RANT: CANADA, THE MOUSE THAT DOESN'T ROAR

 

IT MUST BE SAID that we knew this would happen, eventually. Or we should have known. Or we would have known if we’d just listened to voices of reason.

 

                  Traffic jams: People fleeing Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24/22

I THOUGHT I WOULD PROVIDE A LINK to a short article by Chris Hedges, published February 24/22, in the online publication SHEERPOST, that provides some context for the recent, terrible fighting that has erupted in Ukraine. Chris gives us a historical overview to the geopolitical forces that were, and are, at play, and how last week’s invasion by Russia of its neighbour could have been avoided.

IN SIMPLE TERMS, if the United States and its original partners in NATO (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization) had kept their promise not to extend the military alliance eastward past the newly united Germany, in the early 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, the bloodshed and violence we’re witnessing today in that shattered country could have been avoided. But we didn’t stick to our agreement—we reneged—and so, here we are. THERE ARE OTHER FACTORS but that's the main sticking point as far as Moscow is concerned.* Things might have been a whole lot different if greed and hubris hadn't led us into such folly. But make no mistake: What Russia is doing is wrong and against international law, and the United Nations' charter. At the same time I can understand Russia's reasons for invading. I hope it's over quickly with the minimal loss of life. War! What is it Good For? Absolutely Nuthin'!

 

I ALSO INCLUDE A LINK to a January 20/22 Yves Engler post which provides a Canadian perspective. In his article, Yves points to a PEW research poll, conducted last June, that found 22% of Canadians think our country should withdraw from NATO, which is more than I expected. Yves also notes that all the major political parties in Canada officially support NATO membership, including the NDP (though there are some dissenting voices in the party). Yves also has several posts on the recent  events in Ukraine here, and here, and here that are helpful to understand what is going on over there.

AND AGAIN I ASK: Do Canadians want to see Canadian soldiers fighting Russian soldiers, and dying in the fields and cities of Ukraine? We need to think long and hard about our foreign policy, and decide whether its time to put our resources and talents toward addressing our own very significant problems right here at home. 

NATO has served its purpose; the USSR no longer exists. It went away thirty years ago. Why is NATO still around?

 

Cheers, Jake.

______________________________ 

 

*And Ukraine as part of NATO, with the potential for  heavy armaments, possibly even nukes, being deployed on the border they share is unacceptable to Russia, a country, it should be remembered, that has been invaded twice during the last century, each time incurring the loss of tens of millions of Russians and untold damage to its infrastructure. (How would Canada like it if the United States deployed its weapons and missiles along our common borders, all of them pointed at us?)

 

 

 

 

RANT: WEATHER REPORT: STRONG BLOWING WINDS AND PERIODS OF SMUGNESS IN OTTAWA FOR SOME TIME TO COME.

 

A PROBLEM I SEEM TO BE HAVING of late is deciding how much of the information we've received these last couple of years about Covid-19, lockdowns, vaccines, and treatment medications is helpful and how much is bunk. I’m a senior, living in Ontario, Canada, and I’ve received two shots of the Pfizer vaccine, plus a booster shot. I’m “jabbed-up”, as they say. For now, at least.

IN ONTARIO, after another month of lockdowns temporarily re-established to “blunt the transmission of Omicron”, we’re heading into a regime of gradually loosening restrictions which will return us to relative “normality”, whatever that is, by next month.

 

IN A RECENT TURN OF EVENTS—that many people say is a direct result of the vaccine mandate protests by Canadian truckers in a number of cities across the country, including the nation’s capital, the Ontario government—as are other provincial governments—is lifting the requirement for proof of vaccination (PoV) “passports” when in stores, on buses, etc. as of March 1/22, though mask-wearing in public venues will probably be required for some time yet. It’s a positive development, I think, and a sign that this long ‘fugue state’ we’ve been in may be ending. But it is of SOME CONCERN (to me, at least) that the federal government still requires PoVs for cross-border movement, effectively side-lining thousands of truckers who reject, as is their right, the government’s vaccination mandates and intrusive “Covid passport” requirements. The trucker protests have primarily been about the requirement to be vaccinated when crossing the border into Canada, or else being required to self-isolate for, IIRC, ten days and to take a Covid-19 test before returning to work. Such requirements effectively force from the road thousands who decline, for various reasons, the government’s vaccine regime. They also are protesting the requirement to carry vaccine “passports” (the “QR” codes on our “smart phones”) which they consider (as I do) an intrusion by government into citizens’ private affairs.

Truckers, up until mid January, were considered “essential workers” and exempt from the vaccine-mandates imposed on the rest of the population. Now, they’re not so essential, apparently.

 

DISTURBINGLY, last week PRIME MINISTER Trudeau invoked the “Emergencies Act” giving the federal government extraordinary policing powers.*  The federal government declared a “public order emergency” to deal with the “Freedom Convoy” trucker protests that are interfering with cross-border trade and to remove the protest encampment near the Parliament buildings in Ottawa. Authorities have begun to crack down, levying heavy fines, as well as arresting protest leaders and towing away rigs from the various blockades. Also, significant financial penalties are being imposed on the remaining truckers, including cancelling credit cards and freezing bank accounts. The potential is real for many to lose their livelihoods because of their principled stand.

