The antivax insurrection

For weeks or months last January, my ability to focus and be productive was sharply impaired by constant fear about what would happen in the United States.

Now it’s the less frightening but far more personal anguish about what will come of the ongoing alt right insurrection in Ottawa.

It’s painful because of what it implies about the future of Canadian politics, and because I know friends in Ottawa are being harmed. Even more, it demonstrates human beings’ deeply maladaptive tendency to amplify societal disruption through radicalization into conspiracy theories and sociopathic behaviour.

The only solution to our global challenges is to respond to disruption with cooperation while continually updating our understanding of the world on the basis of solid scientific knowledge. The path from here is there is not visible.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here.

38 thoughts on “The antivax insurrection”

  2. My government and security sources do not agree. What’s happening in Ottawa, they were clear, is two separate events happening in tandem: there is a broadly non-violent (to date) group of Canadians with assorted COVID-related gripes, ranging from the somewhat justified to totally frickin’ insane. But that larger group, which has knocked Ottawa and too many of our leaders into what my colleague Jen Gerson so perfectly described as “stun-fucked stasis,” is now providing a kind of (mostly) unwitting cover to a cadre of seasoned street brawlers whose primary goal is to further erode the legitimacy of the state — not just the city of Ottawa, or Ontario or Canada, but of democracies generally.

    Some of them are ideologues, others just grifters, but they’re real, and they’re in Ottawa. Maybe not in that parking lot. I certainly didn’t get the chance to take any names. But local officials know they’re out and about, and are worried that any move they make will trigger an incident that can easily result in dead cops, dead truckers and delighted far-right agitators.

    https://theline.substack.com/p/dispatch-from-the-ottawa-front-sloly

  3. Two members of military counter-terrorism unit under investigation for allegedly taking part in convoy protests

    “The Canadian Special Operations Forces Command does not condone its members supporting and/or actively taking part in causes that jeopardize the apolitical imperative associated with their functions.”

    https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/two-members-of-military-counter-terrorism-unit-under-investigation-for-allegedly-taking-part-in-convoy-protests/wcm/a17b1ceb-add6-4323-b5d4-402f2791f110/amp/

  4. The Ottawa mayor’s office says it has reached an agreement with protest organizers to move the trucks that have clogged traffic and residential neighbourhoods in the capital’s downtown core for the third weekend to protest COVID-19 public-health measures.

    In a letter to Mayor Jim Watson, one of the organizers of the convoy agreed to concentrate the roughly 400 trucks around Centretown on Wellington Street, which runs along the Parliament buildings, and away from residential areas.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/article-ottawa-mayor-says-deal-with-convoy-protesters-could-clear-residential/

  5. More than $323m (£238m) in goods crosses that bridge every day, and for nearly a week, not a dollar has made it to the US or back.
    Almost half of that is from the trade of car parts, says Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association.
    He does not mince words when it comes to the protest.
    “In Windsor we have at its core, several dozen people who are macroeconomically illiterate and absolutely disrespectful of their own community, that they would imperil the economy of the region to make a point,” he said.
    “Never has a tantrum cost so many people so much.”
    After the clearance operation, police remained behind. The bridge will reopen on Sunday or Monday.
    But Volpe said the harm to the auto-parts industry will last much longer than that, because it will take three to four days to get the supply chain fully functional. The total cost of lost production and shipments he estimates at about C$1b ($790m, £580m).
    He also said the damage to Canada’s reputation with its US trading partner is devastating, especially as American politicians push for protectionist policies

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60364821

  8. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday it has seized 13 long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armor, a machete and a large quantity of ammunition and high-capacity magazines connected to a small, organized group within a larger protest at the US border crossing in Coutts, Alberta.
    The RCMP in Alberta said 11 people were arrested near the border crossing that connects Coutts to Sweet Grass, Montana.
    “The group was said to have a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade,” the statement said. “This resulted in an immediate and complex investigation to determine the extent of the threat and criminal organization.”
    After obtaining a warrant, police were able to search three trailers early Monday that were associated with the group.

