Ice in Ottawa: is hypocrisy leading us down a slippery slope?
If we scrutinize the truckers for unacceptable flaws, we should also turn a critical eye toward the people who have controlled our lives over the past two years.
As the confrontations around Freedom Convoy 2022 are unfolding, moral loneliness is asserting its icy grip. The truckers gave bold voice to well-justified criticism of COVID measures that had been silenced across all spheres of civil society. Instead of engaging with them in a discussion of civil liberties or seeking court injunctions, the government chose to treat them as an occupation through the Emergencies Act, resulting in tragic days in Ottawa.
I have heard several people who grew up in Canada say that they do not recognize the country that they grew up in. Why have there been no attempts to engage with the truckers and their core message? Why has the government invoked the Emergencies Act instead of seeking injunctions through the legal system? Perhaps the government was nervous about having to show legal evidence that the truckers were not peaceful and instead were hoping to create a self-fulfilling prophecy by labelling them as a violent occupation. I do not know exactly why the former police chief, Peter Sloly, resigned, but in my heart I see a lot of humanity and dignity in his resignation.
Had we had an honest evidence-based debate these past two years, the convoy would have possibly never happened. But now we are expected to dutifully accept the narrative that the truckers and their supporters are nothing but lawless people—unworthy of dialogue or respect. The truckers and their supporters are now the metaphorical new “variant,” with discussions of the actual virus—alive, well and perpetually urgent until very recently—strangely muted by comparison. Does the virus know that supressing the protests is more important than stopping the spread?
As a Jewish person who grew up in Israel, my feeling of alienation is partly fueled by the widely circulating accusation that the truckers and their supporters are racist and antisemitic. That message activates a voice of insecurity, an inner bully which our Prime Minister tried to trigger when he told Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman that she was standing with people who wave swastikas. The message is blistering and designed to isolate: these people are not fighting for your liberty; do not fool yourself for one second that the solidarity they speak about includes you. You are alone—alone as you have always been.
Comparing COVID measures to the Holocaust is wrong, but there is a world of difference between brandishing a swastika to say, “I am a neo-Nazi,” which should be categorically condemned, and using a swastika to express concern about the totalitarian tendencies of COVID culture (not a good idea, as the nuances of the discussion cannot be captured by a traumatizing visual symbol, but definitely not the same thing as being a neo-Nazi). That our Prime Minister could not tell the difference is a reflection of the crass, self-serving and damaging nature of his appropriation of the inter-generational trauma of the Holocaust—another thing he must apologize for. Here is a letter from Israeli physicians and scientists who condemn Trudeau’s “weaponization” of the struggle against antisemitism to conduct a “smear-campaign” against the truckers:
Are there anti-Semites among the truckers and their supporters? The answer unfortunately might be positive, but is the incidence of racism and antisemitism among the truckers and their supporters higher than it is in the general population? One does not need to look much beyond the political left to answer this question. And are antisemitism and racism at the core of the truckers’ mission? Unless someone shows me evidence to the contrary, my assumptions is that levels of antisemitism and racism among the truckers and their supporters cannot be assumed to be higher than among those who oppose them and that their core agenda is what they say it is: to peacefully restore civil liberties to all.
Antisemitism, especially in its more covert forms, is tragically common. In my experience, some absurd distortion about Israel or some reference to Jewish money to explain the world’s evils will sooner or later rear its ugly head wherever groups of human beings are found—regardless of their beliefs about COVID. I would not choose to associate with anyone who holds antisemitic beliefs if I have a choice. However, I would label an entire group exceptionally antisemitic only if the rates of antisemitism in its midst exceeded what I have experienced elsewhere. Until then, I will focus on the truckers’ core message—that COVID measures should end—without imagining other agendas. Whether or not the truckers would dislike me as a Jew and as a supporter of Israel and whether or not I could ever feel a sense of belonging among them are questions that I can ask about many other people and groups in our diverse society—including those who consider themselves to be the most educated, enlightened, inclusive, artistic, loving and humane.
