The institution of state rule is a house of cards.
It is ultimately built on propaganda, the absence of societal trust, and a general reluctance of the oppressed to resist its tyranny.
In this vein, institutions and proponents of government have been cultivating a lexicon of slogans to throw against the protests in Ottawa. “Occupation” and “siege” are popular epithets, designed to conjure up fancies of military invasion and open conflict. There are countless vagueries of “illegal activity,” and “unlawful behavior.” What do these terms even mean, when protest is itself effectively declared criminal?
The reality is that the Freedom Convoy protests are overwhelmingly peaceful.
To contrast with historical precedent, there is no footage of burning buildings, rioting looters, or open brawls. While news of arrests is abundant—and there's much to discuss on that, as we'll see—there has been no prominent mention of deaths or serious injury. There was a related incident in Winnipeg, when a victimized protester was targeted by a hit and run attack. One's ignorance on this might be forgiven, given its relative lack of coverage; agitprop stories about a 70 year-old Trucker dying of COVID are far easier to find. As if marketing a magic rock to ward off tigers, state media largely attributes this relative calm—insofar that they concede it as fact—to the competence of state police in “managing the situation.” Thus, preempting and denying any consideration that the protesters are simply peaceful people; People who would remain so, even, or perhaps especially, if the police were wholly absent.
This cop-sucking is particularly absurd, when juxtaposed with Peter Sloly—the Ottawa chief of police—practically begging on his hands and knees for a federal military crackdown. State propaganda is capricious in that regard; Never quite able to decide whether to portray the ruling class as helpless victims of the current political underclass, or masterful prodigies bringing about the morning sunrise. It's cunning disinformation, however, to present state agents and institutions as perpetually ‘undersupplied’ and uniquely capable.
What about the arrests, though?
Acts of “mischief” is a common report. It's possible that you've never heard of criminal mischief prior to its recent coverage. While the term can refer to vandalism, it is extremely broad in practice. Anything from impeding traffic to honking a horn can constitute. In this case, it's worth noting that many of the arrests are for bringing fuel to the protesters, so that they can keep stoves and heaters running amid a downtown ban on restaurant services. Insidious in the extreme.
Worth noting how these state orders are then blamed on the protesters, as though they somehow mandated them.
The Guardian reports, in Orwellian fashion:
“On a bone-chilling night this week, protesters gathered around open fires and propane stoves as police officers looked on, seemingly unwilling to enforce an order against bringing fuel into the city centre.”
Archived Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/11/canada-ottawa-truckers-protest-covid-vaccine-mandates
Consider, perhaps, that they are gathered around pit fires and stoves because the night was literally bone-chilling? There's still snow on the ground and they are not in their homes—much to the dismay of cowering bureaucrats. An interesting choice of words, to be sure. It is a subtle art: Wrapping such benign conduct in terrifying words, with just the right degree of plausible deniability, should one happen to notice the underlying subtext. Though I'm quite sure that the Guardian's Tracey Lindeman had only the most pure of journalistic intentions, while proselytizing to readers about far-right incels.
What's more, these state-imposed circumstances are then cited as evidence of the protesters somehow endangering their own children. News media and police muse about government “protective” services investigations. Although it is unlikely that they will act on these veiled threats—in the immediate future, anyway; As opposed to quietly collecting people in a government database, to act on some months later, after the optics have dulled—as that would rightly spark an active civil war, the prominence of such rumblings should deeply disturb any sensible reader. They are effectively discussing seizing the protesters' children.
Some might fail to realize that this is not entirely unprecedented, given institutions like truancy law and residential schools. Factors to consider when partisan sophists denounce the truckers for ‘indoctrinating’ their children.
The only people endangering kids, are the Ottawa police actively prohibiting their parents' access to voluntarily-obtained fuel, food, and finances. After having already criminalized their jobs, I mean.