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/14/americas/canada-truckers-protest-monday/index.html

  9. ‘Battle of Billings Bridge’ attracts hundreds of volunteers, traps convoy for hours

    https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/battle-of-billings-bridge-attracts-hundreds-of-volunteers-traps-convoy-for-hours/wcm/770da773-1693-45f6-b587-48b5b2e303ca/amp/

    As the sun was going down and the temperatures dipped, the truck drivers in the convoy were permitted a “negotiated retreat” — they were allowed to leave one at a time, but only after their trucks had been stripped of flags, and “Freedom Convoy” stickers, and surrendered any jerry cans.

    “The look on their faces when they were taking down their flags was one of defeat, not of pride,” said Harden.

  10. Counter-protesters who braved a bone-chilling weekend to physically block more truckers from joining the occupation of Ottawa’s downtown have sent a crystal-clear message. And the rest of the city is cheering their actions.

    We are fed up. We are enraged. If the authorities don’t act, citizens have shown that they will.

    That message, meant first for the protesters arriving or already dug in downtown, was also clearly aimed at police and elected officials who have stood by and allowed the hot tubs, bouncy castles, pancake breakfasts, refuelling drives and evening DJ parties to continue into a third week in the heart of the nation’s capital. Ottawans, sick of being intimidated and in some cases physically attacked by the protesters, are now ready to risk direct confrontation.

    https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/editorial-ottawans-are-enraged-and-theyre-ready-to-act-if-no-one-else-does

  12. Empowered by the federal government’s move to invoke the Emergencies Act, police will soon establish “no-go” zones in the city’s downtown core to control unruly crowds associated with the anti-vaccine mandate convoy protest, the minister said. People who defy orders to leave, he added, will face fines or jail time, or both.

    Mendicino said authorities will move with “great rapidity” to erect more concrete barriers and press private tow truck companies into removing the big rigs that have clogged Ottawa’s streets.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/police-day-and-night-ottawa-occupation-1.6352700

  13. He suggested that police whittle away the number of protesters by turning up the heat in a non-violent fashion – by making life “uncomfortable” for those who currently seem to believe their actions are lawful. That could partly happen through warning parents, said Monaghan.

    “Police (should) very much communicate to people that … ‘Keeping your children in an illegal site where there’s been a dispersal order would have implications for children’s aid and your wardship over your children,’” said the Carleton professor. “‘Your kids are in a very dangerous spot and you’re putting them there.’”

    Velloso, though, said he worries that the children simply add to what appears increasingly like an immovable force filling the streets surrounding the Parliament buildings.

    In the last couple of days, vehicles have been repositioned so that rows of semi-trailers parked in parallel are essentially boxed in by trucks parked in front of them at right angles, he said.

    “If there are kids there, you have kind of a fortress of trucks with kids,” he said. “Good luck for a police intervention without bad results, even if things go smoothly.”

    https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/a-truck-fortress-with-kids-how-dozens-of-children-could-make-it-harder-to-end-ottawa-protest

  14. One of the things that makes this “protest” frustrating is that there is (as far as I can tell, not being there on the ground) essentially no negotiation happening with any level of government because the “protestors” have no coherent and achievable demands. There was something specific about vax requirements for cross-border truckers, which is literally a US policy that Canada has no leverage over. There are vague demands about relaxing public health restrictions – which are being made at the provincial, not federal, level and are already starting to relax as the omicron wave declines. And then there’s some crazy sovereign citizen level bullshit about petitioning the Governor General and the Senate to remove the government because that’s totally a thing that could happen in the right-wing cinematic universe. The occupation is just play-acting at sedition because unlike Jan 6, there is basically nothing they can do to undermine the government.

    So there’s no prospect of anything changing unless the occupation either gives up and leaves, or is forcibly removed. Even in the least sympathetic city, most left-wing protests usually have some kind of smaller objectives that the government could agree to as a de-escalation measure, even if it’s just promising to investigate something.

    https://www.metafilter.com/194412/Canadas-Protest-on-Wheels#8210478

  15. That the protesters enjoy bellowing the word “liberty” does not negate the fact that their demands are blatantly antidemocratic and anti-constitutional. What they really favor is “liberty” from democratic norms.
    Nor do the protesters represent a broad-based social movement. While many in their ranks are peaceable, the leadership includes extremists and white nationalists who have railed against immigrants, trafficked in misinformation and conspiracy theories, and brandished Confederate flags. According to a poll released Monday, 3 in 4 Canadians are fed up and want an end to the protest, which was launched in anger over a government move to broaden already tough pandemic measures. The most prominent Canadian politician to give the protesters wholehearted support is Maxime Bernier, leader of a far-right party.

