WSJ Trudeau’s disastrous abuse of power
FWIW, I support vaccination, but not mandates. The Canadian Truckers protest is more about the mandates than the vaccine. Many of the protestors were vaccinated.
They had every right to protest, and to refuse to cross the border if they had to be vaccinated to come back, but they did not have the right to block roads and bridges.
So, it was a bad situation, but Trudeau proved that there is hardly anything bad that leftist governments can’t make worse.
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The cost of the blockade was, and still will be, huge. And borne by large and small businesses alike.
https://fortune.com/2022/02/14/freedom-convoy-protest-cost-us-canada/
No matter how well or poorly a government responds to such civil unrest, it will be wrong.
Our own responses to last years protests are marked with over reaction, under reaction, not tough enough, too tough,
I suppose the alternatives as witnessed in autocracies that kill hundreds, use live fire, implement mass arrests, torture arrestees are much worse. Particularly since often those nations can’t put an end to protests either.
But one thing is certain: opposition parties are generally not helpful in restoring peace either. Just gleeful and thankful they were not in power.
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Or, you could realize that if people are willing to give up their livelihoods for a principle, you could sit down with them and respectfully hear their position and come to a compromise.
There is no medical evidence that, now that Omicron is dominant, the Canadian restrictions were justified as a public health measure.
But Trudeau expects blind obedience.
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Now honestly, how often in the history of urban protests has that ever been the first response by any government.
Yes, what you said makes sense. (What would be a compromise in this scenario?)
I don’t think this was a true truckers strike. There were many non-truckers involved. Financing support came from US in some cases. We even had some of our own Congressmen encouraging US truckers to blockade commerce here too.
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BTW, the auto industry alone estimates $988 million in losses due to the protests. In 2 weeks.
Never mind the costs to innumerable small businesses.
At the highest estimate, Floyd protests might have cost $2 billion over a summer and spread over the nation.
Depends on the old ox and gore scenario. Or one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.
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As I wrote originally, blocking the roads and bridges was over the line.
But at the same time, so was requiring a trucker who crossed the border to be vaccinated to come back.
Canada’s mandates, like ours, were wrong.
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Do you agree that the US legislators and commentators that wanted truckers here to block commerce also are in the wrong?
Cutting back on supply chains at this time would be bad for our economic health and the ongoing recovery. Unless that was the point.
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Again, not the point.
Trudeau would not even talk to them, and there was no medical evidence that his decrees were useful.
Sure, the protest was expensive, and hurt innocents. Pretty much all job actions are. Even had they not blocked the roads, with no trucks moving the commerce would have been hurt. But that’s the point of a strike, to apply econiomic pressure.
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Not blocking roads could still have allowed commerce.
My point is that we have a double standard as to what expensive, even ruinous, protests are acceptable and which are not.
We have states and cities that passed laws which tacitly allowed drivers who might hit protesters blocking traffic to get a pass. And that was for a few hours of inconvenience as opposed to weeks of supply chain obstruction.
Both protests are about principle but one is the pride of the right and the other is about thugs.
Maybe Trudeau could have done a better job, but I feel he could not have done the “right” thing no matter what he did.
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Doing a little background reading I was surprised to learn that the truckers had planned to submit a memorandum of understanding to the Senate and to the Governor General (queen’s representative) of Canada:
Click to access Combined-MOU-Dec03.pdf
The MOU defined the controversy as a human rights issue. It called for the cessation of all vaccine mandates, reemployment of all employees terminated due to vaccination status, and the rescinding of all fines imposed for non-compliance with public health orders. Among the references the MOU cited were The Nuremberg Code and the World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki-Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. Canadian officials, however, dismissed the MOU and — after collecting 320,089 signatures — the protest organizers withdrew it.
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