THE END OF DEMOCRACY PLAYBOOK
How the Canadian government deployed a fake narrative to crush the truckers' convoy by inciting unfounded fear against it.
I was 600 miles away when, in broad daylight, and captured on multiple livestreams, the ugly brunt of unleashed state power landed on the Canadian trucker protest in Ottawa. Despite my distance from the crackdown, its vibration ripped a cognitive tear in my relationship with the country I thought I knew well. And I was scared.
The anonymous black-clad cops, silent but relentlessly pushing against mostly passive protestors, delivered both threat and nullification: as citizens you have no power and if you try anything like this again, we will ruin you. On February 19, Ottawa’s Acting Police Chief, Steve Bell said the tyrannical part out loud.
Let’s face it; if Bell’s threat had been made against protestors supporting the designated current things (BLM, vaccine mandates, Ukraine/Russia war escalation), journalistic pearl clutching might have generated headlines calling out authoritarian cops who should be defunded. But this flex of state power was virtually unchallenged by legacy media. Not a surprise since it had been acting as the unofficial comms department for anti-trucker power elites, including the city’s mayor Jim Watson.
Legacy media’s role in helping create a phoney narrative framework against the truckers, including allegations of attempted murder through arson, financial connections to far right American extremist groups, weapons on site, assaults on local citizens and shady influence from Russia, should disqualify them from ever uttering another word on this subject.
Their work was enough to garner support for the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the seizing of protestor’s bank accounts and trucks — authoritarian moves that shocked free-thinking citizens and many democratic institutions around the world. Ironically, Canadian democracy was rescued by its unelected Senate, which signalled its displeasure through passionate debate and stopped the Act’s actual passage. But it was too late for many of those who are still struggling, victimized by the Prime Minister’s petulant power play.
The arson story was absurd on its face and has since been officially debunked by Ottawa police but a source tells me police knew from the beginning the arsonists were not connected to the truckers, despite breathless media coverage.
A leaked audiotape I obtained indicates OPP had a good working relationship with truckers and that some officers were so upset they apologized for the over-heated City of Ottawa response.
Lawyer Keith Wilson who represents Tamara Lich says police accounts were sometimes based on news reports and those reports were feeding off bad information from police:
It’s that ridiculous. We ran into this problem of circularity all the time, of media saying something, police then saying, well the news is saying it, then the media saying, well the police said it.
An inquiry is needed into the government’s deliberate and or reckless usage of a dishonest framework to quash political opposition and legitimate dissent. And how and why virtually every negative news story about the Ottawa protest was exaggerated, misleading or totally wrong.
If there are any left, honourable reporters should be mortified over how they were mislead by three levels of government. Or worse, perhaps the mistakes were intentional, an idea, as a former journalist, I find harrowing.
Instead of acknowledging their errors, sloppiness and perhaps agenda-driven failures, reporters see themselves as victims of exotic and scary blue-collar people who are probably Nazis and thugs. So traumatized were they by their exposure to actual working Canadians, they required a post-convoy psychodrama session to support each other’s recovery. Â
The truck convoy was a victim of what investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald calls a stunning multi-pronged attack. Â After enduring a decade of simmering anger and even hatred toward the neoliberal ruling class, Western leaders like Trudeau are now emboldened by the success of their ever-escalating crackdowns on populist dissent and censorship of independent media.
Wikileaks journalist Julian Assange is still locked away in Belmarsh Prison for having exposed damaging truths about the neocon’s favourite It Girl, Hillary Clinton.
The Democratic Party’s dishonest January 6th oppo messaging victory turned a riotous protest into an insurrection by domestic terrorists who deserve solitary confinement and for merely attending, national shunning. Similar claims were made about truckers by both US and Canadian media.
Greenwald nails how the playbook always requires a story:
The term dissent in West democracies connotes legitimacy so that label must be denied them. They are instead domestic extremist, domestic terrorist, traitors and insurrectionists. Applying terms of criminality renders justifiable any subsequent acts of repression: we are trained to accept that core liberties are forfeited upon the commission of crimes.
America is ahead of us on this dangerous road paved with politicized lies. Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick did not die in the line of duty on January 6th but Democrats insisted his body should lie in state at the Rotunda – providing operatic political theatre against Trump supporters.
The Russia Hoax has been debunked but it lasted long enough to cripple a presidency. And the myth of the violent, armed and dangerous trucker convoy has run out of steam.
By the time the accusations or even criminal charges are investigated and found to be false, the damage is done. THE STORY crafted by power elites and their enablers in media has served its purpose; the nullification of dissent and the near-ruination of anyone who dared not obey. The ‘corrections’ ‘updates’ and stealth rewrites don’t make the front page. And the authors of the big lie are never held to account.
Legacy media can't report this story fairly because they were part of the smear operation. It's awful that we have no, neutral media anymore. Democracy can't hold without it.
This is such a tragic chapter in Canada’s history in so many ways. Thanks Trish for staying on top of this story when most in the media want to sweep this episode under the carpet.