Dakota Beacon

By now the whole world knows about the massive truckers' convoy which has spanned the breadth of Canada in a record-breaking demonstration of solidarity against an overreaching government machine.  We have watched them, driven by the need to restore their own freedom, filling the highways and bringing traffic to a standstill at some border points, most to arrive at the nation's capitol, Ottawa, to insist peacefully that the mandates and restrictions on their God-given freedom are ended after two years of patient cooperation.  Just as in the U.S., businesses representing people's entire life's work, the investment of their blood, sweat, tears and life savings, have been disappeared as the governments, provincial and national, have enthusiastically sacrificed them as they ploughed under the constitution which protected them, imposed ridiculous masking restrictions, distancing, closed down events, closed schools, prohibited just about everything that makes life worthwhile - all in the name of stopping an annual flu variant which has a survival rate of nearly 100% - and would be 100% if the drugs which are successfully used to treat it were not also banned by this same government.  

After two years of this involuntary deprivation, two years of forebearance with a government that has become so detached it can't even see the people from Parliament Hill, Trudeau sent down one more order, one which broke the proverbial camel's back.  He demanded that cross-border truckers be vaccinated or quarantine for two weeks whenever they crossed the border.  He might as well have said they must drive their trucks from the bumper behind their trailers, or walk on their hands.  These people drive trucks all day long, every day, for a living.  They obviously cannot pick Option 2.  In other words, he is "mandating" the vaccine.  

The vaccine is just as experimental in Canada as it is here.  Those who have not taken it already under their own volition do not want it at all and are resisting this invasion of their bodies and their civil and human rights.  The government has not backed away from these outrageous demands so the truckers, fed up, decided to drive to their capital city to visually display their disgust and disapproval of their government.  

There have been no reports of vandalism, no credible reports of wrongdoing of any kind.  Oh, wait!  Someone draped a Canadian flag around a statue of famed Canadian athlete Terry Fox and placed a cardboard sign in his hands stating "No More Mandates" or the equivalent.  There was a guy wearing a ski mask (the only mask in sight at the event) and carrying a replica of the Stars and Bars.  He was not one of the protesters, but just posing as one.  He was ejected immediately.  Another such person (maybe the same one) was seen carrying a swastika flag.  He was not part of the protest either.  Same story.  Someone claimed the truckers were taking food from the homeless, but when the story was checked out it was truckers actually helping to feed the homeless of Ottawa instead, with hot dogs, pizza, doughnuts, cookies and coffee.  So that wasn't true either.  There have been no broken windows, no arson, no tipping over of dumpsters.  Instead, truckers have been picking up litter and helping to clean the streets.  These are not BLM or Antifa, trained to injure, steal,  destroy and cause damage but rather hard-working people who care about their communities.  Just the kind of people you want to come to town, albeit there are a lot of them at the moment in Ottawa.  No credible claims have been made to this point of any damage caused by these drivers.  It has been estimated that there are in excess of 100,000 trucks in town now and more on the way . . . and so far no violence or destructive behavior by any of them.

A number of very clumsy efforts have been undertaken to destroy the momentum of these protests.  The government officials, mayors, usually, in the case of Alberta, its Premier Jason Kenney (remember his name - he mustn't go any farther in his political career), have attempted to have the trucks towed.  Tow companies have refused.  Why would they do a dumb thing like tow trucks away?  These people work for truckers for a living.  Anyone stupid enough to tow these people's rigs away would starve next year, besides which it is becoming clear that this is no "fringe minority" as Justin Trudeau tried to label them.  It would appear that they have a huge majority of the people of Canada behind them.  They have to live in these communities.  No ivory towers for them to hide in.  It turns out that when a government takes everything away there isn't much left to do but fight to get it back.  No one has much to lose when their restaurant has been closed down forever, their shop is out of business, their schools are closed, their sports events all cancelled and everything else that makes life livable is gone.  So they are largely behind the truckers as witnessed by the throngs of people gathered in sub-zero, windswept, snow-stung prairies, on overpasses and along highways, waving signs of support and cheering them on, singing "O! Canada!" and chanting, "Freedom! Freedom!"  So the tow trucks haven't panned out yet.  More threats may be needed to get them off the mark.  Then we had the threat of arrests, but of course, if you arrest the driver of the truck and there is no one to tow it, the problem you wanted to fix remains anyway.  Still, it could happen.  There have been reports of police actually breaking into trucks to steal blankets and cold weather supplies that truckers carry.  This was to convince them they should just go home and wait for the police to arrest them at their homes later, one at a time, apparently.  Some of these people have spouses and children with them.  Clever idea to leave them exposed to deep-freeze -30 degree weather.  A few deaths from exposure might do the trick.  So far the truckers are refusing to be intimidated.  This is the hill they are willing to die on.  That's what happens when you take everything off the table and leave the other side nothing - they have nothing to lose by standing up.

