The Convoy and the Emergencies Act
The Freedom Convoy in hindsight.
It would be easier to pen an Op-Ed simply saying, “I told you so,” but that seems a bit gauche to me, if accurate.
Recently, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley said in a ruling that the enactment of the Emergencies Act to deal with the 2022 Freedom Convoy did not meet the threshold required of the act.
"I have concluded that the decision to issue the Proclamation does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness – justification, transparency and intelligibility – and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration,” said Mosley in his decision.
Soon, there will be an election, and rightly, the use of the Emergencies Act will take center stage. It’s a big win for Poilievre, another victory in the long saga of the Freedom Convoy. This win is being dumped into a political future fraught with uncertainty.
So, let’s talk about the Freedom Convoy now and the use of the Emergencies Act now, with the gift of hindsight and before today’s discourse poisons or varnishes all semblance of nuance.
Background
It’s easy today to forget for, some of us, just how scary and divisive the 2020-2022 period of the COVID-19 Pandemic was, and hindsight in this can be misleading. It’s easy to forget just how many things there were to be angry about. There were so many different things that went wrong in the handling of the Pandemic, and they are inseparable from the events to follow.
While these in no way should overshadow or discredit the many successes, they’re not what caused the events of 2022. Many lives were saved by people at all levels doing everything in their power. However, the reality as we sit here today, is one in which COVID is endemic and likely to remain so.
Nonsensical instructions from some leaders, sometimes wildly incompatible with the facts were the standard. Others were so completely unconcerned about the disease that it felt like keeping up with politics meant see-sawing between multiple mutually exclusive realities. The overwhelming majority of national governments so completely bungled their pandemic responses that it would surprise me if any wide-scale pandemic response in future would be tolerated in much of the world, at least as long as people remember 2020.
Many of the more ludicrous mistakes, instructions and the like came from a good place, a place of trying to fight a novel virus that people had no understanding of. I am convinced the person who came up with the idea to disinfect the COVID off each grocery item did so because they wanted to save lives.
But other measures were not benign. Layoffs and border closures massively affected employers and employees alike. Yes, the Federal Government did provide relief for those made unemployed by the pandemic, but it would be foolish to say these were enough to prevent the damage to individuals and entire industries.
What businesses were the hardiest? Businesses with online ordering and ones that were big enough to weather the crisis. The COVID-19 Pandemic remains one of the greatest periods of wealth redistribution in human history, and unlike during the Black Death, the rich got richer.
Then there’s the vaccination. People were fired from work or ostracized for refusing vaccination. There were, and are, many more reasons to get vaccinated than not to, and it is in the collective good, a civic duty, to do so.
But let’s not pretend that was as black and white as it seems. Let’s remember we placed a large portion of our public health measures on the notion that vaccination prevents infection. After we bet on cloth masks preventing infection. These measures of course help, especially the former, but our thinking has always been binary, even if doctors told us that it shouldn’t be.
Was it that unreasonable therefore, to suggest that they might be wrong about vaccines? Not really. A lack of education about vaccines contributed, but you can also make fair argument that relying on the teachings of your Grade 10 Biology class from whenever you did it, isn’t a plan made for confidence.
Education was always going to be what solves vaccine hesitancy, and yes, there were resources available. These resources were just some of an entire COVID-19 media ecosystem that formed around the Pandemic, or in spite of it from what were supposed to be trusted figures. The spectacular failure of for-profit-journalism to responsibly cover the Pandemic should now be all too evident and politicians joined hand-in-hand, or hand-in-glove in the failings.
Not confidence inspiring stuff and that would be the case even if we all had a shared sense of reality. Instead, we were confronted with an information (or misinformation) crisis, one we have yet to remove ourselves from. Discerning what is and is not real is actually getting more difficult by the day. One channel would tell us COVID was the Common Cold, the next would have a dial showing how many people died of it today.
This was the paradigm of 2020-22, and into this reality came the government.
