Let's talk about the "Freedom" Convoy
Ottawa Occupation
It's been about a year since Trudeau used the Emergency Act to finally disperse the three-week-long Ottawa Occupation that terrorized the people of Ottawa. And while today, the streets of Ottawa may be cleared, alt-right extremism, hate, and violence continue to spread covertly throughout Canada - and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
Last week it was announced that Trudeau's use of the Emergency Act met the threshold required to invoke it.
As a reminder, the convoy ended after weeks of the people of Ottawa being failed by their local police, their mayor, and their premier Doug Ford - who all played jurisdiction hot potato to avoid offending the predominantly white occupation.
Leaders like Pierre Poilievre, and 50 other conservative MPs, encouraged the convoy to continue to take the city hostage - which is important to note because if history is any indication, he will likely be our next Prime Minister.
Divide and Conquer
A quick refresher: The 'Freedom' Convoy was an occupation led by known white supremacists who used far-right tactics to lure everyday people to their cause. There were known hate symbols on display, and that is never acceptable. Those involved became complicit in the widespread inciting of white supremacy and violence to the people in Ottawa and systemically neglected communities across Canada.
The reality is that this predominantly white people-filled occupation was fuelled partly by far-right tactics of division and hate and also by the fact that because white people are accustomed to a certain level of privilege, inconvenience can feel like oppression - when it isn't.
It's worth noting that the spread of division and hate amongst the people is a tried and true oppression technique mastered by colonizers.
For example, In British-occupied India, communities across religions came together to attempt to overthrow their oppressor, but when the British beat them, they manufactured religious divides that still exist to this day. After this, the focus became on fighting each other rather than the oppressor.
Oh Canada, our home on stolen land.
So now what? How do we heal from this?
First, Canada has never been peaceful, and the divisions Canada needs to heal from predate the convoy — they stem from when Europeans first colonized Canada, committing acts of violence and genocide to do so. They stem from the violent and inhumane slave trade Canada participated in that built white fortunes (both individually and for our country).
You cannot separate racism and healing our country, because they are not two separate problems; they are deeply intertwined. Just focusing on the division of the white supremacist-led convoy will not holistically and sustainably address the divisions in this country.
Anyone who has been to therapy will tell you that you can’t half-ass healing. It’s hard work, but anything short of purposeful and systemic healing will only be temporary. We have to start from where we were first hurt, not where people most recently felt pain. This is why we cannot talk about healing Canada and racism/white supremacy as two different issues because they are one and the same.
#DecolonizeEducation
We deeply believe that a large part of the reason why we're experiencing such division right now is the result of an incomplete education.
Why? Education of the masses can be a political tool. Provinces are responsible for creating curriculums to teach young people in Canada. These institutions shape the minds of the future by giving them the tools (reading, writing and arithmetic, etc.) to go out into the world and keep the same systems—and current colonial powers—in place.
Before the digital era, and the increase in communication, what your education system taught you is what you thought were straight facts. The ability for Black, Indigenous, POC and queer folk to go directly onto social media to share lived experiences and untold history is a large part of why we're hearing about so much of the stuff they tried to keep out of our classrooms.
How do we evolve our education systems to address rising radicalization and hate? We must decolonize our education system so that it talks honestly about the Canadian experience and what actual oppression looks like (by decentering whiteness and white fragility in our curriculums).
Eliminate neutrality around human rights in the media
Another way to begin healing our nation is to have our media unsubscribe from the concept of neutrality around human rights violations and white supremacy. On Canada Project did this shortly after we started in 2020. We need a press and media dedicated to speaking the truth when covering, addressing, and condoning symbols and acts of hate in Canada.
Canada's legacy media (that, as a reminder, are controlled by a few major corporations) need to remember that #WhiteSilenceIsViolence, and that they need to lead in moments like this by speaking truth to power, instead of waiting to see what public responses will be. You cannot be neutral around the ideals upheld by the far-right; you either agree or disagree.
As Desmond Tutu said, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
Legacy media, we all have our super powers - leverage ours by hiring the consulting arm of On Canada Project to help decenter whiteness from your reporting! Team work makes the dream work :)
A Better Canadian Social Safety Net
The pandemic increased awareness around the shortcomings of Canada's out-of-date, behind the times social safety net. We're talking about a system that better sets low-income and middle-class Canadians up for success by providing easy-to-access or free resources like, but not limited to:
Pharmacare
Guaranteed Livable Income
Universal Child Care
Comprehensive Long-term care
Mental Health support and services
Strategies for those who are unemployed, including income support programs
Support systems for gig and contract workers
You cannot half-ass social safety nets in a country. We need comprehensive and robust plans to meet the basic needs of all Canadians, with a heightened focus on Indigenous, Black, low-income folk, people of colour, and other marginalized communities.
The Convoy was a symptom of a larger Canadian and world problem - the far right.
Whenever we discuss the convoy, people are quick to inform us that we have it all wrong - that the convoy participants were fighting for "our rights" and fighting against "oppression."
And to be clear, the people aligning with this aren't all trolls or even people who believe in white supremacy, etc. Many of them are super value aligned with us until we discuss the convoy - demonstrating the lengths organizers in the far-right movement went to to get people's allegiances.