Now an Ottawa councilman, the clever Mattheiu Fleury, has proposed that the city of Ottawa should simply seize the money raised by trucker supporters through GoFundMe.  His idea is to just simply steal this money and use it for odds and ends of policing (which is disingenuous to say the least, when there is no damage being done or violence being committed, when the truckers are behaving like model citizens) and damage which has not occurred, and clean-up which the truckers are doing themselves, and - get this - use the rest for PR to promote the city of Ottawa!  What a PR campaign!  "Come to beautiful Ottawa, the city that steals other people's money!"  Brilliant campaign.

There are other problems with this effort.  No doubt in the soviet socialist republic of Canada it could probably be engineered, but then what?  GoFundMe is in a terrible spot if they let that happen and do not defend the monies raised through public donations and make absolutely sure that the truckers get it.  Think of all the possible lawsuits they might have to contend with.  One might expect that everyone who has contributed has sacrificed to do so and this protest is very, very important to them.  Every one of them has a right to know without reservation that their money went to the cause they supported - not to beautify or promote the city of Ottawa.  If GoFundMe allowed this to happen it would immediately be out of business, quite possibly under the cloud of a massive class-action lawsuit.  Then the truckers themselves and the person who set up the fund could sue.  They have no interest in funding a promo campaign for the city of Ottawa.  GoFundMe has every reason to put the best lawyer they can find on this case and defend it with their very lives because even if they fight and lose, they lose.  They had better fight and win.  It's life or death for GoFundMe.  Even sending money back to all of the donors isn't going to save their reputation and future obviously.  GoFundMe and other similar enterprises exists only to serve the "underdog" - the person whose insurance won't cover a child's cancer surgery and treatment, the people who want to save animals from forest fires, people protesting against mammoth government oppression.  That kind of people.  They are not needed to finance efforts like beautifying or promoting tourism in the city of Ottawa.  Or any other government agency that taxes citizens at will to pay for what they want.  

It is a real dilemma.  The only sensible thing for GoFundMe to do, then, is to say, "Bring it on, Ottawa!"  Because anything else is suicide for them.  And a very expensive suicide.  We shall see what happens next.  Trudeau himself is still hiding in an "undisclosed location" somewhere in the vastness of Canada.  And you don't know what "vast" means until you've driven across western Canada.  So we will hear only the occasional inappropriate utterances from him and with each one public scorn seems to grow for him and his accolytes.  Scorn also abounds for the so-called "opposition party", the Conservatives - so much so that their erstwhile Opposition Leader, the overbearing, pusillanimous and officious Erin O'Toole, just lost a vote of confidence and is no longer the leader.   More to come on that.  If Conservatives ever want to win again in Canada they would be very wise to listen to the people before they choose his successor.  

It is a fascinating chapter in our history.  The Canadians were not the ones expected to take the lead in defying their government, but God works in mysterious ways, as we have observed here before.  In Australia a similar push-back is underway.   Meanwhile, in Canada, the council of its capital city is just trying to steal what belongs to someone else.  Like their mentor, Justin Trudeau, they have no problem with Antifa or BLM, who have made shoplifting legal.  It doesn't work that way, Ottawa.  You are embarassing yourselves.

It is a tricky thing to subjugate people who have tasted the rich fruit of freedom.  Tyranny works best in places where that has never been known. 

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