North Americans are, generally speaking, unfamiliar with invasive governance and are woefully under-educated about how governance in their respective countries function. It seems both unwelcome and illegal for the government to tell you to stay in your house, or that you aren’t allowed to go to the store. The idea that police would establish checkpoints to prevent you from going places is unthinkable to most Canadians.
To Indigenous Canadians, this likely is not at all unthinkable and a reality to some.
But, after being a very small part of most people’s daily life, the government stepped into them in a very direct measure. Loss of jobs, loss of income, loss of social activity and yes; loss of freedom.
These measures, not all of which were successful, were not extremely invasive, nor were they necessarily a big impingement of what one would consider your personal freedoms, but they were one, and owing to the nature of disease, they were unevenly applied. They hurt some worse than others. A rug was pulled out from under people.
Was that justified given the circumstances? Given what we knew then, much of it was, but we should be honest about what it was. In order to fight a disease such as COVID you must surrender some personal liberties for the benefit of the community.
This was the cauldron that brewed the Freedom Convoy. But did the Freedom Convoy represent these interests and anxieties?
No.
The Participants
The most obvious lesson in what the Convoy was is the class demographic of the Convoy participants. While they claimed to represent worker interests, they came largely from the small business community, petit bourgeois by definition.
Most truckers and trucker organizations denounced the Convoy, but the trucks that were there were not cheap, most in the six figures. The participants were clear in their messaging that they were going to Ottawa for as long as it would take. This was a well funded movement.
The interests of small business owners are manifestly different from those of their employees and they proved it in their ideology. They were most concerned about mask wearing and COVID-19 buisness closures, not the effect a pandemic has on the people working for them.
One of their central demands involved rescinding the fines applied to business owners who refused to follow health regulations. Fighting for the right of employers to tell their minimum wage employees to die for the cause of keeping a dive bar open isn’t representing worker’s interests. It’s representing the interests of buisness.
Christian fundamentalism was a core feature of the Convoy. Prayers were held publicly, many people held signs professing extreme Christian faith, some carried crosses. A group of participants did a “Jericho March” around the Parliament, or as much as they had access to.
The movement was predominantly white, but not universally. The leaders tended to tokenize the visible minority participants, holding them up as “proof” that the movement wasn’t racist. Other “proof” of this non-racism included the number of white immigrants from Eastern Europe that were participating.
Some members of the Convoy presented themselves as Indigenous and performed deeply offensive attempts at Indigenous Ceremonies that were decried by local Indigenous leaders.
It is true the movement itself was not explicitly racist, the fact is many of the participants and the majority of the organizers had extremely racist pasts. Racist incidents occurred throughout the event and many members of visible minority groups were afraid to be in the downtown area. Many participants and organizers were part of the more explicitly racist ‘Yellow Vest’ movement in Canada.
Similarly, the movement was not explicitly anti-LGBTQS2, but in action was definitely. Windows with Pride flags in them were smashed, the usage of homophobia to denounce Trudeau was constant, there was at least one case, someone defecated on the step of a private residence with a Pride flag in the window.
The Ottawa Queer and Racialized communities were in no doubt as to the opinions of the convoy, and many felt unsafe.
Then there were the swastikas. In at least one incident, there was a person carrying a Nazi flag. I personally witnessed and photographed a man doing a Roman (Nazi) salute to the honks of a horn. The use of swastikas to protest the government were not uncommon, likewise yellow Stars of David in the style of the Holocaust patches.
Much was made about their desecration of the War Memorial and the Terry Fox statue in the press. While it was indeed odious, the majority of the Convoy Occupiers were excessively pro-military. Veteran flags with poppies were common, and far-right veteran groups were heavily involved. This was a militant, conservative and right-wing movement that centered veterans extensively.
