It would be easy, and correct, to classify the people blockading Ottawa and some border crossings, the ones spewing hate and inflicting damage on normal Canadians, as under-informed, that being possibly the most generous way to put it. They are defined by having no science knowledge and no knowledge, or history, of participation in systematic due process, like regulatory decision making. Granted, most Canadians know that today’s governments are essentially non-functional when it comes to dealing with widespread citizen dissatisfaction.
These blockaders are the kind of people who tend to lash out at things they don’t understand, particularly as they increasingly find themselves marginalized or shunted to the fringe.
Some of them drive trucks, but most are not truckers. It’s another indication of who these people are that they rather inflict their nonsense on normal people, all while sponging off taxpayers – that’s who contributed to GoFundMe and its taxpayers who are paying the policing bill – rather than do a decent day’s work, like the people who legitimately can be called truckers. Over 90 per cent of truckers are working at doing their part (and have gotten vaccinated), like so many others, to help society through the pandemic by moving food and materials we all depend upon. Contrast that with the delusional behavior of the convoy people. While I might be tempted to call the behavior of these convoy people juvenile, that’s not so. Ninety per cent of our young people have been vaccinated because, as they themselves will tell you, they want to protect themselves, their friends and family, and do their part for a struggling society.
These insurrectionists are people bound together by what, in their mind, is common persecution. This is not an agenda or a cause, but more of an identity – look at me, I’m part of something. In the US it was a “stolen” election, here it’s a vaccine “mandate.”
The main message coming from this gang of bullies and agitators is that they are divisive – they may reflect the 10 per cent of society that beats its brains out hating vaccinations, but they have failed to comprehend (amongst a whole list of other things) that one side-effect of COVID-19 has been that the vast majority of Canadians -- people in medicine, science, doctors and nurses and all health care workers, people “forced” into contact with people like waiters, cooks, small business people, teachers, civil servants, sports teams, pilots and soldiers – have been vaccinated. The vast majority are pulling together as a society in an effort to protect themselves and those around them. The gap between this significant majority of Canadians and these truck driving, flag challenged extremists, reveals exactly who has become lost in the swamps of ignorance. But it is also doing damage to our rare show of solidarity.
It has been said that science teaches us reality, and in this case it did expose, to the vast majority, the reality of COVID. While governments don’t often resort to science-based decisions and rules, they did this time, even though their response was inconsistent, messy, far too often tentative, and poorly orchestrated. But to this point, it has prevented further massive damage to individuals, to our health care system, and to society.
This insurrection by people who are arrogant enough to revel in the fact they don’t care about the health of Canadians, is viewed by most people as disgusting and pathetic.
But equally as problematic, and just as disgusting and pathetic, is the failure of governments and law enforcement to shut these bullies down. The damage to an already shaky level of social stability, and to our already superficial democracy, as well as the damage being done to a rare display of solidarity by Canadians who chose to get vaccinated, and to peace and good will amongst citizens (a difficult and tenuous thing at the best of times) has been severe and will linger for decades.
Canadians deserve an abrupt, and if necessary, forceful end to this insurrection. The fact that there have not even been a ticket and tow assault on these people is an embarrassment to the country and to law-abiding citizens.
This country faces a day of reckoning and it is not too far down the road. All political parties have fueled extremism through their growing inaction and special interest bias; no party is capable of dealing with the free for all about to descend upon us. And law-abiding citizens are deluding themselves if they think they are ready for it.
Brian L. Horejsi
Penticton
