I think that we need to state our demands clearly whenever we embark on a protest. The strategy of the government and their allies in the media has been to dismiss real protests by claiming that there is no one to negotiate with and no coherent grievance that people have been able to articulate.
I saw some reports on CBC and some other MSM channels. There were truckers in Winnipeg whose spokespeople said on camera that their objective was to sit down with the Prime Minister Trudeau. That’s not much of a demand. In fact, I can’t think of anything more nauseating and pointless than a meeting with anybody from government, let alone Trudeau. Then, I saw a piece where a CBC reporter in Vancouver produced some segment purportedly trying to understand what these protesters in Canada want. I don’t know what kind of editing was done, but the CBC hack seemed to get exactly the footage she was looking for when the nice man rambled on about the fall in the standard of living. So, it seemed that the Freedom Convoy and Ottawa Rally were really a consequence of economic hardships resulting from COVID-19, an act of God that the government was forced to manage.
Also, when the Freedom Convoy arrived and set up camp on Parliament Hill, it wasn’t clear what they wanted. So, the government and media were able to pick different messages out of the crowd and claim that it wasn’t coherent. Some people said they wanted to talk with the prime minister. Others referred to the memorandum of understanding that some claimed represented the will of the truckers. It had a few good points, but unfortunately went badly off the rails and allowed those who had no interest in even acknowledging the truckers and protesters to dismiss us all.
So, here are my demands. They are non-negotiable. (Please don’t make me sit with Prime Minister Trudeau; that’s not a demand, just a preference.) There are three.
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Demand Number One
An immediate end to all unlawful mandates and measures throughout Canada, including masks mandates, vaccine mandates, social-distancing mandates, vaccine passports, limitations on the size of gatherings. All of these mandates are unconstitutional limitations on our rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Charter, the supreme law of Canada.
Demand Number Two
A return to constitutional order and responsible government. (I understand that there are currently police checkpoints in Ottawa, for instance.)
Demand Number Three
The establishment of a royal commission to inquire into all aspects of the COVID-19 crisis in Canada. I suggest that Premier Brian Peckford be named as commissioner.
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I think that most of us would agree that those demands would address our grievances. None of them could be dismissed as unclear. There is no way that the government and their co-conspirators in media and academia could claim that we are trying to overthrow the government. No, the demands make it clear that we are accusing the government of unlawfulness and we want to live within the rule of law, as guaranteed in the preamble to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In any case, my point is that every protest should be clear. What goals do all the diverse people who assemble for any protest have in common? If that isn’t clearly stated, you wind up with individual protesters espousing their own idiopathic goals (whether reasonable or silly) that the media and government claim represent the whole or prove that there is no coherent demand. Make it clear what the demands of the protests are and then leave every protester free to express themselves as the Charter allows.