Nationalism was front and center. Flags were everywhere, Canadian flags, provincial flags, and the National flags of a dozen countries were waved. American flags were very common, as were Canadian/American hybrid flags. “Reclaiming” Canada was a common refrain by participants. The Canadian Red Ensign, a known fascist dog-whistle, was also used.
The Canadian Nationalism on display was deeply reactionary, much of it was based on grievance. Trudeau or the Liberals more generally, sometimes the Communists, are taking the country away from Canadians. Verses of the national anthem shared space with beer company slogans like “I am Canadian.”
The political cross-section of the Convoy was thus, right-wing, with many right-wing extremists and open fascists. Several far-right and anti-Muslim militias, such as Diagolon and La Meute participated. Note, they did not infiltrate the Convoy movement, they were in the case of La Meute, ground floor in organizing. Diagolon less so but would become increasingly involved within days of the Occupation starting.
Conspiracy theories were rife. Many signs proclaimed a belief that the Liberal Government are Communists or at least under Chinese influence. Anti-vaccination propaganda was omnipresent as one would expect. The standard theories of the fascist right, like White Replacement Theory, the vaccine is a chip, George Soros based disguised antisemitism, and opposition to political correctness were all front and center. There was no coherent message or opinion besides opposition to PM Trudeau and COVID-19 Mandates
The American connection was considerable, both financially and ideologically. Close to half of the donations sent to the Convoy came from American sources, many after Tucker Carlson mentioned it on FOX.
The language and ideology of the participants was extremely American. Most of the participants refereed to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as “the Constitution.” This is noteworthy because Canada’s Constitution is actual and amalgam of several documents including the Charter and is rarely conversationally called “the Constitution” in Canada.
Similarly, the language around “liberty” and “freedom,” again not un-Canadian concepts, but used in a language and ideology stilted with American Libertarianism. Gadsen flags were some of the most common non-national flags, some Canadianized with a Canada Goose, most not. There were not a few people who clearly didn’t understand the differences between the American and Canadian legal systems.
Libertarianism, American or Canadian, was central. There was a cross-section of far-right Libertarian and other transnational far-right groups like the Q-Anon Cult. The latter were in the minority, and generally treated with contempt by their fellow Convoy members.
Like American Libertarians, the ideology clearly was one in which they are free, not one in which we are free. The most frankly, legally clueless, were the sovereign citizens. They believed the government had no power to stop them doing what they were doing and went far as to attempt to arrest police officers. They did not succeed.
Radicalization
While the Convoy drew the majority of its support through anti-vaccine and anti-mandate ideology, the overlapping grievances, misinformation, and religious fundamentalism created a nexus of radicalization among participants.
The anti-vax radicalization pipeline was naturally on full display. Some concerns were reasonable; fears over side-effects and untested vaccines, but the majority were centered on conspiracy theories. The belief that there were 5G tracking chips in the vaccine was routine.
Anti-Globalism was front and center among organizers and participants. The anti-Semitic theories centered on George Soros, Q-Anon, anti-Communism, anti-China, and anti-immigration rhetoric were all featured in large swaths of the participants.
The Christian fundamentalism aspect of the Convoy was central. The majority of participants self identified as practicing Christians, and much of the rhetoric coming from the Convoy was in keeping with the fundamentalist line in North America. Anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQS2, and “Judeo-Christian Values” were a cornerstone of the motivations of many participants.
The radicalization process, which started years earlier, was complete among many participants. They would, and did, willingly sacrifice livelihood, family relationships, money, and time. Many placed themselves and their children in harms way in order to achieve their mission.
Their methods, ideologies, rejection of reason and willingness to put themselves and their children’s lives at risk are all hallmarks of extremism.
The Occupation
The Occupation’s objective itself was a fascist coup attempt. The Memorandum Of Understanding distributed by Canada Unity, called for the removal of the government and it’s replacement with a compliant one headed by the Governor General. It was never going to work, it was never credible, but it must be understood that a stated intent of the movement was the removal of the government.
