Truck convoy is ‘ugly side of freedom;’ Canada’s top newspaper

Arguing for the government to further “limit freedoms,” Canada’s most widely read newspaper, the Globe and Mail, has printed an opinion piece entitled, The Ottawa truck convoy has revealed the ugly side of freedom.

Limited freedom

Known as “Canada’s newspaper of record” and regarded as an "upmarket” newspaper which “continues to cater to the Canadian political and intellectual elite," the Globe and Mail reminds its readers that, “rights and freedoms, precious as they are, are not absolute. Governments, it proclaims, can limit freedoms, provided the limits are “reasonable” and can be “justified in a free and democratic society.”

Danger?

The opinion article concludes, “Freedom, misconstrued as license to do and say whatever one wants, is dangerous.”

Indeed, American law similarly holds that one is not protected from the legal consequences of “falsely shouting fire in a theatre.” 

Irony

The op-ed is not, however, attacking truckers for causing life endangering panics. Rather, it ironically accuses the people protesting limits on the freedom of residents and businesses of exploiting a, “vaunted ‘freedom’ to hold Ottawa’s downtown residents and businesses hostage [and] the right to malign public officials.”

In other words, protestors shouldn’t disagree with (“malign”) politicians locking down and otherwise restricting the movement and freedom of residents and businesses because, if the protest is large enough, it will cause traffic jams that may make the residents and business owners feel restricted.

The irony was not lost on a local Ottawa resident who was quoted by Fox News.

“[A] woman said ‘no doubt’ the noise was initially bad, but added that it didn't bother her. "I think it's been absolutely beautiful … 

“I'm coming for the third or fourth time just to check things out. I've seen nothing but love.

"We've been inconvenienced, lockdowned for two years. What's a couple of weeks of inconvenience?" [Emphasis added].

Deception

Notwithstanding its headline about “fed up” residents of the capital city, where many residents are government employees, the Fox News article noted what the op-ed left out; that the displeasure was mainly with road closures and that there were others who agreed with the woman’s support of the protest.

"’I don't think it's cooked up to be what it is on the news,’ one man told Fox News. ‘It's kind of like a festival.’

“A construction worker similarly said he's loved having the movement in Ottawa.

"’I work just down the road,’ he said. ‘I come support it at lunch.’"

Racism?

The think piece, after correctly noting that the anti-COVID-restriction protestors advocated for “the right not to wear masks in public places; the right not to be vaccinated,” bizarrely added, without any evidence to support the grave charge, that they were also demanding the “right to shout epithets at people of colour.” The paper then warned about the significant impact which may result in the future from this unproven behavior.

“Freedom without limits slides imperceptibly into freedom to say and do what you want about people who don’t look like you or talk like you. Sadly, the Ottawa truckers’ convoy has revealed this ugly side of freedom.”

Internal fact-check failure?

A simple internet search would have revealed a Newsweek article, published just 11 days before this op-ed, entitled, ”Stop Calling the Truckers Racist. Many Black Canadians Support Them.”

That article was penned by Jamil Jivani, who was named the 2015 Young Lawyer of the Year by the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers. A Yale Law School graduate and a member of the Premier's Council on Equality of Opportunity, Jivani declared, “the truth must be said: We have no reason to believe the majority of truckers in the convoy are racist. In fact, appropriate for the month of February, the trucker convoy is actually a Black history moment. Countless trucker convoy participants and supporters are Black. A popular Instagram account called "poc4freedomconvoy" (shorthand for People of Color for Freedom Convoy) with over 60,000 followers has documented the outpouring of support that the trucker convoy received from members of Black communities across Canada…

“I've seen dozens of other Black Canadians sharing videos and pictures demonstrating their support for the convoy, many of them pushing back against the divisive racism narrative being pushed by Trudeau and the media.

“And though the media has largely pushed Trudeau's line about racism, National Post columnist Rupa Subramanya, who lives in Ottawa, has documented the diversity of the trucker convoy. Subramanya's Twitter feed is awash in images and videos of Black Canadians joining the protest with messages like, ‘Hate is the real virus. Spread the love.’"

Subramanya herself wrote, “I have spoken to close to 100 protesters, truckers and other folks, and not one of them sounded like an insurrectionist, white supremacist, racist or misogynist.”

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A post shared by POC 4 FREEDOMCONVOY ???????? (@poc4freedomconvoy)

Top jurist 

Adding to the weight of the piece is the standing of its author - Beverley McLachlin, who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada for almost two decades, from 2000 to 2017, and is the recipient of 31 honorary university degrees. 

Interestingly, McLachlin, who has a “self-described judicial philosophy as being scrupulously non-partisan and impartial”, has claimed to use the judicial bench to protect citizens' rights, claiming, “courts are the ultimate guardians of the rights of society” and “the court belongs to the Canadian people.”

China 

McLachlin retired as Chief Justice shortly before reaching the mandatory retirement age and, in 2018, was appointed to the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong, where she is now serving in her second term as a “non-permanent” member from a foreign jurisdiction.

Canada’s National Post published a searing criticism of McLachlin’s continued work on the bench in an August 2021 article entitled, Canada's ex-chief justice renews job on top Hong Kong court despite Beijing's tightening grip.

“Democracy activists were already concerned about Beijing’s encroachment on judicial independence when McLachlin was first appointed….

“'The presence of judges from England, Australia or Canada on the court, signing on to the decisions, enhances public confidence in their justice system and in those decisions,' McLachlin said.

“Since then, in the wake of massive pro-democracy protests, China imposed the national security law….

“The statute punishes by up to life in prison such offences as undermining the state’s authority, colluding with foreign countries or ‘external elements’ and pushing for independence …

“[The] draconian new national security law, [is] ushering in a more repressive era that has seen authorities effectively shut down a pro-democracy newspaper, arrest opposition politicians and even seize children’s books they considered seditious.

“Two other foreign judges have quit the court, one citing the potential negative impact of the security law.

“Despite Beijing’s tightening grip on the city, however, McLachlin has just agreed to serve another three-year term on the Court of Final Appeal, triggering heated controversy in a legal community where she’s otherwise revered.

“Some critics say McLachlin is helping prop up a system used to erase basic freedoms …

Even before she was reappointed to the court, the directors of the Law Society of Ontario — the province’s legal regulator — debated a motion calling on her to quit.

The resolution … was defeated … But Ryan Alford, a law professor … voted in favour and says he can’t see why McLachlin still sits on the court.

“‘It’s lending prestige to an institution that is not deserving of prestige,’ Alford charged in an interview. ‘It’s now conducting political prosecutions under essentially a state-trial process. For someone as esteemed as the former chief justice of Canada to be a member of that court … is actively supporting Beijing’s goals in Hong Kong, which are to crush the democracy movement.’”

Citizens of Ottawa deserve better than those of Hong Kong?

Are we to believe that McLachlin’s opposition to the truck convoy stems purely from her concern for the rights of Ottawans not to face traffic jams despite her role in assisting the Communist Party of China (CPC) by “propping up a system used to erase basic freedoms” of Hong Kong's citizens?