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In October 2015 , militants of the Front for the Liberation of Quebec, Canada, kidnapped and murdered the governor of the province, Pierre Laporte. They also held British diplomat James Cross captive for two months. In reaction, the country’s prime minister at the time, Pierre Trudeau, invoked the War Measures Act. For the first time the law was used in times of peace.
Now, in mid-February 2022, Pierre’s son, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, invoked another exception legislation, the Emergency Law, approved in 1935 to replace the War Measures Law and even so never used. The text allows banning the gathering of citizens, as well as restricting travel within the country. And it was triggered on the pretext of stopping the movement of truck drivers who, since January, have been protesting in the streets against the mandatory vaccines against Covid-12 for those who wish to work between Canada and the United States.
Prime Minister since
and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada since 2015, Justin Trudeau called the Freedom Train a “radical and minority movement”. Now, with the blockade on strategic highways continuing, he has decided to appeal to more radical measures. A sign that the protesters are bothering the government.
The actions of the protesters affect the center of the capital, Ottawa, as well as a border area through which more than a quarter of the trade between Canada and the United States passes. The Freedom Train collected US$ 7.8 million in donations – but the amount was not used because the website responsible for the collection, GoFundMe, took the action off the air. Although the largest unions in the category have spoken out against the protests, they have the approval of approximately one third of the Canadian population, of 38 million people.
Canadian truck drivers inspire other movements against mandatory vaccination certificates to work. In France, on the day 12 in February, police used tear gas to stop a protest on Avenue Champs Elysees in Paris. Similar demonstrations have already taken place in Belgium, Australia and New Zealand.
Conservative leaders
The Freedom Train has among its leaders Tamara Lich, who became known for three years for actively participating in the movement for the independence of the western provinces of the country. “The members of this freedom movement are ordinary, peace-loving, law-abiding citizens who have had enough of being abused by the government,” she told the Ottawa Citizen newspaper.They also act as spokespersons for the movement James Bauder and Sandra Bauder, founders of Canada Unity – a group that, like other leadership of the convoy, Brian Peckford, spent the entire pandemic questioning health restrictions. The protesters also have the public support of Cathryn Carruthers, co-founder of Families for Choice, an organization that advocates that parents can decide whether or not to vaccinate their children.
In turn, another of the organizers, Maxime Bernier, is a former member of the Conservative Party who, in 2018, after losing a leadership contest, founded the People’s Party of Canada. His aggressive political approach has earned him the nickname Mad Max. “When tyranny becomes law, revolution will become our duty,” he once declared.
As the case of Bernie indicates, their relationship with the Conservative Party of Canada is indeed shaky, even though some of their participants, such as truck driver Benjamin Dichter, are members of the movement.
The Freedom Train initially received the support of the party, which has existed under that name since 2003 and currently adds 12 a thousand people. Subsequently, interim leader Candice Bergen called for the lockdowns to be lifted and called organizers “crazy”.
Party in crisis The emergence of these leaders not aligned with the Conservative Party indicates that the group is in crisis. In early February, while the Freedom Train was operating, Erin O’Toole was removed from the party leadership, which she had held since August of 2020. O’Toole had been criticized for trying to bring the party closer to the center of the country’s political spectrum. The poor performance in the most recent federal elections, held in September 2021, did not help either, as did the defense of different positions. those traditionally supported by the party. He declares himself in favor of the practice of abortion, for example. Throughout of its history, conservatives have ruled Canada for long periods. They formed the largest political force in the country throughout the period from 1935 to 960. With the current name, they ruled the country between 2006 and 2015.
Weight support
For Canadian Jordan Peterson, one of the the world’s most influential intellectuals and a voice in their country against mandatory vaccines, the Freedom Train reached an expressive space in the country’s political scene. “I was asked to speak out about the protests, and now I do, after much reflection”, he comments in a video posted on his YouTube channel.
“You’ve come a long way. They now have a voice in the House of Commons,” he declares. “You remained peaceful. They didn’t take the bait when provoked. Now they have a difficult choice before them”, he assesses, referring to the decision as to when to end the protests.
Peterson is one of Canada’s most respected conservative leaders. In validating the protests, despite not having participated in the organization of the action, he makes it clear that the movement has the ability to influence the direction of the country’s Conservative Party, precisely at a time when it finds itself in crisis.