This is confirmed by the Freedom Convoy’s words and deeds. To do it, their explicit target was the people of Ottawa. Parliament Hill, where they gathered, had been closed for a year at that point for very public renovations. Most government employees were working from home in the winter of 21/22. The tactic of the Freedom convoy was to apply pressure on the federal government by making the lives of residents of Ottawa hell.
For this, there is no excuse. Tormenting your fellow citizen to gain sufficient leverage to overthrow the government is the act of an extremist.
It was a highly complex operation. In order to keep the trucks running, and thus honking, the participants established logistics bases, fuel depots, and employed a network of fuel tank carrying trucks to keep it supplied. They were also heavily funded by donations, withdrawn in cash, and distributed.
After the first weekend, the Occupation Zone formed neighborhoods. Whole communities, grouped as best they could by organization or ideology, formed. It was a strange tent and car city with cookouts, street hockey and yes, the infamous hot tub.
Looking like my wife and I do, entering the Zone and taking pictures rarely provoked suspicion, but it could. We once found ourselves being tailed by a man who saw me take a picture of a license plate. We shook him by doubling back, but it wouldn’t be the last time that happened. Indeed, inside the Zone, journalists were harassed and mobbed. Antifascist demonstrators were mobbed, shoved, and threatened by participants. Police refused to exercise authority.
For someone who blended into the Convoy, the environment was like nothing I’d witnessed or have since. The noise was constant. The smell of diesel, frozen urine and drugs permeated the Zone. Garbage, black snow, the stench, it was like entering another world. When we exited the Light Rail station into the Zone, the sound and smell hit like a wall.
Many participants, both Occupiers and day-trippers, brought children, others brought pets. There were heartbreaking scenes, dogs hopping foot to foot, their paws frozen, owners, chanting obliviously and hauling the poor animal behind them. Children shivering in wagons and sleds, their parents trying to warm their toes up in windchill that could hit -30.
Outside the Zone, signs of the Convoy were omnipresent. Trucks and cars with Canada flags, FUCK TRUEDAU flags or others roamed the streets of Ottawa. Several alternate camps sprouted up around the greater Ottawa area.
The Police
The Convoy participants were very pro-police right up until they moved on them, so much so many were shocked they did at all. Frequently they would try to win them over, socialize and coordinate activities. Some, like the Sovereign Citizens were hostile, but overall the impression of the Convoy was that because they weren’t getting arrested, they must not be doing anything illegal.
The actions of the Police in Ottawa, especially those of the Ottawa Police Service (OPS), deserve far more attention than they have received thus far. To put it plainly; they were wholly compliant. We know that there were orders telling them to stand aside, not enforce all but the most serious crimes, and not to enforce court injunctions has been made publicly clear.
It went far deeper than just the orders. The number of police I personally witnessed display fulsome support to the Convoy was considerable. Most others seemed apathetic about the Convoy and were near universally hostile towards counter-demonstrators. There were reports, then and since, detailing leaks by police to the convoy.
I’ve seen what OPS have at their disposal when they feel like using it, I’ve been to marches for Indigenous solidarity and they sure knew where to find their riot gear and sniper rifles then. When the Convoy arrived, they let them establish themselves and establish a full logistics system without lifting a finger in opposition. The excuse? That the Convoy was going to leave. This excuse, and was used frequently in the Emergencies Act hearings, is patently absurd. The Convoy organizers were enthusiastically telling people they would stay for as long as necessary, but somehow the elite investigators of the OPS failed to even come up with a contingency plan for it.
That’s assuming it was a failure at all. The open collaboration between the OPS and the Convoy was astounding, and the inquiry gave it lip service. Perhaps even the public enquiry found it a given that right-wing white people could expect better treatment from OPS than average.
The lack of resources excuse given by OPS likewise is a joke. The Convoy was not that big, during the week the numbers shrank to several thousand. If the OPS were incapable of clearing 3,000 people from downtown, then what are they for?