It is important to critically analyze flaws and problems in any social movement, as any group and any agenda is vulnerable to corruption. But claims must be based on evidence, and they must also be proportional and fair compared to how we assess the moral character of other people that we happen to agree with or to follow. If we scrutinize the truckers for their moral purity, why have we not been doing the same to the other actors in the COVID arena? Will I one day feel manipulated by some aspects of Freedom Convoy 2022? Perhaps. Do I already feel manipulated by public health officials? I do.
Over the past two years, we have been controlled by health officials. Do all of their actions and decisions point to empathy and love of humanity? For example, how closely have we scrutinized their claims that children must wear masks and remain out of school? Have they considered seriously enough the impact of lockdowns and isolation on our physical and mental health? Have they truly done their best to not cancel cancer diagnoses and treatments? There is certainly much that I do not understand about the medical system, but I am wondering if the specialist doctors and nurses who normally treat cancer patients were overwhelmed by saving COVID patients instead. Where is the data on how ICU utilization during COVID compares to previous years? We have data on cases, hospitalizations and ICU usage by vaccination status, but where is the data on death by vaccination status? And what does it mean about the moral character of some healthcare providers that many patients reporting vaccine side-effects were told that what they were experiencing was not because of the vaccine, and ordered to take another dose or lose their jobs? Why were many patient reports about vaccine side-effects not systematically studied? What happened to scientific curiosity, not to mention empathy?
If some truckers are hiding their underlying racism and antisemitism, then some doctors were also hiding some personality traits or weaknesses when they vowed to do no harm or when they claimed that they had high levels of empathy. And have health officials deeply contemplated the meaning of life and the problem of hubris when they created the feeling that COVID-19 was the most important thing in the world and that a vaccine that does not stop transmission is our only hope?
And what about government employees who are paid to analyze data with a great deal of nuance or intellectuals who are paid to think critically—often while enjoying maximal job security? Imagine the scholar who in 5 years or so will publish a prestigious academic paper about PTSD in police officers who had to arrest the protesters. Has that fictional scholar, protected from losing their job by the tenure system, done anything over the last two years to stimulate vigorous evidence-based debate and free critical thinking about COVID measures? We criticize the truckers for being too bold, but should we also criticize others for being too cautious and therefore leaving an intellectual vacuum for the truckers to step into as our SOS public intellectuals?
And how about scrutinizing Trudeau’s persistent preoccupation with the swastika for signs of projection of his own totalitarian tendencies? Or asking Ottawa residents why it was not sufficient to deal with the disruptions to their lifestyle through court injunctions and negotiation? Or why some of them are calling Ottawa “my city” without acknowledging that it is also the capital of Canada and a city where many people get secure and high salaries funded by the Canadian taxpayers?
In recent hours, there have been some jubilant messages circulating on social-media from Ottawa citizens celebrating what they seem to perceive as the liberation and sanitization of their city by the police. Some of the writers of these messages would benefit from contemplating values such as respect for the humanity and courage of their “enemies” (for example, as depicted in the Greek epics in which the enemy is often humanized and revered; the humanity and dignity of the enemy is one of the things that make the very violent Greek epics timeless works of great poetry instead of just militarized propaganda). As they stand, some of our own social-media writers resemble people in times past who viewed working-class people as their “beasts of burden” and who are now celebrating the suppression of a “peasants’ revolt.”
If instead of an Emergencies Act and a military-like police force we had the barbaric practice of stoning, this would truly be a time to invite they who are without sin to cast the first stone at the truckers (John 8).
Ice in Ottawa: is hypocrisy leading us down a slippery slope?
Thanks so much for this heartfelt essay.
I always had the distinct impression our capital city was populated by a majority of rather smug, suburban bureaucrats. Now these "hard-done-by citizens" tell us they are "accustomed to demonstrations but that this time it was different". This time, it seems to me, they resented having their quiet respectability disturbed by working-class people - people who knew their rights, understood the sleight-of-hand played on all of us over the last 2 years and most awful of all were able to express love and happiness -- for 3 weeks straight.
If the lofty pompadoured fellow and his colleagues in parliament had had the humility to listen to Canadians' concerns months ago, this present cruel and disgraceful response could have been avoided.
Thank you for a beautiful piece! It breaks my heart to see what has happened to society. I just don't understand how society lost its willingness to talk with those it disagrees with. I am devastated, and terrified of the slippery slope we are on.