Blazingcatfur

Equal access for the unvaccinated is the civil rights issue of our time.

On Jan. 23, thousands of protesters appeared in Washington, D.C. to demand an end to vaccine mandates. The fact that the protest took place six days after the nation commemorated the life of Martin Luther King Jr. holds profound significance.

More than five decades after King’s assassination, Americans face the worst segregation since the civil rights movement. That segregation has nothing to do with the myth of “systemic racism” decried by the “woke.” It has nothing to do with race, creed or gender. It does, however, have everything to do with the authoritarian agenda the “woke” seek to promote.

I have always thought of myself as a normal and law-abiding citizen of Canada — nothing special, merely respectable on the whole, reasonably informed, a responsible voter, and a contributor to the well-being of the country, no different from many of my fellow Canadians. I have taught several generations of students, including Police Tech classes, lectured as a Canadian scholar at embassies and universities abroad, and traveled under the auspices of the Department of External Affairs to represent the country at Canada Day ceremonies in Europe. My wife was a professor at two major Canadian universities, organized several large-scale conferences on Canadian themes, sponsored doctoral candidates from foreign countries who wished to study in and learn about Canada, and authored as well as edited several books on Canadian history, literature, and culture.

There’s nothing particularly new or special about the “Freedom Convoy” protest taking place in Ottawa, and yet it’s practically all anyone can talk or tweet about. Canada has seen large protests many times before, and even vehicle convoys that fill city streets and relentlessly blast their horns. Protesters have beat effigies of prime ministers and held mock “ public courts ” to try political leaders. Radicals have set up bloody guillotines in front of legislative buildings.

If there is a historical precedent for the truckers’ revolt in Canada, and the populist protests in so many other parts of the world, I would like to know what it is. It surely sets the record for convoy size, and it is historic for Canada. But there is much more going on here, something more fundamental. The two-year imposition of bio-fascist rule by diktat seems ever less tenable – the consent of the governed is being withdrawn – but what comes next seems unclear.

We now have two of the most restrictive “leaders” in the developed world (Justin Trudeau of Canada and Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand) hiding in undisclosed locations, citing the need to quarantine following Covid exposure. Streets globally have filled up with people demanding an end to mandates and lockdowns, calling for accountability, pushing for resignations, denouncing privileged corporations, and crying out for a recognition of basic freedoms and rights. 

h/t MartinD2