Non-Compliance
One of the most interesting, and likely far-reaching implications of the protest was the solidarity leaders and citizens businesses of the right-wing showed toward the Occupation.
Doug Ford is the biggest stand-out in this. His inaction was noteworthy as he controlled the largest police force in the province and was the originator of most of the COVID-19 mandates in Ontario. You would think he would come out in support of something, his mandates, or his cause of disliking Trudeau. Instead he did neither, he gave tepid support to the ideals of the Convoy yet told them to go home.
His role in the events will likely never be known because he refused to take part in the Public Enquiry, which is apparently something you’re allowed to do. At the Federal level, the Convoy, and the incoherent position of Erin O’Toole doomed his Conservative Party leadership and paved the way for Convoy supporter Pierre Poilievre.
Small businesses were a large part of the events in Ottawa. Company vehicles were not at all uncommon in the Occupation itself, nor was it unusual to see businesses supporting the Occupation. This went to absurd lengths; a sauna company dropped off several mobile saunas.
More importantly, tow truck companies refused to take part in the clearing process in downtown. Even when the Emergencies Act came into effect, the tow trucks that were compelled to take part insisted on covering all buisness decals first so that people knew they were doing it unwillingly.
Once again, there were other options, namely OC Transpo recovery vehicles, but this alone would have taken a much longer time. I could make a case that making tow truck companies comply with orders might have been the true success of the Emergencies Act.
The Emergencies Act
Much as I am not a fan of any police action, the one that suppressed the Convoy was well conducted, slow, methodical, and used a minimal amount of force for what was being done. None of the police involved in the suppression were OPS.
The Emergencies Act was enacted in large part, to cut the finances of the Convoy. In this it succeeded. It also allowed the Federal Government to supplant the command structure of the OPS in Ottawa, and OPP in Windsor, in order to suppress the Occupations.
But was it merited? The courts say no.
As discussed, the force required to end the Occupation by means of cops and truncheons was always available. A well coordinated mid-week action could have ended the Occupation whenever they wished. Police can be seconded by other departments and given jurisdictional authority, and they did so during the occupation, so the argument that they needed additional resources is meritless.
The freezing of finances associated to the Convoy was effective, but to what end? They weren’t starved out and forced to leave of their own accord, they were moved by police. The argument always comes to the same stumbling block: police action that never occurred. It was always doable, so why didn’t they?
A police mutiny, one in which they refuse to follow orders or enforce the laws they don’t wish to enforce, could be a scenario but we can’t prove that. That causal link to the Emergencies Act, one that could actually justify its enaction, was never made.
It is also worth noting that the EA was brought up almost immediately after the Ambassador Bridge was blocked. The Occupation of Ottawa seemed to concern the feds far less than the sudden stoppage of trade at the border.
On February 11th PM Trudeau met with POTUS Joe Biden. The next day the Ambassador bridge was reopened by RCMP and OPP. Coincidence I’m sure.
As I stated before, it was a fascist coup attempt that could never work. That doesn’t mean the appropriate response is the fist and boot of the entire state. The stripping of any fundamental rights, no matter how measured, sets a hazardous precedence for the future of this country and must (if one is to do it at all) be done with the greatest care.
The greatest care wasn’t exercised. This is made clear by Justice Mosely’s decision.
Opposition to the Convoy
Opposition to the Occupation came in three basic forms: legal measures by citizens, protests, and disruptions. There were notable successes in each of these, but it shouldn’t disguise the fact the opposition to the Convoy was extremely ineffective.
Opposition was divided along political lines. The majority of opposition to the Convoy in Ottawa came from left-adjacent Liberals who thus believed in the efficacy of police action. This has broad intersectional implications. The leftist opposition, who did not support police action, but would demonstrate in the Occupied Zone and disrupt the events, were in the minority by far.