    Fundamentally, the protesters are engaged in a resolute effort to play havoc with the strictures of civilized society because they are disgruntled with the actions of a fairly elected government. The government is right to proceed with caution to restore order.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/15/justin-trudeau-end-freedom-convoy-trucker-protest-risky-but-correct/

  16. But Hayden King, head of an Indigenous-led policy thinktank, points out that Indigenous protests are rarely treated with a similar level of deference.

    “When it comes to Indigenous demonstrations, there does seem to be a disproportionate amount of force used. It’s not uncommon to see reconnaissance, and snipers on rooftops,” said King, executive director of the Yellowhead Institute and a member of Beausoleil First Nation.

    The protesters in Ottawa, as well as Coutts and those who blockaded the Ambassador Bridge last week, are overwhelmingly white.

    In instances where police believe Indigenous protesters could be armed, King says the response is often “overwhelmingly disproportionate” and includes the presence of assault rifles and dogs. He points to the 1995 Ipperwash Crisis, where police fatally shot Dudley George during a violent confrontation with Indigenous protesters.

    While Ottawa’s erstwhile chief had taken the job with hopes of reforming police and emphasizing the importance of de-escalation, King worries that the opposite outcome is more likely once the protests are inevitably broken up.

    “I imagine that police will use … this example as the justification for more funding, more militarization. And once that happens, after the tractor convoy leaves Ottawa or Toronto or wherever it is, police will be left with these resources. And they’ll use them against Indigenous people and against homeless encampments and Black activists,” he said. “The consequence of all this will be increased militarization of police, which will translate to even more disproportionate uses of force against Indigenous people.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/16/ottawa-protests-police-face-pressure-over-response

  17. This was just one example of the incoherent protests now sweeping rich, English-speaking nations. Others include the truck blockade in Ottawa and its duplicates in Australia, New Zealand and the US, and the angry men outside the British parliament, waiting to pounce on passing politicians. By incoherent protest, I mean gatherings whose aims are simultaneously petty and grandiose. Their immediate objectives are small and often risible, attacking such minor inconveniences as face masks. The underlying aims are open-ended, massive and impossible to fulfil. Not just politically impossible, but mathematically impossible. Listening to these men (and most of them are men), it seems that every one of them wants to be king.

    The “sovereign citizen” theory is a powerful current running through these movements. Its adherents insist that they stand above the law. Some of them refuse to buy vehicle licences, or pay taxes or fines. They believe they are exempt from public health measures, such as lockdowns and vaccine passes.

    In other words, they arrogate to themselves sovereign powers that not even the monarch enjoys. They produce elaborate pseudo-legal documents to justify these claims. The “memorandum of understanding” published by two of the leading organisers of the Ottawa blockade, which makes impossible legal demands of the government, looks like a classic of the genre. It was supposedly signed by 320,000 people before the organisers withdrew it.

    What explains the appeal of this movement? Such claims of individual sovereignty arose in the 1970s with an antisemitic, racist agitation called Posse Comitatus. They appear to surge in hard times. Some people believe they can annul their debts or tax arrears by renouncing their citizenship. But I suspect it’s about more than money. The promise of capitalism is that one day we will all be alphas – just not yet. It is a formula for frustration and humiliation. The less equal the economic system becomes, the wider the gap between the promise and its fulfilment yawns. Humiliation, as Pankaj Mishra argued in his excellent book Age of Anger, is the motor of extremism. Noisy assertions of sovereignty look like an obvious attempt to overcome humiliation.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/16/solidarity-sovereign-citizen-protests-ottawa-truck-blockade

  18. “We’re going to take back the entirety of the downtown core and every occupied space,” Bell said. “We’re going to remove this unlawful protest. We’re going to return our city to a state of normalcy.”

    His language suggested that a police action to oust the protesters downtown was imminent, and he said some of the techniques police would likely use in such an action were “not what we are used to seeing in Ottawa, but we are prepared to use them in whatever means necessary to bring about the safest outcome and restore order.”

    https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/protesters-scoff-at-warnings-destroy-notices-from-ottawa-police

  19. I can see a couple of possible reasons for the diffidence of Canadian police forces in dealing with protests across the country. The first: They understand that violence, however provoked, will explode. Protesters will cast themselves as martyrs and further undercut governments.

