CONVOY WAS OUR TIANANMEN
We are the protestor, the tanks our Prime Minister
At first, the government took no direct action against the protesters.
Party officials disagreed on how to respond, some backing concessions, others wanting to take a harder line.
The hardliners won the debate, and in the last two weeks of May, martial law was declared in Beijing.
On 3 to 4 June, troops began to move towards Tiananmen Square, opening fire, crushing and arresting protesters to regain control of the area.
BBC on Tiananmen Square Protest in 1986
I’m so lucky to interview people like Ray McGinnis who put into words my own vague sorrows about the authoritarian New Normal Canada. This week on the pod we unpacked virtually every fib, obfuscation and waffle by the government, the POEC and Justice Rouleau and there is nothing left but the stinking jackboot of an insecure, ideologically captured despot ending by lies, a legitimate, non-violent protest.
Here is a link to Ray’s article. Do print it off and share it with your trucker-hating friends and relatives. It might change some minds. He suggested to me that Trudeau’s playbook, enacted by compliant media, reminded him of how the Chinese government handled its propaganda messaging around the Tiananmen Square protest. Yes, many were killed and that didn’t happen in Ottawa but what is similar, is how the Tiananmen protesters demanding freedom and a better life were reframed by the CCP as troublemakers and criminals. And how Chinese hardliners would offer no concessions, only tanks and bullets. In Ottawa only horses and batons. Sound familiar?
Obviously what happened in Tiananmen was next level - but it’s worth remembering that what followed was the same kind of smear against the students that Trudeau used against Truckers. Smears our Prime Minister continues to use against people who don’t vote Liberal.
In researching this piece I discovered a magnificent old report by a brave journo who stood her ground with the protestors. She knew which side she was on. It was clear who was right. This is old school and I miss it, so very much. And think about how our country would be better today if CBC saw working class protests as being worthy of fair and honest reporting and even occasional advocacy.
Tell the world, they said to us.
I hope, looking back on my own career there are moments as brave as what she does here. Gobsmacked by her courage.
In the meantime we are left with the cowards and scoundrels populating legacy media around the world. I promised this week I would keep you abreast of the explosive #lockdownfiles coming out of the UK. Thousands of WhatsApp messages between government C-19 czars, like Matt Hancock are exposing how completely inept, dishonest and disdaining of the citizens they all were.
And we know it was just as bad in Canada and the US. The London Telegraph is publishing behind a paywall which I will scale to bring you details but in the meantime here’s a taste. Watch the odious Cathy Newman (of Jordan Peterson fame) attacking Isabel Oakeshott who leaked the messages for the world to see. Newman sees her role as protecting the government instead of informing the people. She is so out to lunch, Newman posted this as a brag instead of the self-own it clearly is.
Here’s some messages from Hancock pondering releasing a new variant to keep the people scared. Is he joking? Unclear but even if he is….
What I’m seeing so far in the UK story is the massive failure of not-very-bright, immoral and self-serving politicians, in over their heads and awash in groupthink; enabled by “experts” with exactly the same dangerous character traits. Oh, plus cowardice. Not much of a grand conspiracy - just unserious people, unworthy of the power and status we give them. But we knew that.
Thanks to those who upgraded to paid in our little subscription drive last week. I’m glad you enjoyed the Colonel. More to come and a plea to our other subscribers to think about upgrading when you can.
Stay critical.
People I knew as friends for over fifty years, neighbours with whom I broke bread frequently, relatives, and even my own adult children - they all broke my heart with their expressions of uninformed adulation of Trudeau and irrational hatred of 'The Truckers' who dared to protest his mandated vaccines. I can never look at them the same way ever again.
I'm being prompted to say why I am now a paid subscriber, despite the fixed income, hahaha
1. Trish is unafraid to call a spade a feccin' shovel.
2. She's a fell-oh Canuck.
3. Trish's deliberations and they are that, pass all my BS filters.
Closing in on my 75th year, I can find savings in other areas to compensate for this 'largess'. hahaha The key to life's dregs is "detachment". This does not imply we have become complacent nor disinterested. Au contraire; we simply do not allow ourselves to become emotionally involved, since that often leads to physical anomalies in the temple for our souls; i.e., the bawdy...politic. However, we feel deeply - - - passionately in justice for all and a final end to this hierarchical, paternalistic, patriarchal culture, where far too many are sleep-walking the awakened into extinction. Let's try to imagine true evolution, rather than this devolutionary path we are being led down. Alas, the term 'sheeple' is used by some in a defamatory manner. When I was young I understood the word education to mean the process of learning to think for oneSelf. Trish helps us do this. Kudos Ms Wood!