{"id":7298,"date":"2022-02-22T15:57:06","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T15:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7298"},"modified":"2022-02-22T15:57:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T15:57:06","slug":"the-canadian-trucker-convoy-is-an-unpopular-uprising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7298","title":{"rendered":"The Canadian trucker convoy is an unpopular uprising"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“The so-called \u201cfreedom convoy\u201d is nominally protesting a vaccine mandate for truckers, implemented in mid-January on both sides of the US-Canada border. But the demonstrations have swiftly ballooned into a broader far-right movement, with some demonstrators waving Confederate<\/a> and Nazi flags<\/a>. Protester demands include<\/a> an end to all Covid-19 restrictions in Canada and the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demonstrators, which have included as many as 8,000 people at their peak<\/a>, have terrorized Ottawa: blockading streets, harassing citizens, forcing business closures, and honking their extremely loud horns all night. Ottawa police, who have proven some combination of unwilling<\/a> and unable<\/a> to restore order, have even set up a special hotline<\/a> to deal with a deluge of alleged hate crimes stemming from the protests. In the first week of February, it received over 200 calls<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has declared a state of emergency<\/a>, and Trudeau\u2019s government has deployed hundreds of Royal Canadian Mounted Police to the protests. As the situation inOttawacontinues, the freedom convoy movement has expanded across the country<\/a>. Demonstrators have shut down at least two border crossings<\/a> between Canada and the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while the protests are generating a lot of noise and attention, the eruption actually points up a counterintuitive fact: The Canadian far right is weak and ineffectual, especially when it comes to pandemic restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s provinces have generally employed strict Covid-19 measures such as school mask mandates and vaccine passports, including during the recent omicron surge. They have enjoyed broad public support in doing so; even the strictest restrictions are less controversial in Canada than in the US. The current demonstration is quite unpopular<\/a> with the general public, divisive even inside the center-right Conservative party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn\u2019t mean the movement will accomplish nothing. It has already contributed to a revolt<\/a> against the Conservative party\u2019s leader and is serving as an important organizing node for far-rightists. The border crossing blockage is putting more stress on the US-Canada supply chain<\/a>, costing (by one estimation) $300 million a day in economic damage<\/a>. Internationally, the freedom convoy has inspired copycat efforts in both the United States<\/a> and France<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s important to understand the broader context in Canada. News coverage of the convoy, especially from sympathetic anchors on Fox News, may lead Americans to believe that Canada is in the midst of a far-right popular uprising. In reality, the mainstream consensus in Canada about Covid-19, and the nation\u2019s institutions in general, is holding. The so-called trucker movement is on the fringe, including among Canadian truckers \u2014 some 90 percent of whom are vaccinated<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/22926134\/canada-trucker-freedom-convoy-protest-ottawa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The so-called \u201cfreedom convoy\u201d is nominally protesting a vaccine mandate for truckers, implemented in mid-January on both sides of the US-Canada border. But the demonstrations have swiftly ballooned into a broader far-right movement, with some demonstrators waving Confederate and Nazi flags. Protester demands include an end to all Covid-19 restrictions in Canada and the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.<\/p>\n

The demonstrators, which have included as many as 8,000 people at their peak, have terrorized Ottawa: blockading streets, harassing citizens, forcing business closures, and honking their extremely loud horns all night. Ottawa police, who have proven some combination of unwilling and unable to restore order, have even set up a special hotline to deal with a deluge of alleged hate crimes stemming from the protests. In the first week of February, it received over 200 calls.<\/p>\n

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has declared a state of emergency, and Trudeau\u2019s government has deployed hundreds of Royal Canadian Mounted Police to the protests. As the situation in Ottawa continues, the freedom convoy movement has expanded across the country. Demonstrators have shut down at least two border crossings between Canada and the United States.<\/p>\n

But while the protests are generating a lot of noise and attention, the eruption actually points up a counterintuitive fact: The Canadian far right is weak and ineffectual, especially when it comes to pandemic restrictions.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s provinces have generally employed strict Covid-19 measures such as school mask mandates and vaccine passports, including during the recent omicron surge. They have enjoyed broad public support in doing so; even the strictest restrictions are less controversial in Canada than in the US. The current demonstration is quite unpopular with the general public, divisive even inside the center-right Conservative party.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean the movement will accomplish nothing. It has already contributed to a revolt against the Conservative party\u2019s leader and is serving as an important organizing node for far-rightists. The border crossing blockage is putting more stress on the US-Canada supply chain, costing (by one estimation) $300 million a day in economic damage. Internationally, the freedom convoy has inspired copycat efforts in both the United States and France.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s important to understand the broader context in Canada. News coverage of the convoy, especially from sympathetic anchors on Fox News, may lead Americans to believe that Canada is in the midst of a far-right popular uprising. In reality, the mainstream consensus in Canada about Covid-19, and the nation\u2019s institutions in general, is holding. The so-called trucker movement is on the fringe, including among Canadian truckers \u2014 some 90 percent of whom are vaccinated.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[293,588,409,483,1511,362,925],"class_list":["post-7298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-canada","tag-corona","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-mandate","tag-protests","tag-vaccine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7299,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7298\/revisions\/7299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}