    Therefore, the police react very gently to protesters’ stubbornness. Hot tubs and dance parties? Enjoy yourselves, kids! Even a violent assault on police, unless well-documented, might go unpunished.

    The drawback of this strategy is that it makes governments look weak and ineffective. Even a brilliantly negotiated non-violent resolution would look like a victory for the protesters, not the governments. The second explanation: the police are objectively on side with the protesters. As many have noted, such gentleness is rarely seen in police responses to Indigenous protests.

    https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/02/14/Can-Canada-Count-On-Police/

  21. Police in Ottawa have detained two leaders of the trucker convoy in the Canadian capital as they move to break up the last stronghold of the protests against the nation’s Covid rules.
    Tamara Lich was arrested on Thursday evening after Chris Barber was held, with both expected to be charged criminally, according to CBC News.
    Authorities have already cleared other protests located at border crossings.
    It comes days after Canada invoked an emergency law for the first time.
    However, officers were not yet moving in force on the remaining demonstrators on Thursday night – although interim Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell warned earlier that if “they do not peacefully leave, we have plans”.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60420470

  22. Truck driver Jacobo Peters says he plans to lock himself in the cab of his semi and lay on the horn whenever police move to clear downtown Ottawa of the protest organizers call the Freedom Convoy.

    Peters, 35, from Leamington, Ont., says he won’t fight arrest, but police will have to smash the cab window and pull him out to remove him from the line he’s pledged to hold during the protest that has gridlocked downtown Ottawa for more than three weeks.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/truckers-peace-arrest-1.6356147

  23. On Friday hundreds of police officers, backed by armoured tactical vehicles, began advancing on protesters who have blockaded the streets around Parliament Hill. The officers approached the main blockade from the east and south as protesters shouted “hold the line” and “freedom” and blasted their horns.

    Some police officers were heavily armed with machine guns and what appeared to be gas cannisters, others wore helmets and carried large batons. The police outnumbered protesters and stood face to face with demonstrators. Officers wore neon vests and ear muffs over their hats to protect their ears from the racket made by horns.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-police-set-to-begin-massive-operation-in-ottawa-to-remove-convoy/

  24. Police in high-visibility yellow jackets moved in large groups, several ranks deep, along Rideau blocking the road and slowly moving protesters toward the National War Memorial and Parliament Hill.

    Behind those ranks of officers were tactical teams wearing green camouflage-type gear and carrying heavy automatic weapons. Police horses with mounted officers also moved toward the line of protesters confronting police officers.

    Police were also moving a number of black light-armoured vehicles slowly behind the officers who were on foot.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/police-action-convoy-protest-1.6356444

  25. Questions that are pressing on me as I watch developments in Ottawa:

    1) What effect will this have on the leadership and ideology of Canadian conservative parties?

    2) What effect will this have on how anti-fossil fuel and Indigenous rights protests are policed going forward?

    3) How will this affect coalition building among political moderates pressing for action on climate change?

    4) How will this affect the rest of the pandemic, particularly if case and hospitalization counts rise again and acutely strain the health care system?

  26. Ottawa city councillor Carol Anne Meehan said, after waiting three weeks, it was “surreal” to watch law enforcement sweep protesters.

    Meehan, who just resigned from the Ottawa Police Services Board, said there were only 100 officers between the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police last weekend compared to the influx seen on Friday.

    “The former chief of police had to give everyone directions to try to keep the peace and keep people safe,” said Meehan.

    “Engaging protesters, arresting them, and doing some of the action we’re seeing today wasn’t possible in the last few weeks. We didn’t have the resources.”

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/police-action-convoy-protest-1.6356444

  27. Despite the uneasy atmosphere, police appeared to be “exercising a lot of restraint,” said Joao Velloso, a law professor at the University of Ottawa.

    “They are not moving in and throwing tear gas on everybody. They’re moving slowly, doing one at arrest at a time, giving [people] the opportunity to leave,” said Velloso.

    “This is not the general approach of anti-riot police. Definitely the presence of the press, the eyes of the world [on Ottawa], has an impact on that.”

