[travis_brooks]

Given the Canadian government's over the top reaction to the trucker protesters earlier this year I'm not at all surprised to hear they behave like the oppressive Israelis when dealing with foreign travelers. Didn't used to be this way, even a few years ago.

[davidy123]

As a Canadian, who lives near one of the main sites, it was not over the top. The "truckers" (in reality, it was some truckers, and a lot of yahoos looking for a good time or attention) were tolerated for quite a while doing quite a few things that went well beyond any reasonable protest, were in fact blatently illegal, easily amounted to occupying key infrastructure that the vast majority of Canadians did not want them to occupy, creating many hazards with constant intended-only-for-emergency-use air horns, diesel fumes, and intimidation. They substantially shut down commerce and cross-border traffic for days and weeks. They even posted a manifesto demanding the government step down, with no basis in law or popular support.

Ironically, it was the mainstream media, the legends in their own minds streamers, and a few select looking-for-attention US channels that made it seem like they had a lot of popular support (through in-crowd shots, amplifying poorly substantiated claims, etc), where at best they have pockets of support.

Oh, and spend more than 30 seconds talking to them, and you'll see how quickly their ideas go to poorly researched conspiracy theories.

[mardifoufs]

No other western country has suspended its own constitutional rights over a protest that was non violent and led to 0 deaths. No matter how you spin it, and how much you dislike the protesters that still makes it an unprecedented move.

But it is amusing to see how some people here in canada are totally ok with that, and still manage to blame the US or whatever for pointing out that the federal government did exactly what it did. Demanding that the government steps down is legal, and is normal for a protest. We had it happen in quebec in 2012 during the student protests, but no one was calling that an overthrow attempt. And if the bar for basically stripping the citizenry of rights is "disruptive protests", then we don't have protest rights. Even the most reactionary right wingers in America weren't calling for suspending their constitution after the 2020 protests.

(And the discussion has nothing to do with popular support, no one was claiming they were supported by the majority. It's not even relevant, why would that matter when the problem was the insanely dangerous step of suspending charter rights. Trying to make it about something else is a red herring.)

[davidy123]

They used a very defined set of rules, which automatically includes a review (which is in progress). What the occupiers did was unsafe, harmful to a lot of people,and very strategic because they had a few ex military and police in their ranks. There was no reasonable way to remove them without causing greater disruption. There are a lot of unprecedented moves these days, deaths are not a good benchmark, clearing up disruptive idiots with white gloves is the least of my concerns.

[diego_moita]

The only problem with the government's reaction to the honkers was that it took too long.

Remember Sir John Diefenbaker's: freedom of speech is the right to say whatever you want, it is not the right to do whatever you want.

The moment those honkers started interfering with the tranquility, safety and professional activities of other people they were no longer doing free speech, they were doing vandalism and terrorism. BTW, it was terrorism supported by foreigners (in the US).

[philistine]

The convoy did things that were all previously seen in Canadian history. Occupying the street in front of Parliament Hill with vehicles, honking incessantly, being very antagonistic towards the local populace.

What was novel was the amount and time they spent doing those things. I had previously seen tractors occupy Wellington Street, and being generally very loud. For six hours. They afterwards left in orderly fashion, their point made. The convoy was delusional in the thinking that leaving after the protest was not part of the discourse.