Monday Morning Regrets

 

We are getting conflicting reports on the effects of the police crackdown yesterday on the Ottawa protests. Ottawa police chief Sloly boasted this morning that they had completely shut down one of the truckers’ staging areas, were making arrests, the demonstration was shrinking, and they were making relentless progress. But several truckers have YouTubed that the police raids had no practical effect; that they really only seized a symbolic amount of fuel, and mostly left things intact.

I think the latter must be true. To begin with, Sloly combined his claims with a declaration that the city needed much more help from all levels of government. That does not sound as though he really thinks matters are under control. The police raids were made on Sunday evening: because people have to get back to work, the size of the protest is bound to shrink for Monday morning. It sounds as though the move was strategically timed so the chief could claim he was responsible for the decline.

Sloly said before there was no policing solution available. He is under immense pressure to do something, so he is concerned with looking as though he is doing something. 

One claim he made, that the funding for the protesters had been cut off, was demonstrably false. The Go Fund Me account was shut down, but donations are shifting to another platform, Give Send Go, and are already substantial. So he may be fudging or lying about the rest as well.

Possibly also the authorities hoped, vainly, that the truckers might be frightened away by a little intimidation.

The protesters have come up with a brilliant dodge for the police seizing jerry cans of fuel. Everyone has started to carry a jerry can at all times. The police cannot seize or check them all, so fuel is sure to get through.

It is hard to see how the police can get away with this tactic for long in any event. It is an obvious violation of the constitutional right to protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Since filling up your vehicle with gas is not a crime, there can be no legal justification for the police seizing private property like this. Even if they can get away with it for long enough to end the protest, surely the city is setting itself up for a lawsuit, or many. With the money donated, the truckers can probably afford the lawyers.

Meantime, the Ottawa mayor, until now uncompromising, this morning called for a mediator to negotiate with the protesters. This is an admission on his part that the confrontational approach cannot work. The little display of force on Sunday evening was probably just to give political cover for capitulating to the truckers’ basic demands. They don’t want it to look too obvious.

Theresa Tam, the chief government health officer, today stated publicly that it was about time to reexamine our approach to the pandemic, since circumstances have changed. 

Again, this sounds like political cover. The medical advice has changed.

The Tories at today’s Question Period seemed excited. Their benches looked pretty full. They gave Candace Bergen a standing ovation as she rose to demand the government drop the mandates. 

They smell blood in the water. They know the government will have to do this. They want to lead the parade.

 The government benches looked far less crowded. The question was fielded by the government house leader—a low rank to be in command. The bigger heads were ducking. 

Instead of responding by condemning the truckers as racists and terrorists who must be silenced, as had been the government’s wont until now, he insisted that most of the mandates were not the federal government’s responsibility.

Significantly, without defending them.