“This city is under siege!”
“This is a threat to our democracy!”
“There’s a nationwide insurrection!”
“This is madness!”
This is not a recording from January 6th and, no, it’s not happening here in these United States. Look north. Those are the words of Ottawa’s Police Chief Peter Sloly.
Sloly was addressing what The Washington Post reports are “big rigs and other vehicles — emblazoned with signs blasting [Canadian Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau in obscene language and reading ‘Mandate Freedom,’” adding that an estimated “5,000 people and at least a thousand tractor-trailers and other vehicles clogged the streets of Ottawa over the weekend.”
“The situation at this point is completely out of control,” Ottawa’s mayor told a radio audience, “because the individuals with the protest are calling the shots.”
“It’s not a protest anymore,” argues Ontario Premier Doug Ford. “It’s become an occupation.”
Meanwhile, this anti-vax-mandate effort spurred by these truckers is spreading across the country, including “the blockade of an important U.S.-Canada border crossing” in Alberta.
I can certainly see how these government officials might feel they are under siege, with an occupying force impinging on their freedom to act as they wish. Not a good feeling at all.
But isn’t that the same feeling these truckers and others are experiencing? Aren’t they being occupied by a government that demands a measure of control over their bodies? Their very livelihoods? That is willing to block their ability to earn a living to gain that control?
Public officials might ask themselves how come so many people are so upset that it looks like an “insurrection.”*
And then consider their position as public servants, that they may be in the wrong. Not the protesters.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* The Post story mentioned only four arrests made so far in Ottawa, none for insurrection.
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