Was it really about vaccine mandates -- or something darker? The inside story of the convoy protestsA

[applegrove]

Was it really about vaccine mandates — or something darker? The inside story of the convoy protests A Canadian protest movement appeared to be fuelled by opposition to COVID-19 restrictions, but conspiracy theories swirled just below the surface.

JL

By Justin Ling Special to the Star

Sat., March 19, 2022 timer 19 min. read

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/03/19/was-it-really-about-vaccine-mandates-or-something-darker-the-inside-story-of-the-convoy-protests.html

"SNIP.....

For three weeks this winter, a so-called “Freedom Convoy” delivered thousands of demonstrators into downtown Ottawa, turning them into an occupying force that snarled daily life in the nation’s capital and dominated the national conversation.

But who were the demonstrators, really — and what were they after?

Many of them positioned the protest as a fight against vaccination mandates for cross-border truckers. Others saw it as a campaign against pandemic restrictions more broadly. No doubt the occupation was many things to many people. But for several of its organizers, the protest was the culmination of years of work, their best chance yet to coalesce a movement around their preferred conspiracy theories and a violent anti-government ideology.

The convoy protest was not about just the pandemic. But nor could it have happened without the pandemic. Organizers were able to leverage fatigue and frustration with government restrictions and social isolation to grow their movement, drawing on one particularly potent conspiracy theory in the process: the idea that an international cabal has taken control of Canada, and is weaponizing the pandemic to consolidate its dominance. This occupation was marketed as the last stand to stop tyranny — and has become a global rallying cry for a burgeoning anti-media, anti-science, anti-government political force.

.....SNIP"

[Sneederbunk]

1. Teabaggers on wheels.

[applegrove]

2. Didn't the MAGAs start the whole anti-mask thing while Trump was for them (Trump soon quit

supporting masks). Then the Russians have been anti vax online for years. This is the great unmooring from science, the media, government and anything approaching actual Christianity.

[Drum]

3. It's about intimidation

[NJCher]

4. paywall?

how did you get around it?

[applegrove]

6. I bought a subscription for $4.00 + tax a month.

[applegrove]

7. Here are the conclusions:

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/03/19/was-it-really-about-vaccine-mandates-or-something-darker-the-inside-story-of-the-convoy-protests.html

"SNIP.....

The occupation of Ottawa was a “wake-up call,” Mendicino says. The city’s police force deals with an enormous number of protests every year, Bell said, but “this one was different.”

And the attempt to link debate over legitimate public health measures with conspiracy theories — about vaccines, about the World Economic Forum, about a dire threat to Canadian sovereignty — have sparked concern about what could come next.

“The people who organized that protest, and there were several factions there, there’s no doubt [they] came to overthrow the government,” Jody Thomas, national security adviser to the prime minister, said earlier in March.

“This is a problem that is not going away.”

Mendicino says the chaotic month proved that “the tools and laws we have on our books aren’t effective enough” at dealing with this type of movement. He hinted that his government was considering making some permanent legal changes to supply police with some of these powers, although he didn’t specify what that would look like.

Some of those who enabled this occupation won’t be part of whatever that new movement looks like. King and Lich were both arrested and charged with criminal offences; King’s attempts to be released on bail are ongoing, while Lich’s bail terms prohibit her from participating in demonstrations. Dichter has re-emerged in the world of bitcoin, leveraging his experience sourcing donations that are beyond government’s grasp. Quiggin continues his podcast, turning his attention in recent weeks to the conflict in Ukraine. Once he recovered his RV from a city impound lot, Bauder headed west; by early March, he had reached Victoria, where a rump of the Ottawa occupiers set their sights on the B.C. government, occupying the legislature grounds in the provincial capital.

The movement has now outgrown the former organizers. Sympathetic social media channels continue to expand. Groups like Diagolon are recruiting new members. The conspiracy theorists that propelled this movement proliferate online. Some demonstrators no doubt returned from Ottawa satisfied, believing that they had made their point. But others came back armed with dangerous lessons. As one put it on a recent livestream: “Violence in some way, shape, or form is the only way these people are going to respond.”

.....SNIP"

[NJCher]

10. Thanks for the addl info

Too bad they don’t do gift articles like The NY Times and wash post.

[sboatcar]

5. So they had their last stand and lost......hopefully that's their takeaway

[BigmanPigman]

8. How many Russian bots were behind this?

[applegrove]

9. In the last week the truckers settled on the word "Freedom"

as their mantra when anyone asked. That is so American.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Freedom is beyond American, but the subversion of the slogan for authoritarian purposes is American

The sheeple and teabaggers and deplorables have no idea how they are molded by powerful forces like Russian bot brigades and rogue capitalists and authoritarians.

They think most people are in the dark, but it is the RW sheeple who turn off real information sources and go down rabbit holes with their confirmation biases.

[applegrove]

12. Yup.