The legal measures, namely civil injunctions brought against the Convoy were admirable, but fundamentally flawed by the requirement that law be enforced. Time and again we saw Police and municipal officials balk from taking any action against the Occupation of their own city.
Counter-demonstrations did occur eventually. They were often impromptu as local organizers likewise balked at demonstrations without police support, something they could not get in the Occupied Zone. One large event did occur far outside the Occupied Zone, and while the numbers were definitely impressive, their avoidance of any confrontation meant the effect was minimal.
The most successful act of opposition happened at Billings Bridge, where a group of citizens blocked the road for an Occupation convoy for hours, attracting people from across town to join. Marked vehicles were forced to remove their flags and stickers before being allowed to leave. It has been speculated that this action caused the governments to take notice of the crisis brewing from both sides of Ottawa and compelled them to act.
From inside the Occupation area, demonstrators did make their voices heard, but they were in constant danger of being mobbed, many were stalked, and some were threatened in their own homes.
Direct action like eggings whipped the participants into a frenzy of paranoia about ANTIFA. Their paranoia increased exponentially to the actual threat to them, and by the end of the Occupation many locations had a 24-hour watch.
These successes, along with others like the hacking of the Convoy Zello communications, were satisfying but ultimately self-serving. They allowed people to express anger at the Convoy, but in no way affected the Convoy’s presence in Ottawa. When one breaks down the events with analysis, it’s clear the Ottawa community allowed the fascists to own the streets almost unimpeded.
It can’t be allowed to happen again.
After the dust settled
Most weekends on Wellington Street in Ottawa a group of former Convoy participants meets up to keep up their struggle against mandates that no longer exist. In various far-right gatherings across Canada, Freedom Convoy bumper stickers and shirts are a point of pride.
When the protest started the federal government had already announced the end to most COVID Mandates they had power over, but the Convoy won because it salted the earth. The damage this one movement did to public health measures is such that I gravely doubt Canada is capable of re-enacting public health measures like mandated quarantines in our lifetimes, regardless of what the disease we face is.
In politics, we have seen since the Occupation, a steady uptick in Conservative and Far-Right support. Pierre Poilievre in particular can thank the Freedom Convoy for his current position, one that will likely make him the Prime Minister.
Meanwhile unless the Liberals win their appeal in the Supreme Court, they will go down in history as the people who curtailed civil liberties of individuals in order to secure some extra tow trucks and appease their mutinous police. The support the Liberals did gain by using the Emergencies Act, further pushed the Liberal party to the right.
The Canadian left has their own obsession with the Convoy movement. To this day a veritable cottage industry of people who oppose the remnants of the Convoy still talk about the Wellington crew as if they are relevant in today’s far-right. I would argue the attention on them has been counter-productive for a long time now.
The various constituent parts of the Freedom Convoy occasionally try to regain their lost mojo, but no event has come close to equaling the winter of 2022. It can well be argued that the Freedom Convoy was Canada’s January 6th, and like that event, the forces that pushed the Convoy have become stronger since.
The greatest irony of the Freedom Convoy is that they won a complete victory but don’t seem to realize it.
Ian,
February 2024
Select Sources
My article in antihate.ca during the occupation.
Final Report | Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC)
Biden, Trudeau talk convoys as U.S. braces for Canadian-style protests - POLITICO
Four highlights from the Emergencies Act inquiry's final report | CBC News
'We're still out here': Rally in Ottawa marks 2 years since convoy protests | CBC News
Great article, Ian.
Regardless of how it was handled by the feds, this was ammo for fascists. It was clear there was a complete failure of all enforcement prior. If PMJT steps in, it's tyranny. If PMJT didn't step in, he would look weak.
I am not saying I think it was handled properly, more that it was orchestrated from the start to be a zero-sum game.
Thank you for this concise break down of this event. It was a very tumultuous time, something I never thought we would see in this country. And I hope we the citizens can learn from it and not see it repeated. Unfortunately, I’m not so optimistic that will the case.