Interim Conservative Chief Candice Bergen finishes her remarks throughout an emergency debate within the Home of Commons on the state of affairs in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Previous to changing into interim chief of the Conservative Social gathering of Canada, MP Candice Bergen was among the many extra vocal members of caucus to push former chief Erin O’Toole into an specific embrace of the so-called freedom convoy that’s now occupying Ottawa.
CTV quoted Bergen echoing, virtually verbatim, former U.S. president Donald Trump’s description of the 2017 Unite the Proper Rally in Charlottesville, Va., which ended violently, as having “good folks on either side.”
The issue is that in each circumstances, that is unfaithful. There aren’t two sides or shades of gray when a protest is related to symbols of white supremacy, the desecration of nationwide monuments, the staging of a mock Indigenous drum circle and accounts of verbal intimidation and abuse of normal residents.
There are additionally no shades of gray when one facet embraces public well being to guard probably the most weak and the opposite facet, by way of their very own actions, endangers public well being by flouting public well being laws and spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.
Far-right authoritarian populism of the sort related to occasions like Charlottesville and the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol has admirers in Canada. Plainly. Among the truckers fly Trump flags and Bergen has been photographed sporting a MAGA hat. Canada isn’t precisely America’s average little cousin to the north.
Occasions just like the so-called freedom convoy don’t simply hurt communities and people, they do critical harm to the physique politic. We’re all injured by the unfold of misinformation about public well being issues like COVID-19 or points like catastrophic local weather change brought on by carbon consumption. However we’re additionally injured by false and damaging narratives in regards to the Structure and the rule of legislation.
‘Missing in advantage’
As a professor of jurisprudence and the rule of legislation, I predict violations alleged by the liberty convoy protesters might be discovered deeply missing in advantage as soon as the mud has settled and the assorted Constitution claims have wound their method by way of the courts.
Even pretty restrictive COVID-19 well being protocols are unlikely to breach somebody’s Constitution rights in a method that entitles them to a court-ordered treatment. That’s as a result of all particular person rights and liberties within the Constitution are topic to a proportionate balancing in opposition to the broader public good — none extra apparent than scientific and data-driven assessments of dangers posed by a virus that’s killed virtually six million folks worldwide, together with greater than 34,000 Canadians, in two years.
In reality, the very first provision within the Structure of Canada is Sec. 1 of the Constitution explicitly stating:
“The Canadian Constitution of Rights and Freedoms ensures the rights and freedoms set out in it topic solely to such affordable limits prescribed by legislation as could be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”
Constitution challenges to pandemic-related public well being protocols enacted by each the federal and provincial governments are slowly being determined. They present little or no promise for these asserting Constitution rights violations attributable to COVID-19 well being protocols. Usually, Sec. 1 will cease any declare in its tracks.
So whereas Canada’s Structure is not going to allow the RCMP to smash down the door of vaccine holdouts and violate their bodily integrity by forcing them to get the jab, it permits the weighing of particular person rights to freedom of faith and conscience in opposition to the chance of worsening a public well being disaster and creating an excellent higher lack of life.
Thus far, nonetheless, the truckers haven’t even explicitly acknowledged which of their explicit Constitution rights they imagine are being violated and the way.
Blaming the mistaken individual
The federal authorities’s requirement that truckers crossing the Canada-U.S. border have to be vaccinated is aligned with the identical requirement by American authorities.
However past the elemental weak point of any Constitution objection to vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers lies an excellent broader weak point to the truckers’ rallying cry: “Fuck Trudeau.”
A protester holds an indication in the course of the so-called freedom convoy rally in opposition to COVID-19 restrictions on Parliament Hill.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
He’s not responsible.
Past the border, the federal authorities doesn’t have jurisdiction over a lot of what the protesters are objecting to.
The provinces are on the entrance strains of the response to COVID-19 when it comes to the administration of well being care, the regulation of personal companies and most different points that play a significant position in how the pandemic is affecting day-to-day life for Canadian residents. That’s how federalism works.
Trudeau, the main target of the truckers’ ire, has develop into a puzzling far-right obsession just like how Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton turned the main target of wild-eyed conspiracy mongers south of the border. The fixation on Trudeau personally is a symptom of extremism. It’s reactionary and irrational within the excessive.
Trump-admiring Conservatives
Now that the Conservatives have traded O’Toole for Bergen and firebrand Pierre Poilievre is ready within the wings, American-style, Trump-admiring Conservatives are poised to take over the Official Opposition right here in Canada. Canadians ought to be alarmed.
Hassle is, there are not any either side when one facet can’t abide scientific information or make a cognizable authorized argument. The truckers in Ottawa and their supporters should not good-faith activists or empowered residents.
They haven’t executed their analysis. They don’t perceive the Constitution, federalism or the rule of legislation. They’re egocentric and entitled as a result of they perceive freedom in a purely individualistic sense. The convoy, just like the escalating blockade on the Canadian facet of the U.S. border in Coutts, Alta., is an indication that Canada is on the cusp of its personal Charlottesville or Jan. 6.
We’re fools to assume ourselves immune.
Jeffrey B. Meyers doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or group that may profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.
