22) Isn't mandating vaccine passports to allow people to go to sporting events and get drunk the first step to hauling unvaccinated people to concentration camps?
That's offensive on so many levels, I cannot begin to count them all. Okay, I lie: 37,289. Vaccines, mandates, passports and other health measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic are intended to save lives, not take them.
23) Okay, not the Holocaust. But you have to admit that forcing people to take vaccines is a form of slavery, don't you?
Oh, sure. Anti-vaxxers are just Rosa Parks in overalls trying to take their place at the head of the convoy. Because the right to equal treatment under the law is the moral equivalent of the "right" to spread a deadly disease. Did you learn nothing from question 20?
24) So, uhh, you don't appreciate the image of somebody holding an anti-vaccination sign standing in front of tanks in Tienanmen Square?
You're just going to throw a bunch of historical liberation movements at a wall to see if any of them stick, aren't you?
25) Why would anybody get the idea that the convoy is made up of racists?
Aside from your first three questions? Weeelllll...there was Dave Steenburg, one of the convoy's leaders, who made a video for TikTok that prominently featured the Viking-head logo of the violently anti-immigrant Soldiers of Odin. He probably thought that the fact that the organization had to be disbanded was fake news. Ooh, the lamestream media is so sneaky!
26) Okay, so maybe one person in the convoy is racist. Do you have to tar the whole movement with the racist brush?
Did you see the Zello video featuring the female convoy member who complained about the kikes who controlled the world and drank the blood of her babies?
I know, right! She should be embarrassed. I mean, that's so 50s! And I'm talking 1250s! It's so old, it's been embarrassing and retro and embarrassing again many times over! Honestly, it shows how unimaginative racists are that they can't find new ways of slandering Jews!
28) Okay, a couple of bad apples, then. Still, they shouldn't tar the whole effort, right?
Or the people who brought Confederate flags to the convoy, because nothing says "We want freedom from vaccine mandates" more than a symbol of racist oppression. Oh, and before you say that it was only three people, and I offer more examples, let me ask you: are you familiar with the term "racist adjacent?"
29) Forget the racists. The majority of truckers in the convoy protested peacefully, so what's the problem?
You clearly aren't familiar with the tern racist adjacent. Never mind. There are none so blind as those who look directly into The Sun. Problem with the convoy? How about nobody thought about where they were going to go to the bathroom when they got to Ottawa? (PRO TIP: That's not what streets are for. Or the front lawns of the homes of strangers.)
30) Okay, there was that. But -
I wasn't finished. Then there were the convoy members who verbally harassed the staff of The Shepherd's of Good Hope homeless shelter until they were given food. Food meant for the homeless. They argued that, since they didn't have homes in Ottawa, they qualified. Kant couldn't even.
31) Sure, that doesn't look great. Still -
Still not finished. Convoyers (which is not as titillating as it sounds) hung a sign on a statue of Terry Fox saying "MANDATE FREEDOM" and an upside down Canadian flag nearby. Because who better to show solidarity with somebody who died raising money to fight a deadly disease than people who are actively campaigning against measures to fight a deadly disease? When that was removed, another sign saying "He will not divide Canada" was placed in front of the statue. Yeah, I have no idea what it means, either. The convoy should be dubbed the Marathon of Hopelessness.
The convoy certainly wasn't. There was the dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (you can bet Edwin Starr wasn't invited). The honking went on until three or four in the morning, which caused residents to complain. As one will. So, two protesters tried to set the apartment building of the complainers on fire. As two will.
33) Why hasn't the government acted to stop the convoy's destruction of Ottawa?
Racism.
34) Back to that? Come on! Isn't that the radical left's answer to every problem in the world?
Mmm. Ottawa City Councillor Catherine McKenney said, "I understand to a large extent why emergency services, police services both local and national, would not want to incite this crowd." Really? Because the police had no problem inciting Indigenous protesters of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation protesting the creation of a pipeline on their unceded land. Inciting the shit out of them. In fact, Parliament passed the 2020 Critical Infrastructure Defence Act in response to Indigenous protesters blocking railway lines, a law which calls for fines of up to $10,000 for a first offence.
35) Could this law be used against convoy members?
It could, especially members of the convoy who are blocking travel across the border in Ontario and Alberta. But Conservative politicians wouldn't want to upset what they see as an important part of their base. (That would be the far right anti-abortion, anti-immigrant, anti-what ya got for those of you keeping score at home.)
36) Whoa, now, that's not fair! Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has condemned the protest. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has called a state of emergency. Why aren't you willing to acknowledge this?
Talk is cheep; without action to back it up, it's for the birds. The Premiers are hoping to blame the federal Liberal government for the trucker mayhem if it doesn't act, or for attacking Canadians' liberties if it does. In game theory, this is known as "ha ha, suckers!"
37) Well, shouldn't the federal government act, especially since the nation's capital is under siege?
The federal government is like a vampire: it has to be invited in before it can act. It's a jurisdictional thing - you wouldn't understand. And so far, the federal government has heard crickets from the provinces (without Buddy Holly to at least harmonize). The provinces don't call. They don't write. They don't send messages on Talktok, or whatever the latest app for the cool kids is. It's almost like they're afraid that if the important part of their base (check your scorecard if you've already forgotten to whom that refers) knew that they had asked the federal government to do something, it wouldn't ask them to the prom. And they had a corsage picked out and everything.