Three Thoughts on the Freedom Convoy
Following the money and watching the police fail in Ottawa
The “Freedom Convoy” story remains in flux. Here are three points to keep in mind as the situation continues to unfold.
A policing failure.
At least in Ottawa (where the city’s downtown has been paralyzed for more than two weeks) and Windsor (where the trucking lane of the Ambassador Bridge was blocked for nearly a week), we’re looking at one of the biggest policing failures in recent Canadian history. In other municipalities, notably Vancouver and Toronto, the police were more proactive and able to blunt attempts to disrupt downtown life. Speaking on the CBC radio program The Current, former Minister of Health Allan Rock claimed the Ottawa police was “massively outnumbered.” This isn’t a plausible claim since the protest was small in number (a generous estimate would be a few hundred vehicles and 5,000 protesters). This shouldn’t have been enough to paralyze a city with 1,500 police officers and the ability to call on provincial and federal help.
Counter-protesting and Citizen activism.
As journalist Nora Loreto and I have emphasized in our two podcast conversations, one viable way to challenge the convoy’s program is counter-protesting. Some of that is starting to spring into action. On Sunday, a remarkable counter-protest organized at the spur of the moment gathered at the intersection of Riverside Drive in Ottawa and stop 25 downtown bound cars and trucks. Despite opposition from the police and criticism from the mayor, this counter-protest, which drew in hundreds of citizens, was a much more effective response than anything the police could muster. The same story played out in Kingston, Ontario earlier that weekend, with convoy supporters trying to enter the city and being blockaded by counter-protesters. The key point is that the “Freedom Convoy” is a political problem requiring a political response (like counter-protesting), more than just a police or military response. Of course, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declaring a state of emergency, we’re likely to get a police and military response soon.
Follow the Money.
Thanks to a hack of GiveSendGo, we have a better idea of where the funding of the Freedom Convoy is coming from. This information challenges the comforting idea spread by some Canadian politicians that this is just a foreign intervention in Canadian affairs. It’s true that 55% of donor are from the United States, with 39% from Canada and 6% from other nations. But Canadians donated more, so 51% of funding (about $4.3 million) comes from Canadians as against 43% (or $3.6 million) from Americans. In other words, this is very much a Canadian-based movement juiced by support from the transnational far right. That support is not just financial but also media cheerleading and social media elevation. It's crucial to see this a Canadian manifestation of a global phenomenon rather than an American intervention in Canadian affairs.
(Edited by Emily M. Keeler)
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It’s worth mentioning that counter protest was a critical ingredient in suppressing the convoy in Vancouver. The movements of bike-riding counter protesters forced a route change to a badly picked dead end street that broke up the convoy (and embarrassed them as they slowly backed out in line), while police formed a wall facing what they saw as the threat: the counter protesters.
"In other municipalities, notably Vancouver and Toronto, the police were more proactive and able to blunt attempts to disrupt downtown life."
That's the big thing since the pandemic started, right? Cops leaving the hard right alone to do its thing? The shitty part is that 'leaving hard right goons alone to do their thing because we like the hard right' is more appetizing than 'if we don't get to murder random black people for no reason we're not working anymore'.
"Despite opposition from the police and criticism from the mayor, this counter-protest, which drew in hundreds of citizens, was a much more effective response than anything the police could muster."
Sure. But I think the intervening to shut down the bridge protest is a horse of an entirely different color. Given that lots of the online accounts pulling the strings appear to be hacked accounts that are controlled by untraceable persons, I think we can surmise that that's going to be the Russians, letting us know that they can reach out and touch us too; in exactly the same way the color revolution types and the NSA can hassle them inside Russia. Further, given that the bridges are critical arteries I think it's entirely legit to move on them with the police/military. The equivalent would be shutting down an entire hospital with ER. It's one thing to be an inconvenience to daily life, it's a different matter to actually doing things that result in injuries & deaths.
"It's crucial to see this a Canadian manifestation of a global phenomenon rather than an American intervention in Canadian affairs. "
Although it's also a global phenomenon of the Russians getting back at the West and the Americans via Canada. The bridge stoppage in particular is going to impact Americans.
elm
fun with globalization