Encampment of protestors close to Canadian House of Parliament on the 18th day of their blockade
We Canadian are suddenly the centre of attention everywhere after a world wide reputation of being boring. Our fifteen minutes of fame nevertheless are an embarrassment when we become notorious for all the wrong reasons. Every gathering of more than one at a dinner table starts a conversation - and one is then left to reflect on the issues and implications for democracy.
It all began when some truckers didn’t like vaccine mandates mandated not only in Canada but also in the United States that wouldn’t allow them to travel back and forth without proof of vaccination. But what started as something fostered by a clear minority - 90% of truckers were fully vaccinated and their associations did not support the action - escalated into blockades of others that shut down borders, affected food and industrial chains, and terrorized the downtown residents of the Ottawa and federal parliament in Canada’s capital city. Hundreds of protesters settled in a downtown encampment with blaring horns and maskless invasions of the major shopping centre and nearby market. They parked their big wheelers, blocking bus routes and ambulance lanes on city streets and shutting down all surrounding businesses. Others did the same thing on major international routes - in one case stopping a quarter of Canada/US daily commercial traffic. They want all pandemic restrictions lifted - and some also are openly want to overthrow the elected government. Freedom signs are everywhere. There aren’t any Responsibility signs.
As it happened, last evening I attended a seminar on Non Violent Communication. Its founder, Marshall Rosenberg, seemingly had good reason to explore the subject based on his own upbringing and it has some good features as a model for one-on-one communication. It suggests a path with four components: observing the facts of a situation where one is impacted, examining how one feels about it, how it impacts one’s needs and values, and how one might explore the experience with the person who was involved in it. We were asked to think of a situation where something had happened that we didn’t like - and work through the other steps. We then practised with a partner, listened to each other’s account, and reflected out loud what we had heard.
All of this appears on a chart to help us. Feelings are listed under broad headings; joy and contentment, fear and anxiety, anger and frustration, sadness and grief. Each heading has numerous subsets.
The other side of the chart has headings of needs and values; subsistence, protection, security and trust, participation, creation, affection, identity, meaning and purpose, leisure, freedom, understanding, transcendence. There are subsets here as well.
But what was most interesting was an additional box labelled Faux Feelings. These were interpretations masquerading as feelings: Abandoned, abused, attacked, betrayed, ignored, intimidated, invisible, let down, manipulated, neglected, put upon, rejected, rushed, unappreciated. The descriptor for these reads, “thoughts about what someone else is doing to me.”
The Faux Feelings are rampant on both Ottawa’s encampment and its citizens. I’ll avoid the mudslinging of some of the politicians that everything is someone else’s fault. “Individuals and governments are regulated by laws and not by arbitrary actions, No person or group is above the law.” says Our guide for Aspiring Citizens. It applies in fact to all of us now since when we came as settlers it didn’t occur to us that we could take land occupied for centuries by the people of our First Nations, but that is another matter. Generally most of us believe in peace, order and good government. We are having a good deal of difficulty in communicating with those who don’t share how we interpret it.
We’re now dealing with the first ever imposition of the Emergencies Act - after watching local police forces outnumbered and inactive. Ottawa’s police chief has resigned and is replaced by an integrated force. Following the money from outside the country can now be investigated and accounts can be frozen. But these measures, coming after days of turmoil, has made us a laughing stock and a poster child for protests worldwide. It’s a totally new experience - and about the only thing that was totally predictable is that a certain US news service like Fox and its main supporter, the has-been president would be all over it. Even two New York Times opinion columnist feature it now, as well as an entire feature section. Famous we are, but not in a good way.
Tom Edsall tells us why the former president loves the the truckers. They’re his kind of people. Rand Paul invited them to come to Texas to work - though he doesn’t seem to know that they can’t come in until they are vaccinated. Edsall goes on to talk about the positive and negative effects of social capital. Bowling alone can also be Bowling for Fascism and there is an interesting map showing the US with positive and negative impacts of each. Tribes can reinforce both good and evil. Paul Krugman wrote two days ago When Freedom means the right to Destroy. He calls it a slow motion January 6. I think he is correct in describing both our fears and the speed of our response. It’s not only that we have integrated economies but we have integrated responses to pandemics and other hard stuff. And it emerges in faux feelings on both sides of the border.
Krugman compares the cost of the border crossings to Black Lives Matter protest costs. “The B.L.M. demonstrations were a reaction to police killings of innocent people; what’s going on in Canada is, on its face, about rejecting public health measures intended to save lives. Of course, even that is mainly an excuse: What it’s really about is an attempt to exploit pandemic weariness to boost the usual culture-war agenda.”
We’re still Canadian. We haven’t tear gassed our demonstrators and their trucks yet even though a news panel political commentator noted yesterday “I’ve been tear gassed for much less.” It might be the time we are thinking more about how we take our democracy for granted than ever before. And we’re watching.