CANADIAN TRUCKERS RECEIVE THE TEA PARTY TREATMENT

CANADIAN TRUCKERS RECEIVE THE TEA PARTY TREATMENT

BY PAUL MIRENGOFF IN CANADA, PROTESTS

I haven’t commented on the protest by Canadian truckers in Ottawa. That’s John’s beat, and he’s doing a great job with it.

However, I did come across this passage in a Daily Mail article about the protests:

James Doull, 24, a diesel mechanic who is organizing truckers parked along Wellington Street, where many of the parliamentary and government buildings are located, claimed ‘all the stuff put out by Trudeau and the government’ about the convoy ‘are lies.’

‘There is no racism, the truckers aren’t vandalizing things,’ he told DailyMail.com. ‘Fringe groups coming in may be responsible but it’s not the truckers themselves.

‘We are not right-wing conspiracists, we are hard-working everyday Canadians who just want our freedom back,’ said Doull, who lives in Grand Manan, New Brunswick.

Since DailyMail.com arrived in Ottawa last week we have seen no indication of violence or vandalism or any extremist political agenda. In fact, the demonstrations have shown the opposite.

Apart from the incessant honking of their horns, all has been peaceful. The truckers seem to have united the people of Canada in a common goal, to get rid of government mandates.

(Emphasis added)

False claims of racism and violence by the truckers remind me of similar slurs against the Tea Party. Readers may the allegation of spitting at a black congressman that turned out to be unsupported and almost certainly false.

There are important differences between the truckers’ protest and those of the Tea Party. The truckers’ actions are highly disruptive and maybe illegal. To the best of my recollection, that wasn’t the case with Tea Party protests.

However, both sets of protesters fell victim to the imperative that forces effectively opposing liberal orthodoxy be defamed as racist and violent.

It’s also worth noting, as the Daily Mail does here, that although GoFundMe promoted fundraising efforts for participants in the destructive Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) in Seattle where two teens were shot dead, it has cancelled a fundraiser for the Canadian truckers. Being killed is more “disruptive” and unlawful than being deprived of sleep due to honking (although I’m sure I would hate to experience the latter).

GoFundMe defended its decision to cut off the truckers saying it “supports peaceful protests and believe[d] that was the intention of the Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser when it was first created.” However, “we now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.”

But the reports of trucker violence and hate crimes apparently are bogus. In any case, the CHOP protest in Seattle indisputably was violent. Yet this didn’t seem to bother GoFundMe.

Nor does any desire truthfully to report on what’s actually happening with the truckers in Ottawa preoccupy or constrain the liberal media.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/02/canadian-truckers-receive-the-tea-party-treatment.php