Smiling Canadian Truckers
There is some very interesting stuff going on in Canada right now. It looks like the truckers are winning.
The Freedom Convoy in Canada is an ongoing protest by big rig truckers in the great white north against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s mandate that all truckers going across the border to the U.S. be fully vaccinated. Now, most truckers are fully vaccinated, but that isn’t the point. The point is whether the government, any government has the right to force individuals to take a vaccine, especially one that is known to have potentially fatal side effects, like inflammation of the heart. And, before you say I’m spreading misinformation, please read the Center for Disease Control’s formal approval of the Moderna COVID vaccine, Spikevax. It specifically mentions both myocarditis and pericarditis as known side effects of the injection. Both conditions are potentially fatal.
So, does any government have the right to force you to take something that literally could kill you? Odds are it won’t, but, it might, and who’s to blame if it does? What’s the recourse then for your grieving family members? And, does a government have the right to drastically damage a national economy in order to mandate the use of that novel vaccine? That’s the crux of the trucker’s protest.
And, it looks like the Truckers are winning.
The premier of Saskatchewan, Scott Moe announced he was going to start lifting his province’s COVID restrictions. In an interview, Moe said, “I think we're getting to a point now where those that are not vaccinated likely aren't going to get vaccinated.” He followed that bit of insight up with a statement saying, “An unvaccinated trucker does not pose any greater risk of transmission than a vaccinated trucker. However, the current federal policy does pose a significant risk to Canada’s economy and to the supply chain in our Saskatchewan communities, where you and I live.”
The justification that’s been used to force these mandates by governments all over the world is that the vaccines save lives. That is true. The COVID shots have saved lives. People who get the shots are much less likely to die from COVID after they get shots. That’s true. But, the vaccines save the lives of the people who got the vaccines. They don’t save the lives of people who don’t get the vaccines. The reason is that you can still get and still spread COVID to other people even after getting the shot. The inoculations don’t make you immune, and thus don’t help anyone other than you. Now, that’s still a valuable thing. Reducing your risk of death is a good thing. But, just because you’re less likely to die from COVID doesn’t mean anyone else is. That’s what Premier Scott Moe was pointing out, and it’s why his government is starting to lift restrictions.
He’s not alone. The Premier of neighboring Alberta, Jason Kenney, dropped some of his own COVID mandates last night, and the rest are set to expire by the end of February. Kenney said, “Now is the time to begin learning to live with COVID. These restrictions have led to terrible division.”
A terrible division. That’s true. Even in a country that appears to pride itself on unity as much as Canada does, there’s obviously a terrible division in that nation right now. But, was it the restrictions that led to the division or the people who put the restrictions in place that led to the division?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given speeches in parliament about how Canadians are united and that they have a culture of looking after one another and caring for each other. And, then, just sentences later, he says very divisive things. For example, when the truckers showed up in Ottawa to demand a change to his policies, instead of trying to create unity, Trudeau suggested the truckers were actually racist nazis.
“People of Ottawa don’t deserve to be harassed in their own neighborhoods. They don’t deserve to be confronted with the inherent violence of a swastika flying on a street corner or a Confederate flag.”
-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
I’ve been looking at pictures out of Ottawa and the Freedom Convoy and the protests. You know what I haven’t seen in any of the pictures? A Nazi flag. You know what I have seen a lot of? Canadian Flags. The people in the convoy aren’t promoting white supremacy. They are demanding a return to Canadian rights. And, because they are doing that, the Canadian Prime Minister calls them evil. Was it the policies that were divisive, or the leaders themselves?
The Daily Mail out of London sent a reporter to Ottawa to see what it’s like there personally. Allan Butterfield spent an entire week with the protestors. He wrote, “Since DailyMail.com arrived in Ottawa last week we have seen no indication of violence or vandalism or any extremist political agenda. In fact, the demonstrations have shown the opposite. Apart from the incessant honking of their horns, all has been peaceful. “
That’s also the report of Ottawa’s own Police Chief, Peter Sloly.
“During a situation that could have become riotous, it could have led to significant and severe injuries, and it could have led to the loss of life. None of that has occurred over the last four days. Let me repeat. No injuries, no deaths, no riots in the last four days in the nation’s capitol.”
-Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly
So, Trudeau wasn’t just being divisive, he was being dishonest. Frankly, that’s worse because in addition to all the other problems of dishonesty, like a loss of trust and a degradation of faith, dishonestly always leads to division. Dishonesty doubles down on division.
You know what else I see in the images coming out of Ottawa? Smiling faces. Lots and lots of smiling faces. Seriously. They are angry at the vaccine mandates. They are angry at the erosion of their freedoms, but these aren't angry people per se.
Look at the article out of the Daily Mail. There’s a picture of kids playing street hockey and a couple of them having fun on bouncy houses. There are pictures of truckers high-fiving each other. A picture of a truck driver calmly smiling at a police officer. There are smiling people carrying gas cans. There are people smiling and waving flags and milling around in groups that look like they’re just having friendly conversations.
They were smiling. You know how I know they were smiling. Because their faces were showing. I know that seems trivial, but it tells you a lot about this movement.
Look, it’s winter. In Canada. It's cold. These protesters could hide their faces with ski masks or scarves if they wanted to, and it might seem reasonable given the weather conditions. But, they aren't. They are willing to have their faces associated with the movement. That tells you something.
Think back to the riots in the US 2020 and 2021. Think back to the images of Antifa and BLM “mostly peaceful” protestors as they looted Target stores and burned down minority owned businesses in Minneapolis and Portland. What did their faces look like? Were they smiling and happy or scowling and mad as hell? We don't know. They had masks on!
Most people associated with the BLM and Antifa riots didn't actually want to be associated with those riots. They wanted to riot, they just didn't want people to know they were the ones who were rioting. So, they wore masks during the summer in the U.S. and they beat up reporters who tried to take their pictures. The truck drivers in Canada this winter are posing for pictures with their faces fully exposed. That tells you a lot about the worthiness of their cause.
Think back to the Civil Rights marches of the 1950s and 1960s. Did Martin Luther King hide his face? Nope. He even dressed up. He wore a suit and tie so he'd look good in pictures.
You know who did hide their faces? The KKK. There’s a reason the KKK wore white hoods. They didn’t want their faces associated with their movement. That tells you a lot about the worthiness of their cause, too. More to the point, it tells you a lot about the lack of worthiness of their cause.
When I look at the pictures out of Canada, there are two other groups of people who aren't willing to show their faces.
First, the police. The police in Canada who illegally confiscated the fuel from the truckers were all wearing black face masks. The police wouldn’t show their faces. Maybe that’s because they were following orders and city mandates on masking. But, the difference in the photos is striking. The truckers who were protesting for their freedoms showed their faces, and the officers who stole their fuel wouldn’t.
Second, the counter protestors. The people who showed up to protest against the truckers were all wearing masks.
Are you willing to have your face associated with a cause? If not, what does that say about the cause?
As for Justin Trudeau, he is still willing to have his face be associated with his cause. Unfortunately, his cause is about division, and defamation, and ultimately destruction. That’s why he tried to smear the truckers as being Nazi racists. It wasn’t because the smear was true. It’s because division is all he has left to try to maintain his grip on power. Fortunately, more and more Canadians are now seeing through that mask, too.