 

I THINK CANADIANS as a whole support the government’s heavy-handed measures. But that could change. I should remind readers that the Emergencies Act is in effect over the entire country, though—so far—its effects are only noticeable in a few cities and border crossings where the anti-mandate protests are occurring. In addition, I note that residents and businesses in downtown Ottawa have filed a class-action lawsuit against the protesters, claiming over $300M in damages, citing GoFundMe contributors⁺ as culpable in their complaint. I’m not a legal expert, but does that mean someone who contributed twenty-five bucks to support the trucker protest could be on the hook for potentially many times that amount in compensation payments? Will their credit cards and bank accounts likewise be seized by authorities newly imbued with supra-ordinary legal powers? Curiouser and curiouser. 

 

IT IS INTERESTING THAT the on-line fund raiser, GoFundMe, and banks and credit card companies, had all-too-readily begun to comply with requests by authorities to cut off the money supply of the protesters. They had begun their confiscatory actions before the government announced its Emergencies Act provisions to compel them to do so. Were they concerned about negative publicity and moved to distance themselves from the protesters by denying them financial services they were contractually obligated to honour? Or does this willingness on the part of corporations, financial and otherwise, to comply with government requests such as these—to arbitrarily confiscate citizens’ money—their can do! attitude, suggest elites see which side of the bread is buttered and are falling in lockstep behind a government that might consider implementing its own version of a Great Reset, something our current PM has favoured for some time. 

 

IN CASE IT’S NOT CLEAR by my rambling prose, I think the recent use of the Emergencies Act was a gross over-reach on the part of the Trudeau Liberals and an unnecessarily harsh use of governmental power that is both undemocratic and harmful, in the long run, to our country’s political and legal institutions. Just the other day the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has filed a legal action challenging the government's invocation of the Emergencies Act. Trudeau is using a sledgehammer to pound nails, and it remains to be seen how aggressive the government will be in using its new powers vis-à-vis  the protesting truckers.¹

THE CURRENT PROTESTS, gradually fading away into the vast Canadian landscape, were a surprise to many. Who would have thought there would ever have been such a chaotic, though mostly peaceful, scene in front of Parliament? And by truckers—regular working Joes and Janes just trying to make a living? One commentator suggested the compromise of lifting border crossing restrictions for those unvaxxed truckers but requiring a rapid test procedure to check for infections upon their return to the country. It would be inconvenient and slow things down a bit, but it's better than not being able to work at all. That seems like a fairly reasonable accommodation, but that would require our government to actually talk with its citizens.

WHAT TRUDEAU HAS DONE strikes me as hard-headed and petulant. He refused to talk with any of the trucker leadership, to seek dialogue with Canadians expressing legitimate concerns, and in addition, he repeatedly characterized those participating in the protests as Nazis and misogynists, bringing to mind Hillary Clinton's deplorable "Deplorables" comment made during her unsuccessful run for president in 2016. Indeed, he may pay a political price for his rash decisions and intransigence, perhaps even before the next election cycle.

 

I HAD THOUGHT TO WRITE a post about lockdowns in general, whether they were necessary, for example, or effective against the pandemic, and then trying to decide if they have done more harm than good. But the situation with the "Freedom Convoy" is front and centre for me at the moment...  

AS I WAS READING UP on various aspects of the protests, I ran across a headline in the Ottawa Citizen that mentioned a "violent attack" by protesters at a GasLink construction site near "Houston". A picture of badly damaged trucks and heavy excavators accompanied the story and I wondered why an incident that happened all they way down in Texas would get front page coverage in a Canadian paper. Was it because trucks were involved and the story fit the ongoing "trucker" memes of the past couple of weeks? I read further and realized the "Houston" mentioned in the news story was actually in northern British Columbia, and the incident reflects the ongoing dispute between the  Wet’suwet’en First Nation and TransCanada Pipelines, the builders of the gas pipeline designed to bring natural gas to bluewater LNG facilities on the west coast, and which happens to cross through Wet’suwet’en territory. The first nation's tribal leaders are divided on the question of whether to allow the pipeline through their lands. There are disagreements between the traditional native leadership and the governance structure imposed by the federal government, the so-called "tribal band" authorities, who  favour development. However, the Wet'suwet'en native elders have not authorized the pipeline's construction, and they and their supporters have been involved in on-going protests,  demonstrations and blockades ever since over "industrial development on its traditional territory", with this latest action resulting in significant property damage, though without serious injuries on either side.

I MENTION the Houston protest, here, not because of the violence and the "millions of dollars" in damaged equipment and buildings, though that is significant and a little shocking, if truth be told. But, it reminds me about what happens when people are denied equal access to power, to legal rights and freedoms, or simply the right to be heard and listened to. It is safe to say that all actions by the powerful, from denial of services to denial of autonomy come with consequences. One person's protest is another person's revolution. 

Montreal: Soldier and child, 18 October 1970, during the October Crisis.