Let's talk about finances. In a previous article, I outlined threats to litigate GoFundMe for collecting donations on behalf of the protest. The legal landscape has escalated since then, but we'll get to that in just a moment. GoFundMe has dropped support, as expected, and protesters have shifted to a competing platform called GiveSendGo. Coincidentally, this platform was recently hacked, shut down, and its donor list publicly doxed.
At this point, it's worth noting how many of these major grievances have protesters as the targeted victims, given the general discourse and government response.
What do you think: Are the CBC's top stories on this—at the time of this article—all about how there are criminal investigations currently underway; how RCMP are diligently working to bring these extremist cyber-criminals to justice; a speech by Justin Trudeau, condemning this violation as unacceptable; or expert commentary about what this means for the online security and privacy of all Canadians?
If you're at all surprised to learn that the answer is ‘No, obviously not,’ then you really need to wake the truck up.
Rather, among the top articles is a hit piece, levied against one of the doxed donors. With the byline describing their source as “a database released publicly.” Is this really the pinnacle of journalistic integrity, coming from ‘our’ state media? No, just another demonstration of anonymity's importance when opposing tyrants.
The hacking incident comes alongside a recent invocation of the Emergencies Act by Justin Trudeau. This piece of legislation officially declares the protests a national emergency which threatens the security and sovereignty of Canada.
In a sense, that's partly true. Targeted peaceful protest absolutely is a threat to the ruling body, but once again, not in the manner intended by those in support of this decision. Peaceful Canadian citizens are not at any significant risk from the Freedom Convoy; and we can reasonably know this, by the total absence of any contrary evidence, despite the hypersensitivity and obsessive scrutiny of their detractors.
The act imbues the state with the legal power to further their rights violations. Arguably, the relevance is cultural and symbolic, since it's obvious they had the de facto authority to do so, prior. Specifically, banks may be forced to freeze the personal accounts of anyone associated with the protest. Fundraising and payment processing platforms must register with FINTRAC or be denied the right to operate. Towing companies can be coerced into removing the trucks, which may be seized by the state without warrant. Protesters can be sent to prison.
All this while abject falsehoods are repeated like a madness mantra. “You have been heard,” the protesters are told, over and over and over, despite the fact that Trudeau has yet to meet with the protesters in person. He defends himself by citing his attendance at other protests in the past, when he agreed with their goals. So the mask slips. “It will be specific, limited, responsible and reasonable,” announces the ‘dear leader’ as every financial system in the country is co-opted by the state. “The federal government still has to respect the terms of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” we are told, while they actively violate both the Charter and more fundamental rights and freedoms, with impunity.
Furthermore, this is the first time the Emergencies Act has been invoked since its inception in 1988; An important fact to remember, when pundits claim that the state is somehow being lenient on the Freedom Convoy protest, relative to others in recent history. One common refrain, is that if the truckers were identified as indigenous—I say this because many are indigenous Canadians; Although, they are marginalized by news media, precisely to justify these disingenuous comparisons and cries of racism—then the state would proceed differently. This is evidently correct, but not in the sense that race-baiting sophists imply.
Such measuring is a distraction, though. Ultimately, the Freedom Convoy and the often-cited Wet'suwet'en protests are similar in terms of justification, timeline, and state response. The ruling tyrants simply moved from denying peaceful people the right to their own land, to denying them the right to their own bodies. The subsequent racial comparisons are an attempt to drive a larger wedge between superficially divided groups of oppressed people.
The fact is, we all have our plight under government rule.
But as with my last article on these events, I must punctuate this essay with a message of hope. Freedom is winning. The aforementioned Peter Sloly has resigned; multiple provinces are ending mandate policies; and Erin O'Toole was ousted from conservative party leadership, seemingly for his lack of support for the truckers. These don’t exactly constitute anarcho-capitalism coming into fruition, and bringing about a libertarian paradise, but they absolutely signal a move in the right direction. That is cause for celebration, and continuing the pressure.
Keep. On. Truckin'!
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