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/protest-occupation-downtown-ottawa-arrests-look-back-1.6357358

  28. Authorities appeared to take a more aggressive stance against protesters Saturday morning. Police and politicians have often described the demonstrations as an unlawful “occupation.”

    Officers have used pepper spray and surrounded the National War Memorial after protesters set up there.

    The Canadian Press reports that officers moved toward protesters swinging batons at them, while the crowd pushed back shouting “shame” and “freedom.”

    Smoke has been seen at various points during the standoff. Police have accused protesters of launching gas and say one protester has been arrested as a result.

    “We told you to leave. We gave you time to leave. We were slow and methodical, yet you were assaultive and aggressive with officers and the horses,” the Ottawa Police Service said in a message Saturday morning to protesters.

    “Based on your behaviour, we are responding by including helmets and batons for our safety.”

    Ottawa police say officers arrested protesters wearing body armour and with smoke grenades on them, as well as fireworks. They say police seized additional smoke grenades and fireworks from a vehicle on Wellington Street, where Parliament is located.

    https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/police-arrest-another-47-freedom-convoy-protesters-parliamentary-precinct-in-hold-and-secure-1.5788319

  30. While some demonstrators have left the area of their own accord, interim police Chief Steve Bell said police will pursue charges.

    “If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up with financial sanctions and criminal charges,” he said.

    “This investigation will go on for months to come … we will hold people accountable for taking our streets over.”

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-convoy-protest-fourth-weekend-1.6358094

  32. OTTAWA—The federal government says the RCMP is working with financial institutions to “unfreeze” bank accounts locked by emergency orders that targeted people who organized, participated in, or donated to the so-called Freedom Convoy blockades.

    Isabelle Jacques, assistant deputy minister of finance, told a Commons standing committee Tuesday that the RCMP began “sharing information” — related to the end of “unlawful” blockades — with banks and financial institutions as of Monday that should lead to affected accounts being “unfrozen.”

    https://www.thestar.com/amp/politics/federal/2022/02/22/freeze-orders-on-protesters-bank-accounts-have-been-halted-ottawa-says.html

  35. One of the organizers of a planned motorcycle convoy is warning of a “free-for-all” on Friday if Ottawa police don’t allow hundreds of protesters to bring their bikes onto the streets around Parliament Hill.

    The “Rolling Thunder Ottawa” convoy plans to do a loop through downtown next weekend, with a stop planned at the National War Memorial.
    But after the “Freedom Convoy” protest blockaded city streets for three weeks earlier this year, police say they will not allow any vehicles in the area around Parliament Hill.

    https://globalnews.ca/news/8785832/convoy-organizer-warns-of-free-for-all-if-police-ban-protest-from-downtown-ottawa/amp/

  36. Ottawa’s interim police chief is telling the organizers and participants of the planned ‘Rolling Thunder’ event this weekend that they will be held accountable for their actions.
    Speaking to the Ottawa Police Services Board Monday, Steve Bell told organizers and participants of the event that they are responsible for their own actions and the consequences of those actions.
    “I want to be clear with both organizers and participants: you will be held accountable for your actions before, during, and after the events,” Bell said.
    About 500 to 1,000 motorcycles and other vehicles are expected to take part in the event starting on Friday. But unlike the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protest earlier this year, participants will have to attend on foot rather than driving downtown, as protesters won’t be allowed to drive into the downtown core.

    https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/interim-police-chief-to-rolling-thunder-convoy-you-will-be-held-accountable-1.5874476

  37. Rolling Thunder Ottawa’s website contains little information about the group, but one of its three listed “partners” is Live From The Shed, a Waterloo-based Youtube channel that purports to share “the stories of truckers, volunteers, streamers and other heroes from the Freedom Convoy to Ottawa and the wider Canadian Freedom Movement.”

    Another of the rally’s partners is Freedom Fighters Canada, whose stated goal is “the end of all government mandates; the end of all tyrannical bills and legislature.”

    The third is Veterans for Freedom, whose mission is “to rally Canadian Armed Forces veterans across Canada by mobilizing and sustaining lawful civic action in order to restore the fundamental rights and freedoms of Canadians.”

    https://calgaryherald.com/news/canada/convoy-organizer-warns-of-free-for-all-if-police-ban-protest-from-downtown-ottawa/wcm/53b720db-63bd-47e4-bc7b-cebd4fad47f8

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