Trucker Protests the Tipping Point of Frustration With Two Years of Botched Pandemic Responses

Protesters take part in the Freedom Convoy demonstration against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions in Ottawa on Feb. 9, 2022. (Jonathan Ren/The Epoch Times)

Commentary

With the ongoing trucker protests that have rocked Ottawa and several other Canadian cities and jurisdictions, it is reasonable to say that we’ve reached the peak of the politicization of this pandemic.

Something like this was bound to happen.

The support the protest has garnered is clearly a product of frustrations that have reached a tipping point after two years of botched pandemic responses. The two main ingredients of it are manifestly the collapse in trust in institutions and the astonishing lack of self-awareness of our politicians that continues to fuel it.

It has also quickly become a culture war battle in which, yet again, the casualty is any worthwhile debate on COVID mandates and how we should work toward ending them.

On Feb. 7, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh requested an emergency debate in Parliament to discuss the matter of the mutinous truckers and what to do about it. This was sorely needed, but the prime minister’s performance again showed why such a protest has occurred and why those involved are so unrelenting.

Conceding that Canadians are indeed “tired” of the pandemic, he then went on to accuse the protesters of undermining democracy and reiterate the point that they are akin to a band of racist Nazi sympathizers. “This is a story of a country that got through this pandemic and a few people shouting and waving swastikas does not define who Canadians are,” he said.

Trudeau commended members of the opposition who called for an end to the blockades, saying it was “time to put national interests ahead of partisan interests.” This is true, but such a statement rings hollow coming from an elected official who has subjected much of the discourse on COVID to his own political interests.

Trudeau has been one of the most aggressive when it comes to pitting Canadians against each other, with his comments frequently suggesting that anyone who criticizes COVID restrictions is in line with racists and conspiracy theorists. It is also difficult to take much of what he said about critics of COVID mandates seriously when he decided the public health emergency could be put on hold when it was politically convenient to support and participate in a Black Lives Matter protest in the summer of 2020. In many U.S. cities, these protests brewed a wave of vandalism and violence and occurred before there was ever a vaccine.

Constant flip-flopping throughout  the pandemic by federal and provincial political leaders and health authorities was bound to either reinforce those already skeptical of restrictions or make skeptics out of those who were once fully on board with them. The same effect has been seen as a result of claims by Trudeau and others to the effect that those critical of mandates were somehow less Canadian and perhaps should not be tolerated.

What continues to escape the gaze of these politicians is that, despite the widespread objection to the tactics used by some protesters and the few extremists in their ranks, a large swathe of Canadians at least sympathize with the frustration of many of those participating in the convoy.

A poll conducted by Leger released this month concludes that around 44 percent surveyed expressed that they understood the frustration of the protesters. Another 44 percent said they agreed that the prime minister and premiers share a fair amount of the blame for the predicament we are in.

This is compounded by other polls that suggest a general decline of trust in governments among Canadians. A recent trust index done by Proof Strategies indicates a significant drop in trust among Canadians since the pandemic hit, with only 34 percent saying they trust politicians, business figures, or those in media. This is down from 38 percent reported in the first year of the pandemic.

If Canada’s politics are to resemble anything close to sane as we enter the post-COVID period, those in elite positions need to develop a sense of self-awareness and ruminate on how their own conduct may have contributed to a loss of trust and respect that has led to what we’ve been witnessing in the Freedom Convoy protests.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.