"Nationwide insurrection!"? In Canada, you say? Really?

Ottawa police chief Peter "Moves" Sloly told his bosses, the Ottawa Police Services Board, that his "resources" are inadequate to evict the Freedom Convoy protesters now in their second week of peaceful demonstrations in the world's second-coldest capital.

Responding to pointed questions from the Board chairthingy, the diversity hire said, "As I look at the definition of adequate and effective policing, there is literally nothing in that definition of adequate and effective policing that could resolve a city under siege, that is a democracy threatened by a nationwide insurrection driven by madness." 

Wait a second. Did Chief Sloly really use the words "nationwide insurrection"?! Yes he did! Let's deconstruct that phrase. We'll ignore the incorrect use of "nation" -- in today's political orthodoxy, Canada comprises at least three "nations" -- and agree that the protests are indeed countrywide. 1000s of truckers, farmers and their supporters gathered yesterday in major cities across Canada, including Vancouver, and provincial capitals Québec, Toronto, Regina, Winnipeg, and smaller centres across Canuckistan. 

But is this photo, taken in Québec City yesterday, a scene from an "insurrection"? Look closely and you will see at least two of the green, white and red Drapeaux des Patriotes (Patriot Flags), featuring Le Vieux de `37. The old man (le vieux) is a depiction of a freedom fighter from the short-lived rebellion of 1837 in which Québécois patriots rose up against the English government of what was then called Lower Canada. There was a similar protest in York (now Toronto) against the Anglican "Family Compact".

What were those "rebels" fighting for? They were not anti-vaxxers! Yet Canada's lickspittle media are now pushing the Liberal Party line that today's protesters are just luddites and science-deniers who don't want to take their jabs. No. The patriots of yesteryear were fighting for freedom, just like those of today. 

Note the word "liberté", on the placard front and centre. That's "liberté" as in "liberté, égalité, fraternité" -- "liberty, equality, brotherhood". That's what this "insurrection" is all about, just as People's Party leader Maxime Bernier told the Ottawa protesters a couple of days ago. That and "Fuck Trudeau!"

Still, "insurrection" is a pretty strong word. The usual definition is: a violent uprising against an authority or government. The only report of physical violence reported so far was in Winnipeg yesterday when someone -- an agent provocateur planted by the authorities? -- drove an SUV into a crowd of protesters. That's it. The protests themselves have been not just "mostly peaceful", but totally peaceful.

The word "insurrection" also suggests organization and leadership, such as that shown at York by the firebrand William Lyon Mackenzie (grandfather of a future prime minister) and in Montréal by Louis-Joseph Papineau, whose name is now that of a Montréal Metro station and a federal electoral district. So far, no such leader has emerged from the throng of freedom fighters. The demonstrations appear to be genuinely spontaneous.

The liberal politicians and media are clutching their pearls and moaning about incipient "Trumpism" and the "death of democracy" in Canada. Some Canadians may wish it so, but we must be careful not to read too much into the present popular discontent. 

History buffs see parallels with the 1980s demonstrations which sparked the downfall of the Communist régimes of Poland, East Germany, Romania etc. But most Canadians are not yet ready to hunt down their near-Communist prime minister (still hiding in an "undisclosed location") and hang him by his heels. Won't happen today... because it's Sunday, and nothing happens on Sunday in Canada. But stay tuned.

Further reading: "Attack of the Transphobic Putin-Nazi Truckers!", on the CONSENT FACTORY, INC. blogsite: "Manufacturing consent for private and public sector clients for over 250 years". Thanks for Arnie at BCF for reposting this. Here's an excerpt.

"This is where we are at the moment. We are in that dangerous, absurdist end-stage of the collapse of a totalitarian system or movement where chaos reigns and anything can happen. The official Covid narrative is rapidly evaporating. More and more people are taking to the streets to demand an end to whole fascist charade … no, not 'transphobic white supremacists' or 'anti-vax extremists,' or 'Russian-backed Nazis,' but working-class people of all colors and creeds, families, with children, all over the world."