What increasingly feels like it is being ignored is that the "freedom" convoy was a symptom of the more significant far-right movement that predates the pandemic and continues in Canada today.
So why aren't we or our so-called progressive leaders - in politics, nonprofits, organizations, government services etc? - doing anything about this?
Are we really brushing this whole thing under the rug?
Divide and Conquer
A quick refresher: The 'Freedom' Convoy was an occupation led by known white supremacists who used far-right tactics to lure everyday people to their cause. There were known hate symbols on display, and that is never acceptable. Those involved became complicit in the widespread inciting of white supremacy and violence to the people in Ottawa and systemically neglected communities across Canada.
The reality is that this predominantly white people-filled occupation was fuelled partly by far-right tactics of division and hate and also by the fact that because white people are accustomed to a certain level of privilege, inconvenience can feel like oppression - when it isn't.
It's worth noting that the spread of division and hate amongst the people is a tried and true oppression technique mastered by colonizers.
For example, In British-occupied India, communities across religions came together to attempt to overthrow their oppressor, but when the British beat them, they manufactured religious divides that still exist to this day. After this, the focus became on fighting each other rather than the oppressor.
Oh Canada, our home on stolen land.
So now what? How do we heal from this?
First, Canada has never been peaceful, and the divisions Canada needs to heal from predate the convoy — they stem from when Europeans first colonized Canada, committing acts of violence and genocide to do so. They stem from the violent and inhumane slave trade Canada participated in that built white fortunes (both individually and for our country).
You cannot separate racism and healing our country, because they are not two separate problems; they are deeply intertwined. Just focusing on the division of the white supremacist-led convoy will not holistically and sustainably address the divisions in this country.
Anyone who has been to therapy will tell you that you can’t half-ass healing. It’s hard work, but anything short of purposeful and systemic healing will only be temporary. We have to start from where we were first hurt, not where people most recently felt pain. This is why we cannot talk about healing Canada and racism/white supremacy as two different issues because they are one and the same.
#DecolonizeEducation
We deeply believe that a large part of the reason why we're experiencing such division right now is the result of an incomplete education.
Why? Education of the masses can be a political tool. Provinces are responsible for creating curriculums to teach young people in Canada. These institutions shape the minds of the future by giving them the tools (reading, writing and arithmetic, etc.) to go out into the world and keep the same systems—and current colonial powers—in place.
Before the digital era, and the increase in communication, what your education system taught you is what you thought were straight facts. The ability for Black, Indigenous, POC and queer folk to go directly onto social media to share lived experiences and untold history is a large part of why we're hearing about so much of the stuff they tried to keep out of our classrooms.
How do we evolve our education systems to address rising radicalization and hate? We must decolonize our education system so that it talks honestly about the Canadian experience and what actual oppression looks like (by decentering whiteness and white fragility in our curriculums).
Eliminate neutrality around human rights in the media
Another way to begin healing our nation is to have our media unsubscribe from the concept of neutrality around human rights violations and white supremacy. On Canada Project did this shortly after we started in 2020. We need a press and media dedicated to speaking the truth when covering, addressing, and condoning symbols and acts of hate in Canada.
Canada's legacy media (that, as a reminder, are controlled by a few major corporations) need to remember that #WhiteSilenceIsViolence, and that they need to lead in moments like this by speaking truth to power, instead of waiting to see what public responses will be. You cannot be neutral around the ideals upheld by the far-right; you either agree or disagree.
As Desmond Tutu said, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."
Legacy media, we all have our super powers - leverage ours by hiring the consulting arm of On Canada Project to help decenter whiteness from your reporting! Team work makes the dream work :)
A Better Canadian Social Safety Net
The pandemic increased awareness around the shortcomings of Canada's out-of-date, behind the times social safety net. We're talking about a system that better sets low-income and middle-class Canadians up for success by providing easy-to-access or free resources like, but not limited to:
Pharmacare
Guaranteed Livable Income
Universal Child Care
Comprehensive Long-term care
Mental Health support and services
Strategies for those who are unemployed, including income support programs
Support systems for gig and contract workers
You cannot half-ass social safety nets in a country. We need comprehensive and robust plans to meet the basic needs of all Canadians, with a heightened focus on Indigenous, Black, low-income folk, people of colour, and other marginalized communities.
The Convoy was a symptom of a larger Canadian and world problem - the far right.
Whenever we discuss the convoy, people are quick to inform us that we have it all wrong - that the convoy participants were fighting for "our rights" and fighting against "oppression."
And to be clear, the people aligning with this aren't all trolls or even people who believe in white supremacy, etc. Many of them are super value aligned with us until we discuss the convoy - demonstrating the lengths organizers in the far-right movement went to to get people's allegiances.
What increasingly feels like it is being ignored is that the "freedom" convoy was a symptom of the more significant far-right movement that predates the pandemic and continues in Canada today.
So why aren't we or our so-called progressive leaders - in politics, nonprofits, organizations, government services etc? - doing anything about this?
Are we really brushing this whole thing under the rug?
