Canada's Convoy, Part 4 - A Coup By Any Other Name
Self-help Guru and YouTuber Jordan Peterson calls for provincial premiers to "Seize the Day" as protestors call to be installed in Government
In January, 2022, Manitoba was going through a crushing fourth wave of Covid, Omicron, and it appeared the government and public health had simply given up. Under the direction of the new Premier, Heather Stefanson, Manitoba was not going to take any extra measures even as cases grew out of control.
Manitoba is home to some of the greatest infectious disease specialists in the world. We have a level 4 laboratory, and researchers who have worked around the world and helped develop a vaccine for ebola. And they were basically completely left out of Manitoba’s pandemic response.
Instead, public health decisions were clearly being driven by political considerations, and while people were tired of pandemic restrictions, it was clear to us that they were being lifted too soon - that the provincial governments were just caving in to the demands and the arguments of the convoy of conspiracy - which conveniently shifted the political blame to the federal government - even when all the public health orders and health care SNAFUs were provincial.
It’s worth pointing out too, that if people felt they needed more help through the pandemic about 83 cents on the dollar in supports was federal, and 17 cents was provincial. If people were struggling economically, it was in part because provincial governments like Manitoba’s pursued panicked cuts and freezes and forced people to choose between going to work and getting Covid or staying home and going broke.
In a parade in Winnipeg, protestors were seen waving swastikas and confederate flags.
On January 30, 2022 - before the convoy had settled in as an “occupation,” James Menzies of Truck News wrote that “The so-called Freedom Convoy was never about truckers, or border mandates”
“The fundraising initiative was started by Tamara Lich, who has a history of association with radical groups, including the recently formed federal separatist Maverick Party in Alberta. Yes, by this weekend, there is likely to be about $1 million in the hands of someone affiliated with a party that wants to break up Canada. (Plan B, mind you).
In her past, Lich was regional coordinator for Wexit in Southeastern Alberta, and was member of the board for Wexit Alberta. What’s Wexit Alberta? It was the provincial party whose co-founder wanted to exit Canada and join the Trump-led U.S.
Lich later took her ambitions federally and joined the federal Wexit Canada board, which would later become the Maverick Party.
Canada Unity, another of the organizers, posted a ludicrous Memorandum of Understanding/Manifesto on its website, which it plans to present to the Governor General of Canada. It essentially calls for the resignation of everyone within the federal government, the formation of a new government comprised of the Governor General, Senate, and members of Canada Unity, and the removal of all Covid-related measures – even those put into place at the provincial level. The trucks will remain until the document is signed, organizers said, dubbing its mission Bearhug.”
The actual truckers in the trucking industry recognized that people were being used.
Manitoba Legislature Occupation
These incidents occurred before the convoy set up an occupation protest at the Manitoba Legislature.
The organizers of Standing4Freedom issued a press release that set out a numbered “Protestors Code of Conduct” that was never enforced.
The statement itself referred to the protest as an “occupation” (no. 3); said that they would “obey all on sight [sic] police personnel” (no. 6); that counter-protestors would not be allowed (no. 8) and “Family friendly signage please.”
They wrote:
“Our short and reasonable list of demands. They are
The federal and provincial governments terminate the mandates and all other obligatory contact tracing programs, or inter-Canada passport systems.
Terminate Covid-19 mandates, lockdowns and restrictions, and respect the rights of Canadians over their bodily autonomy.
Cease the divisive rhetoric attacking Canadians who disagree with Government mandates
Cease to limit debate through coercive measures with the goal of censoring those who have differing opinions.”
These demands amounted to the complete removal of all public health measures to prevent infection, silence critics of conspiracy theorists and snake-oil salesmen, and allow discredited fraudsters to peddle solutions that were ineffective at best and disastrously harmful at worst - all during a period when Manitoba’s hospitals, ERs and ICUs were filled beyond capacity with covid patients.
They further wrote:
“Our Plan
Our plan is to peacefully protest and occupy the area surrounding the Manitoba Legislature until our demands are met
We are requesting dialogue with the provincial government and appointed officials to discuss our terms
We will leave the area when the mandates are removed and after the full implementation of these terms by the government of Manitoba.”
No government should have taken these demands seriously, and if the occupation protest were true to their word, the police could have asked them to leave and they would have left. That did not happen.
The “family friendly” signage was certainly absent, since people were regularly flying and displaying “FUCK TRUDEAU” flags, stickers and home-made signs.
Instead, farm machinery and semi-truck trailers were allowed to set up a staging area blocking the front entrance to the legislature, allowing only one entrance in and out for MLAs.
Trucks and farm equipment was parked on boulevards and blocked traffic, while semi-horns blared until 11 at night.
A known troublemaker drove through the crowd, injuring four protestors.
He was arrested, but it should have been clear to anyone monitoring the scene was not safe, and that it was an accident waiting to happen. People in dark clothing were walking back and forth between cars and two roads of three lane traffic, at 11 pm at night in February, on a slippery road.
Individuals in the downtown area were unable to receive grocery and food deliveries. Manitoba’s downtown close to the legislature has some very dense neighbourhoods with one-way streets that are difficult to navigate.
One individual wrote:
“I had an instacart and a skip the dishes order refunded to me because the drivers can’t get to my apartment because the streets are blocked because of this stupid protest.
I am physically unable to get groceries because of my cancer treatment, which is why I order Instacart to bring it up to my apartment unit.”
As the occupations dragged out, there were continual broadcasts on Facebook from Ottawa by Pat King, whose follower count had exploded.
“What in the world are you waiting for? It’s your moment. You’ve got a huge number of Canadians occupying Ottawa, expressing their dismay with the suspension of our Charter rights in the face of this so-called emergency. Our Prime Minister has literally abandoned the city - run away, as far as I can tell - citing security concerns, because he believes his own propaganda about the nature of the people who are sitting in Ottawa, and then lying about it, justifying it as a consequence of being exposed to Covid, despite the fact that he’s double vaccinated and tested negative.
You’re not going to get a better opportunity. This is your moment. Conservatives in Canada, you could come out and say to the population, say to the people who are desperate to hear this, that we can have our lives returned to normal, and that there’s still some danger but that we’ve got this. We could return our lives to what they should be. We could have our country back. We could move forward into the future in a normal manner.
So gentlemen - Premier Scott Moe, Jason Kenney, Doug Ford. You’re good men. Erin O’Toole - You’re the Leader of the Opposition. Man, even the NDP leader came out and said that the truckers were a bunch of white supremacists. For all intents and purposes, the opposition - your opposition - our government - is in disarray. And the people are doing everything they can to make their wants known.
Guys - reassure Canadians - remove these mandates that are crippling our businesses and interfering with our private lives and stopping us from being able to travel. Seize the Day.”
Truck News had a better grasp of reality, the law, politics and public health than Jordan Peterson.
At the time, the JCCF played an active role in the protest.
“In February 2022, the Justice Centre funded a team of lawyers to provide on-the-ground legal advice and representation to peaceful Canadian protestors in Ottawa. During the Ottawa protest, these lawyers appeared in court on behalf of protestors, represented protestors in communications with police and government, and played a role in coordinating an agreement with the City of Ottawa to move trucks out of residential areas.”
Meanwhile, I was at home, waiting things out...