Canadian Elites Created The Ottawa Crisis, And They Have No Idea How To End ItThere are no clear off-ramps for the protesters, and no one in a position of authority seems to know how to deescalate the situation.
By John Daniel Davidson
February 08, 2022
Corporate media outlets like The Atlantic and The New York Times have been telling us for years now how Hungary and Poland are incubators of authoritarianism that represent an existential threat to democracy. But it turns out we should have been worried about Canada and Australia, of all places.
If you had told me 18 months ago that Australia, a democratic country that once seemed to exude rugged individualism, would devolve into a Covid police state that imprisons its citizens in quarantine camps and deploys riot police to crush lockdown protests with brute force, I wouldn’t have believed you. But here we are.
Now comes Canada, where the “Freedom Convoy” of truckers that arrived in Ottawa more than a week ago to protest Covid vaccine mandates has effectively shut down Canada’s capital. The mayor declared a state of emergency on Monday after the city’s law enforcement authorities talked openly about calling in the military over the weekend.
Foremost among these has been Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly, who has ominously called the protests “highly organized, well-funded, extremely committed to resisting all attempts to end the demonstrations safely,” and rather recklessly said there “may not be a policing solution” to the crisis. Meanwhile, the police appear to be making the situation worse. Faced with hundreds of heavy-duty trucks and tractors downtown, authorities in Ottawa are now seizing gasoline, food, and other supplies from protesters, although it’s unclear they have any legal authority to do so.
* * *
How did this happen? The idea that the Canadian capital would become the site of such a standoff in 2022 seems frankly unbelievable. But the chaos now unfolding in Ottawa can be traced directly to the harsh treatment of unvaccinated Canadians by their government over the past six months or so.
* * *
Source:
https://thefederalist.com/2022/02/08/canadian-elites-created-the-ottawa-crisis-and-they-have-no-idea-how-to-end-it/
