By Erik Dolson
The Canadian trucker protest in Ottawa isn’t just wake-up call — it’s a tsunami siren. Some might want to head for higher ground.
The protesters are Canadians.
That might not mean much to those of you who haven’t been to Canada, or encountered a Canadian on vacation in someplace warm, like Minnesota or upstate New York.
The average American wouldn’t usually notice a Canadian, either, because in addition to congenital politeness, Canadians don’t seek attention.
I know. Weird, huh?
So the thought of a horde of Canadians descending on their capital to protest COVID requirements is not just odd, but may portend a tectonic shift in world order, especially since about 90 percent of Canadians have been vaccinated.
If they’ve been vaccinated, what’s the issue? And why is the protest so significant?
The truckers don’t like a new rule that requires proof they’ve been vaccinated to move back and forth across a border between Canada and the U.S. that many of them drive every day, most delivering car parts to the U.S. Like many of us here, the drivers have pretty much had enough of being told what to do and being required to prove they have done it.
Consequently, in addition to fouling traffic and business in the capitol, they’ve blocked one of the busiest border crossings in the world.
Their Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, after he and his family were spirited away to an undisclosed “secure” location, just proved himself completely unqualified for a job he inherited from his father because of his photogenic mother, by saying the border was closed by people of “unacceptable beliefs.”
Not “unacceptable behavior,” mind you, but “unacceptable beliefs.” Laughable if it was satire, but Trudeau means it. With those words Trudeau has proven that liberals in power can think as authoritarian-ly as leaders in communist China or Russia.
What’s next, requiring those with “unacceptable beliefs” to receive reeducation or “truth training?” This is already creeping forward on some college campuses.
But before anyone misunderstands, pseudo-Christian-nationalist-Trumpist-science denial-groupthink is no less dangerous. Just because something is wrong doesn’t mean its opposite is right. The two usually have nothing to do with each other.
I write this from Jefferson County, Washington, by the way, which is quite close to Canada and unfailingly liberal. You can’t sit down in a restaurant up here without showing proof that you’re vaccinated. Masks are required inside everywhere.
Which I agree with, even as I wonder if a study’s been done to compare COVID infection rates, or hospitalizations, of this county versus some comparable but mask-less and less vaccinated county in Florida. Might provide valuable information.
But back to the Canadians.
If Canadian truckers, and other Canadians who have now joined the demonstrations, are willing to stand in snow and subfreezing temperatures to protest government control over their lives, liberal leaders in other nations should take note. Canadians are tough, but this is not a protest out in some Miami beer garden.
Personal liberty and privacy are foundation stones of democracy. They’ve been fought for and died for and will not be given up, even to those who believe it’s for the good of all, and especially not to those who accuse others of “unacceptable beliefs.”