Okay. Maybe. Except, and quoting Wall Street Journal quoting Trudeau here, in regards to India's response to protests in India in 2020: "Let me remind you, Canada will always be there to defend the rights of peaceful protests." Umm, lip service to peaceful assembly?
Do some people show up to protests that get news coverage for being extremes? Maybe. yeah. One guy with that flag you mentioned, that flag was taken away from him by the truckers. That didn't make news. Why? Doesn't fit the state narrative? Maybe those buildings that got burned down during BLM 'protests' were just a few bad eggs. Maybe the people that died in that were just a few bad actors. The state didn't go after any of them to the degree of force applied to the truckers, who were overwhelmingly peaceful. 99 percent peaceful. Is 99 percent unfair? Maybe, but then we don't have any true statistics, do we? We have this: Truckers had their families and kids there! Who used Force? Police. They took fuel. They smashed windows. They took food. They trampled old ladies, one of whom was in a wheelchair, with horses. By the way, none of the police were wearing cameras. All the protestors had cameras, and they had the cameras confiscated. Reporters with cameras were arrested. They arrested old men for honking their horns. They sprayed people with pepper spray. They took people's money. The state locked a bank account to a single mother home who gave 50 dollars in support of truckers- demonstrating for change. Is that equity or extreme?
Even if your position is a hundred percent accurate, doesn't that lady have the right to be wrong? Does 50 dollars warrants the punishment? Was that due process? Heck, in California you steal up to a thousand dollars and get nothing more than a ticket, and you get to keep the merchandise, or the money you got from selling merchandise on eBay! The money you made on ebay is more than the cost of the fine. Ummm.
Oh, did you know, the state may have rescinded the emergency order, but the state has left in place their ability to freeze any bank account with out due process at any time they choose it's warranted. It's always had that ability, but the necessary inference of what counts as suspicious behavior has removed. They could just not like you.
You can always use an extremist argument to any position, but is any of the state's response reasonable? Looks like a world war is eminent, and why? A nation's ability to exist democratically is in peril? And yet, as the West is fighting for democracy across the world it is crushing their own citizens for exercising their right to peacefully assemble?
You're right. Most truckers are vaccinated, and they are calling for an end to mandates. There are medical professionals and scientist saying the efficacy of the masks and mandates doesn't warrant the level of state imposition, or the social harm masks are causing, but do they get equal airtime? When did the state get to decide what professionals will impose rules that are not democratically arrived laws?
Are there times for emergency measures? Sure. The whole world agreed to that during Covid, which was right considering what we knew and the context. We agreed without laws to a set behaviors and protocols because we are human and we actually care about our nations and our neighbors. There was dissent. I was for the protocols, but it seems like, the longer we go, the more those who dissented had valid points. When does this all end? That's a question the truckers and members of Parliament have been asking, and no one is getting an answer. Members of Parliament who dissent are being labeled as badly as those truckers? Is this democratic or tyranny? Mind you, most of the world agreed to temporary emergency change in behaviors! That's huge. Was there dissent? Yeah. Not worth worrying about because most of us complied. Enough to make a difference.
The evidence is growing that none of the things we, the world, did made a sufficient impact on the thing we were trying to end. Now, more and more of the world are saying, enough is enough.
There is overwhelming evidence it is time to end the draconian measures in place, but those in power don't wish to release their strangle hold on society. People demonstrate against inequity. That's right. That's a moral imperative. BLM, and all of society, should stand up when law enforcement unnecessarily harms individuals. They are there to protect and serve, not beat, trample, or kill people.
Canada now has a worse problem- no truckers, resentment in the populace, distrust of government and law enforcement agencies, and there has a been a run on the banks, so are things better? No. This will only increase the likelihood of more protests, and with a greater chance of escalating violence. The truckers don't represent a fringe group, they represent us all- the right to exist without being molested by the state. The right to live without complying to an endless set of demands that fly in the face of reason.
News used to say, if something looks wrong follow the money. Do you know how much money Pfizer made during this pandemic? Do you remember what it's public image was prior to the pandemic? It was the least trusted medical entity in the world. It's now the most lauded? There our poor nations which are being forced to go without the vaccines. Pfizer is not stepping up and offer free doses. World leaders are not going there with medical staff saying, if we don't vaccinate you the world will come to an end. The richest nations have mandates. Correlation? Who has the most money in democratic societies? Lobbyists. Specifically pharmaceuticals. They have their hands in the pocket of whom? Pharmaceutical companies have their hands in the pockets of people like Trudeau, who then puts their hands in the pockets of people protesting the invisible hands in representative's pockets. Democracy means the people rule, not corporations, who call themselves persons, even gave themselves legally defined person status.
While the maxim 'there is no justice when laws are absolute' has validity, it is also true there can be no justice when there is no democracy because rules are created on the fly for the whim of the state. Can there be democracy in states driven by corporate policies which are, and may I say rightly so, profit driven? I am not saying end profit. I am saying your comparison to truckers being comparable to toddlers doesn't hold water. There are intelligent people who disagree with how all of this played out.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Gerard. This interaction was more democratic and polite than what was offered to the truckers. You and I are at least holding a conversation. Your position is necessary for there to be balance. Not giving the truckers an ear, that was not balanced.
