A Review Of The Truckers Protest In Canada: For Whom The Horns Honk

For Whom the Horns Honk

Giles Hoffmann

Will freedom survive the death of Canada’s Freedom Convoy?

The trucker’s convoy was crushed as soon as the police were unleashed. It took law enforcement only two days to remove every protestor and vehicle from Parliament Hill. They used simple riot control techniques. Friendly and fraternizing police were replaced with tactical units, who had more protective equipment and better weapons, and unencumbered by body cameras and badge numbers. The suspension of usual protocols was likely planned to avoid accountability, since a future investigation would have been considered, especially due to the controversial invocation of the Emergency Act.

The crowds remained dignified while getting thrashed. Their resolution was powerful to observe, and useless against an opponent with training and the instruments of force. For the naive protestors who believed that their good intentions were sufficient to stay firmly planted in Ottawa, they got a lesson in the rules of power. In the zero-sum nature of conflict, impersonal violence beats unarmed conviction – and because the demonstrators maintained their pacifism, their chants to “Hold the line!” sounded like movie dialogue. 

Two crowdfunding platforms were sanctioned, withholding millions of dollars, under the terrorist financing rules. Canada’s financial intelligence agency FinTRAC was given new permanent powers in monitoring online donations. The personal bank accounts of organizers and donors were frozen; some are still unable to access their funds. A class action lawsuit was filed seeking CAD $306 million in damages. The Ottawa Police, with the help of a crisis management firm called Navigator Limited, began issuing menacing statements over their Twitter page, citing their ability to use cellphone location services, drone surveillance, and facial recognition software to identify protestors for “months to come” with the guarantee of criminal and financial charges. Parents were warned about the imminent removal of their children by child protection services.

As I noted previously, the regime faced three choices: negotiate, do nothing while handwringing, or forcibly remove the truckers. Our elected representatives never entered good-faith conversations. They stalled and head-scratched for almost three weeks, using that time to establish a political narrative upon which legal justification could be assumed. The regime’s supporters grew fervid as the convoy continued, while detractors exposed the government’s sanctimony and duplicity towards democratic protest.

But the convoy and its supporters never intended to fight, and many left when the tactical units were bussed in. Those who remained defiant were admirable in mind, but only became the police forces’ punching bag. Such physical brutality is viscerally appalling, but pales in effect compared to what will come: the dragging of demonstrators into legal quagmires. The relentless pursuit by prosecuting lawyers, over years, will make the process the punishment.

The streets of Canada’s capital are now clear, but the hostility between the regime and its people is growing rapidly, metastasizing, and will soon manifest into other conflicts. The next time Canadians challenge the state, however, they cannot do so as part of a disorganized grass-roots movement. They will have the use the lessons learned from this confrontation to prepare for the next

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