- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3432241
Im curious how everyone here feels about the whole convoy thing and emergency act utilization.
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I think that it was absolutely unjustified. The only reason emergency powers were invoked was because business was affected by the bridge closure. The government didn’t see it fit to invoke emergency power during the pandemic to help people, but as soon as a bridge gets blocked that’s real shit. This also sets the precedent for is using emergency powers to break up labour strikes when they start affecting business.
I feel like the average opinion here in Canada is that it’s justified- but personally I think it was (within the laws of Canada) unjustified, and setting a lot of concerning precedents.
I can barely find anything about it other than these two articles now- but these two articles detailing the government doing the same to a leftist critic, since, had been particularly worrying that I remember them to this point still-
Personally, I think it’s part of a broader concerted effort- in Canada, but across the west, to crack down on dissent- it might be fun for a while to laugh as it happens to chuds, but then you realize the reality of what it entails- people being left with no means of buying food or paying their bills, being left effectively stateless if they’re stranded in other countries, being extrajudicially silenced, smeared, and cut off from their incomes in the context of platforms like Youtube- all by the blatant acts of the state and those directly, undeniably involved in running it- and of course, you both know and see that the same and worse, they’re doing and planning to do to the left as well as whoever falls foul of the present neoliberal bigot or faux-progressive demagogue of the hour.
As an ethnic Chinese-Canadian (family not from the mainland probably since the Qing, sadly) who sees the direction things are headed racially over here (though how far is beyond me), as a leftist, someone who’s trans, technically an immigrant (family came when I was 2), etc… this shit greatly concerns me. I fully sympathize with the truckers and a whole lot of others of varying degrees of mixed feelings, disagreements, or outright wrongness, in this aspect- they came for them, and when it comes to the left, and to ethnic, racial, LGBT minorities they’ll come for us 1000x worse, and we all know it’s in blatant mockery of the supposed “laws,” “checks and balances,” twisting and turning the truth inside and out till they have a way to strangle people with it or execute them by a court of manufactured public opinion and extrajudicial corporate stoogery alike.
I’m mostly, or outright completely fine with such things happening where the laws are clear on the matter- China, for instance. You know where to tread if nothing else, I’ve experienced it in Singapore for a time (and even stepped out of place greatly while mindful of the fact and had to sweat about that myself) and bristled at it then- but this is anything but comparable; this is unjustified by the books (ie. abuse of power and breaking of pre-established norms) and carried out through the most shameless smears, fearmongering, and distortions of reality, as well as backdoors dealing. And when that is possible, anything is possible. (Considering this is lemmygrad, presumably everyone already knows it was always already possible. But government actually taking the step to do it, in broad daylight no less, is another far more worrying matter)
I’ve been meaning to talk to my org about this. I still have scars from living in this.
While I’m skeptical that invoking the emergencies act was necessary, it was clear the city police were not going to do anything as they heavily sympathized with the demands. I also don’t have a ton of sympathy for the people who took part in the events as they were largely consisting of petty bourgeois small business owners.
Perhaps another comrade may be able to weigh in on this one for me.
I just did- but basically, as I see it, it was certainly unnecessary- at least, unnecessary by the books; and certainly in the way things were handled. Because, sure, it had to, or at least should have been handled- but how it was done is the concerning part. I didn’t have a lot of sympathy for the truckers at the time- and still don’t have the most sympathy for them- but then and now, it is clear that there was a very effective state-led smear campaign being waged against them, making them out to be infinitely worse and more of a nuisance than they really were- and the methods used against them also were extremely shady- and IMO if one doesn’t have sympathy for how they were treated, it’s important to remember that we- the left and those with any sense of basic human decency- are right up alongside them in the state’s hitlist, and of a much higher priority.
I went further into the details of my opinions and whatnot in my other comment in this thread- but when you take a step back to consider the undeniable events as they occurred, rather than as spun out for public consumption- and when you consider what precedents were set- it gets deeply concerning, real fast.
Fair enough yeah, I’m very focused on what happened in Ottawa specifically but I’ve kind of shut this out of my memory as a coping mechanism.
I think it’s time to analyze it again through a new lens. Can’t go into details though, trying to stay anonymous!
No worries- and personally, my initial reaction had been lukewarm support (because I disliked the truckers and their cause or various causes, and I also dislike the government). But increasingly seeing the precedents being used against those I actually identified with or supported, and realizing the details of how the whole handling of the matter was carried out- with incredibly shady (and incorrect) interpretations of the law and state mandate (ie. why the invocation was ruled unjustified), the backdoors dealing with the banks to freeze assets, not of some corporations or even “petty bourgeois” as you call it (some dumbfucks, maybe, but primarily “labor buorgeoisie” if we want to call them bourgeois), but basically the nigh extrajudicial way the means of life in capitalist society was cut off of ordinary people (with questionable takes, but still- certainly nothing justified within law)- and seeing how it has been used since, deeply concerned me.
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They were protesting against vaccination and mandatory vaccination of truckers.
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Half the sponsors of the convoy were from the US.
So I’m obviously against the convoy itself, but Trudeau needs to take an L on this. Otherwise it’ll set a bad precedent.
Basically both sides bad.
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