For more than 10 days, truckers opposed to vaccine mandates at the Canadian and U.S. borders have mobilized thousands of supporters to disrupt and terrorize the people of Ottawa. While beginning as a protest against vaccine mandates, the thousands who have poured into Ottawa have escalated the situation into a major occupation threatening the safety and well being of Ottawa residents. Ottawa’s mayor and police have finally been forced to declare a state of emergency after refusing to take measures for more than a week to quell the violence that has escalated in the nation’s capitol. Here in the United States, right-wing politicians and billionaires like Elon Musk are praising the truckers and the mobs who are rioting in downtown Ottawa and around the Parliament.
Ottawa residents wearing masks are being attacked. Elderly residents are forced to stay indoors, businesses have closed. Children have been kept home from school. Hundreds of trucks have filled the city honking their horns constantly and fouling the air with fumes of trucks kept running 24/7.
The true character of this seditious uprising is that this is not just about vaccine mandates. Throughout the crowds, Confederate flags from U.S.-based racists can be seen everywhere, and pro-Nazi signs and anti-Jewish signs can be seen throughout the areas where protesters are gathering. Women are being attacked by thugs, people deemed to be LGBTQ are being jumped and beaten, and racist and sexist slurs are being shouted by the bigots who have come to foment violence against the community of Ottawa.
Protests called by progressives
Progressive forces in Ottawa have come together to find a way to expose the true nature of the right-wingers who have come to join what has become a fascist-like uprising.
One organization, Raging Grannies, an international antiwar organization with an active chapter in Ottawa, held a demonstration in the Capitol demanding that the marauders “go away.” Facing down hundreds of protesters and trucks, the Raging Grannies bravely demanded that steps be taken to curtail the violence. Jo Wood, organizer for the Raging Grannies, who lives in downtown Ottawa, put it this way: “We are not going to surrender to this violence. We represent the vast majority of the people of Ottawa and Canada, who are opposed to the violence and bigotry of the mob that is occupying our city. They need to know they are not welcome here and must leave.”
