Intent vs. Impact: Debunking the Convoy’s Rhetoric

This is CanadaDismantling White Supremacy

Feb. 8

"We have a right to protest"

Yes, and in the words of @Savannahmina "If you had come to Ottawa and protested peacefully, you might have had my support," but that isn't what happened, is it?

Yes, everyone has the right to protest, and protesting is an important part of a democracy. But the 'Freedom' Convoy has NOT been a peaceful protest - what we have consistently seen are exercises of harmful, racist, violent, white supremacists behaviours.

And yet, instead of addressing or condemning these behaviours, what we've also consistently seen (on social media, in our DMs) are attempts to minimize, tokenize or discount the harm that was done and the feelings & experiences of those harmed.

So let's take a minute to look at some common arguments used to minimize the violence of these protests and understand why these arguments don't hold up.

"It started from a good place"

It may not have been overtly clear to everyone who originally joined the freedom convoy that it was rooted in racism and white supremacy. But it did become apparent when it was revealed that many of the Convoy leaders are known white supremacists.

Organizers and leaders like Tamara Lich, Pat King, Romana Didulo, James Bauder, Dave Steenburg, Jason LaFace all have a history of expressing violent, neo-nazi, white supremacist, anti-immigration, antivaxx views, and many have ties to the Maverick Party (white nationalist, Western Canada separatist federal political party), and the Peoples Party of Canada (blatantly racist and islamophobic).

It comes down to this: You walk into a house party that you are really pumped about, but when you start looking around, you realize the house had a bunch of Nazi symbols and pictures of Hitler hanging proudly. Do you stay at the party? Or would you GTFO?

"A few bad apples"

First of all, we find it wildly fascinating that a few bad apples is always the go-to excuse when white people do something wrong? That being said, if you must know, the full saying is "a few bad apples spoil the bunch," which is actually perfectly applicable here.

When we use the phrase 'a few bad apples,' we decide to discount the impacts of what has happened to instead focus on the intentions of a select few. Regardless of intent, those involved have become complicit in the widespread inciting of white supremacy and violence to the people living in Ottawa and marginalized communities across Canada. That is the problem we need to be addressing.

When we talk about a few bad apples, we also minimize the fact that Canada is rooted in white supremacy—this is a systemic problem. Want proof? A group of white protesters can wave Nazi symbols and cause a 'state of emergency' in Ottawa with no police intervention, while at Fairy Creek peaceful protesters were met with intense police violence.

"Okay but there are POC there"

Our pal @Savannahmina captures the BS rhetoric in a post on her grid":

Do you know what tokenism is? Google it. Saying that people of colour support this protest or that you have Indigenous support is the same thing as saying, "Well I have Black friends, I can't be racist."

You are choosing to see the small minority of a minority group who approve of what you are doing. Congratulations, 1% of minority groups support you! You must be really proud.

But seriously, Google tokenism.

Further, we don't have the space to jump into this here, but while you're Googling things, we invite you to check out what internalized racism is.

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"But our freedoms are being violated!!"

Personally, we're for the vaccine mandates, but that being said, we respect that people are frustrated. We understand that this pandemic has been a hot mess express, and our leaders have often taken half-assed and reactive policymaking that hasn't done enough to protect us.

Where we differ is that we know that inconvenience is not oppression.

Let it be made very clear that no one is being forcefully injected with the vaccine, nor is anyone being unlawfully laid off for not getting vaccinated. Cross-border truckers can continue driving those open roads—just only those roads in Canada if they choose not to get fully vaccinated.

P.S The reason why you can't cross the border right now is that the US policy is that you must be vaccinated to cross the border. So even if this protest was successful in Canada, it wouldn't change anyone's ability to cross the border.

This isn't a violation of your freedoms. It would be if the government demanded you get vaccinated or you'll be detained. This is an inconvenience.

Oppression is prolonged cruel, or unjust treatment or control. The mandates are

a) justified by science and

b) meant to protect us as a collective society.

If you don't agree with the mandates you are not being oppressed, you just aren't thinking about anyone beyond yourself.

After you're done googling Tokenism and Internalized Racism, try the following:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Wherefore art thou leaders?

We want to take a second to shout out a Canadian hero, 21-year-old Ottawa resident Zexi Li, for filing an injunction against the convoy for 11 days of blaring their horns nonstop.

To be clear, it wasn't the Ottawa mayor or police department that filed the complaint, but rather a private citizen.

It's incredibly frustrating that the provincial and federal governments have been playing some weird game of political jurisdiction hot potato. So much so that the mayor of Ottawa has asked for a state of emergency to access more resources.

The alt-right movement (which, to be clear, is different from right-wing politics) is spreading across Canada, so can we skip this round of political hot potato? It's 2022 and our issues are complex; there should be more ways to support and protect Canadians and less red tape.