There’s been some… interesting allegations about the Freedom Convoy from Canadian and American “journalists” since the beginning of the protest. We have been told that the truckers represent and promote white supremacy, violence, and all the horrendous social phobias that plague the Western world in the 21st century.
Others point out the brazen hypocrisy of black-face Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the pro-BLM crowd for their condemnation of the Freedom Convoy less than two years after they stood alongside BLM despite the fact that a substantial swath of that movement promoted violence, criminal behavior, and black supremacy.
I think it’s all too easy to get lost in the weeds of false accusations without panning out to understand why the Freedom Convoy matters in the first place. As a scholar who has studied social movements for over a decade, I think it’s important to let every movement speak for itself, analyze movements with nuance, and study the context in which a movement emerges and mobilizes. This is my goal for this post.
The Crisis
According to most talking heads, the Freedom Convoy truckers and their supporters are mad about COVID-19 policies like mandatory vaccinations. That’s usually all we get out of news stories on the protest. What they should tell us is that unvaccinated truckers will lose money by being forced into regular quarantines when they cross the U.S.-Canada border, and if they are not fully vaccinated, they could lose their jobs in the future.
Canada has been one of the more draconian Western countries when it comes to COVID-19 policies. Canadian police have interrupted church services, arrested pastors, and pulled people out of private parties and into the snow during Christmas celebrations. Large box stores in Canada now require vaccines for customers to enter, and the unvaxxed must be escorted by workers to the pharmacies in those box stores… because you can’t spread COVID-19 when you’re picking up a prescription, but you can when you’re shopping for socks and toys!
It’s more than people angry about getting a vaccine (that, to be clear, is the next gen flu shot); it’s about people resisting a vax caste system.
The Movement
There are several factors to consider when analyzing a movement itself. First, who is organizing and protesting? Obviously, in this case, it’s the truckers. Notably, it’s not professional activists, community organizers, and students. Unlike these groups, truckers stand to lose not only paychecks but also their livelihood. Therefore, it seems that these protesters in the Freedom Convoy sincerely believe that the COVID-19 policies are a significant threat to their way of life.
So, maybe political commentators shouldn’t dismiss these concerns or make fun of people with legitimate arguments about personal freedom and bodily autonomy just because those commentators see things differently. I’ll willing to bet that if those truckers identified as mermaids driving underwater chariots they’d be taken more seriously. And yes, there are people in the Pacific Northwest who believe they are mermaids. You just can’t make this up.
Secondly, movements are rarely monolithic, and they tend to attract some crazies. Prohibitionist Carry Nation is a great example of this. After her repeated assaults on bars with a hatchet, the main Prohibitionist organizations distanced themselves from her because they didn’t agree with her tactics.
The same could be said for the Nazi and Confederate allegations made against the Freedom Convoy. The leader of the convoy has denounced Nazism, and I think it’s fair to say not many Canadians are well-versed on the American Confederacy. Even so, there is a viral video of a man with a Confederate flag being shamed into leaving the protest. But even if a small number of Freedom Convoy protesters were actual Nazis and Confederate supporters (both ideologies are ones I adamantly do not support, by the way), they don’t represent what the movement stands for.
It’s like my cart of groceries the last time I went to Fred Meyer’s. Just because I had one pint of ice cream among all of my fruits, veggies, and other healthy foods doesn’t mean I don’t care about my health… Okay, okay, I had chocolate too, but that’s a bean so it’s practically a vegetable. But you get the point.
Thirdly, what are the intended goals and ideology that motivate the movement? If you visit one of their websites, one of the first things you’ll see is a “Unity Manifesto.” Well, that’s a disgrace to white supremacy everywhere. The website also rejects violence as a protest tactic and informs its members that the convoy must keep clear of all emergency routes in Ottawa. The main website promotes writing to government officials and joining a convoy while encouraging everyone to “stay peaceful.” Another affiliate website voices the movement’s one demand— an end to vaccine mandates.
But instead of taking these truckers seriously, some in the media and in government find it easier to call them names because they can’t deny their inner child.
The State Response
How the government responds to a movement or protest tells us not only what the state thinks about activists and the issues they champion, but is also a key factor in predicting the likely trajectory of future protests.
And what has the Canadian government done? Well, Trudeau ran away because he only talks to protesters who champion causes he supports. But that’s not how democracy works. Democracies are supposed to protect the political rights of all, not just those who will vote for you. But these are the bad 10%, yes 10%, of Canadians who refuse vaccination.
The mayor of Ottawa has issued a state of emergency because Canada got a buy-one-get-one-free deal on those. Canadians aren’t even done with the COVID-19 state of emergency, but since that went so well, let’s have another! The mayor also claimed that the city was under siege. As much as the Freedom Convoy’s presence in Ottawa, the nation’s capital, may be inconvenient or disruptive (which is the point of all protest, by the way), it’s not a siege.
The Alamo was a siege. The last part of the Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame depicted a siege on the cathedral. This, Mr. Mayor, is called a peaceful protest, the exercising of a fundamental right regardless of your personal opinion of the positions the protesters take. I’d say get yourself a better dictionary, but since your truckers aren’t trucking, the shipping delays would likely be enormous.
And on the peaceful protest claim, interestingly, the police in Ottawa have set up a hotline for hate crimes and other criminal activity even though the police admit that the protests have been peaceful for the most part, and there has been no rioting, let alone injuries or death. In fact, out of the thousands of protests, less than 1% have been under investigation, let alone charged, for any kind of wrong doing. (Check out this, this, and this.)
But even so, the police have been ordered to confiscate fuel and other supplies from truckers and criminalize any material support a person may give protesters during the dead of winter in Canada! So, 99% of protesters aren’t breaking the law, the judge in a recent case just told them to stop honking at night, and the state is unlawfully stealing from them. This is because the chief of police believes that the situation “could become riotous.” Punishing hypothetical future crimes seems outside his or anyone’s purview. I wonder why some Canadians organized a Freedom Convoy in the first place.
Conclusion
History teaches us that when citizens with what they see as legitimate grievances are demonized, mischaracterized, denied recognition, and unjustly policed, it doesn’t end well. I hope this has a good ending for all involved, and I hope that democratic leaders can start treating the people with whom they disagree with more respect and deference. Yes, me and my pipe dreams.
At risk of sounding like a dramatic movie voice-over, this is not over. A new protest inspired by the Freedom Convoy, called Convoy to DC 2022, is underway and plans to arrive in Washington, DC on March 1, 2022. Stay tuned for that.
*If you know of more breaking news on these convoys (besides the Facebook and GoFundMe scandals, please link them below in the comments! I’d love to see what y’all have found!
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