DIALOGUE. EQUALITY. A FAIR HEARING UNDER THE LAW. Fair laws and legislation. Discussion. Give and take. Listening and compromise. Live and let live. These are QUALITIES that should govern our lives as members in society, and ones that should be first and foremost in the minds of those in whom we grant power and authority over our lives as citizens. I could go on but y'all get the picture. And I know all this sounds a bit namby-pamby and sparkles 'n sunshine. But what's the fucking alternative?²

 

Cheers, Jake.

 

______________________________

 

* In 1988, the “War Measures Act”, legislation that had been on the books since WWI, was replaced with the more limited Emergencies Act. This is the first instance of its use in Canada. It's guidelines state it is to be “…used in response to an urgent, temporary and critical emergency that seriously endangers the health and safety of Canadians and that cannot be dealt with effectively by any other federal, provincial or territorial law.” The legislation is to be used to cope with four types of emergencies: “a public welfare, public order, an international, or a war” emergency. 

There will be much discussion in the times ahead as to whether protesters in hot tubs constituted a "public order emergency."

 

+ For an interesting take on a nasty bit of “doxxing” related to the Ottawa protest, see this Breaking Points vid as hosts Krystal Ball and Saajar Enjeti discuss the consequences one small business owner faced because of an on-line contribution she made to a trucker support fund. 

 

1. UPDATE#1: Well, it seems that the federal government is being very aggressive in its tactics to break up the protests. The Emergencies Act (EA) was ratified in Parliament in a vote on Monday night, February 21, with the NDP, Green, and Independent MPs shamefully supporting the minority Liberals. It was deemed a confidence vote by the PM to corral any wayward Liberals or lackey NDPers who might otherwise have voted against extending the EA measures for thirty days. The Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois voted NO to the bill. 

With the ability to call in police reinforcements from across the country, freeze bank accounts and on-line funders, commandeer  tow-trucks to remove rigs, and confiscate and sell protesters' vehicles, using the proceeds to reimburse police services and aggrieved Ottawa residents, such tactics would make Kim Jon-Un jealous!

So far, upwards of 200 arrests have been made, bank accounts frozen, etc., with threats that anyone merely participating in the protests may be liable to fines or criminal charges. With such harsh measures the protests and blockades have been rapidly broken up. ("This will be a day long remembered."-Darth Vader)  

Who will be arrested and what they'll be charged with are things everyone should follow with interest. How long the government maintains their Emergencies Act regime will be instructive for testing the mettle of our democratic institutions. When governments attempt to crush dissent and disallow the expression of grievances, trouble is afoot.The Bully Boys have arrived!

UPDATE#2: I'm a afraid of getting whip-lash from all the proclamations to-ing and fro-ing from Parliament Hill. Nine days after the PM imposed the Emergencies Act (after being given his marching orders from crabby, old Joe B. to the South for holding up biz at the border), our Dear Leader revoked the EA, probably because of possible push back from the Senate. Justification for keeping such draconian measures in place rapidly fell away as trucker protests were dismantled by swinging-dick government apparatchiks.

Let's watch and see how the protesters are treated by the law in the days and weeks to come. A terrible precedent has been set, and if you think neo-libs like Trudeau, Christina Freeland, Bill Blair, and  NDP toadies and other political hacks will walk away from such a tempting pool of political power, you're sadly mistaken. They've just dipped their little pinky-toes in!

2.  ONE COMMENTATOR has suggested the American political Left  could take a page from the Canadian trucker protests that are now winding down. One thing, he suggests, to strive for is a broad coalition to draw people of all sorts to your cause or  protest. The anti-Vietnam War movement of the mid-nineteen-sixties is an example of a cause that drew together people of varied political persuasions. The truckers, whose complaints are legitimate, nevertheless make demands that don't resonate with the majority of the population, though many do support them. Other demands that more Canadians could get behind, like global warming or banning nukes (there were significant "Ban the Bomb" movements in the 1980s at the height of the Cold War), and then using "trucker" tactics in their protests and demonstrations, might have greater and more long-term effects. 

TODAY, one cause that's top of mind (mine, anyway) might be to focus on ways to confront the dangerous dumfuckery currently going on around Ukraine. A protest movement calling for Canada to withdraw from NATO and to develop a more diplomatic, and conciliatory dialogue with Russia would be an excellent adventure in grass-roots politics, one well worth your while, comrades dudes.   

[UPDATE: 24 February 2022. The problem with updates is that they're always updating. After I wrote this post, Russia attacked Ukraine. Now, everyone, or most everyone, will pile on the bandwagon of GO! NATO GO!, not accepting the fact that NATO's expansion eastwards for the last twenty years is the main cause of Russian actions. Question: Do Canadians want to see Canadian soldiers die fighting Russian soldiers? We shall see.]

 

 Check out the excellent rant by Russell Brand on Trudeau's Trucker Farrago!  

As well, see the excellent analysis by Glen Greenwald on the Canadian authorities' harsh crackdown on peaceful dissent and the new tools in their toolbox. 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE and STEVEN DONZIGER