect from Trudeau and I don’t feel that he is under the thumb of Trumpism.
I pray that the Tories named above do not tear the Party apart and cause lasting damage.
Reply from Bill Black:
I share your view that the Conservatives are making a mess. Beyond that statement I have not figured out what to say.
But will think about it.
Betty Josey | February 20, 2022 |
I find it interesting that your entire article this week is about Trudeau damaging the social fabric of Canada.
I trust that next week you will be talking about Candice Bergan, Pierre Poilievre and Jason Kenny and how they are demolishing The Conservative Party.
It is with regret that I have had to stop supporting and calling myself a Tory. The Party I grew up with no longer exists. For me Trudeau is the lesser of two evil. As my late father used to say “sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t”. We know what to expect from Trudeau and I don’t feel that he is under the thumb of Trumpism.
I pray that the Tories named above do not tear the Party apart and cause lasting damage.
Betty Josey | February 20, 2022 |
Betty thanks or this.
I share your view that the Conservatives are making a mess. Beyond that statement I have not figured out what to say.
But will think about it.
Bill
Bill | February 20, 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.
Paul | February 20, 2022 |