We’re tired. Two years on we’ve had enough of the pandemic and its disruption to our lives. Despite it all most of us are coping because we know it will end, or rather, become endemic to the global environment like the flu and many other viruses. We cope because we believe in medical science and the professionals who have confronted every threat to human health with remarkable results. We cope because we believe it’s right to follow health protocols for our own well-being and that of others. And therein lies both the solution and the problem to our current health crisis. Not everyone believes this.
Non-believers are a minority, for sure, but a vocal minority, who often garner far more attention than they deserve. Nowadays they are mostly anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers, but all are individualists who believe their rights and freedom are paramount to human rights. Excuse me. At what time in world history have the rights of one or a few exceeded the rights of all? Even “divine right” monarchs and dictators knew they could only succeed if they kept the masses content.
It's easy to label angry truckers blockading Parliament Hill in Ottawa and a significant border crossing at Coutts, Alta., as a mob bent on overturning current pandemic measures. We sympathize; in fact, the majority of us now do. But some of us are little confused; they’re targeting the federal government in seeking pandemic measures removed — measures established by provincial governments and, to their main point, the U.S. government as well. Like most mobs their goal gets lost in confused and disruptive actions; too many participants are swept up in the moment and bad things happen. And that’s what everyone else sees. The truckers aren’t protesting, which they’re free to do, as much as they’re trespassing and blockading, interfering in the freedoms of movement and the livelihood of others. Little was being done to stop them and they had time, as they’re well-financed by GoFundMe money, some of it American sourced. Political pundits are quick to draw a comparison between American Tea Party rebels, who helped bring Donald Trump to power, and blockading Canadian truckers.
But not only have these bands of truckers ignored their lawlessness, so have some political champions of their cause. Unfortunately, for people like me at least, it seems they’re all Conservative politicians who seem to believe the quip, “There go my people; I must get in front and lead them.” What leadership! Ironically, after Erin O’Toole spoke in support of the blockade in Ottawa his party mutinied and ousted him as leader. Justin Trudeau may laugh all the way to the next election. Jason Kenney can’t be laughing, for he expressed support for the Ottawa blockade just before a more serious one developed in Coutts. And the UCP is just as fractured as their federal counterpart.
Despite the truckers, not because of them, pandemic measures will ease up soon. Public-health data supports it and most of us want it. Those are better reasons than blockades. All the blockades have done is confuse individual rights and freedoms with the obligation that enables them; one’s rights exist when others are not negatively affected.
Roger Jackson is a former deputy minister and a St. Albert resident.
