The cries demanding freedom are likely to resound again, this winter, against the ramparts of the national capital. A year after the arrival of a convoy of truckers at the gates of Parliament, a new demonstration is organized in Quebec in the name of rights and freedoms. The event, scheduled for February 17, is to be spread over a period of one month.
The promoters of the demonstration propose to protest against various bills, both federal and provincial, which they consider liberticidal. The demands denounce the hiring of the McKinsey firm by Quebec and Ottawa as well as the Indian Act or the restrictions imposed on certain types of firearms.
The event is intended to be “educational and peaceful” and offers a “new concept”, by inviting demonstrators to meet in front of Parliament on February 17, “for four consecutive weeks spread over different days”.
One of the organizers of the demonstration, Jonathan Mongrain, assures that the gathering of February 17 “is neither a convoy nor a siege”.
“The event is not associated with freedom convoys,” he said in an email exchange. The five administrators of the Facebook page entitled Convois de la liberté 2023 are, however, the same ones who are organizing the demonstration in Quebec.
The demonstration aims to denounce laws and methods which flout, according to the instigators of the rally, the rights and freedoms enshrined in the constitution. “For more than two years, the [s] government [s]both federal and provincial, adopt and make amendments to laws without informing the general public”, begins a message addressed to “all Canadians” and published on the Facebook group.
Bills C-11 and C-21, which respectively seek to modernize the law on broadcasting and to prohibit certain types of firearms, find no favor in the eyes of the organizers. Their recriminations sometimes echo the comments heard in the ranks of the Canadian Conservative Party, some members of which strongly decry these two bills.
According to them, C-11, which aims to further regulate online broadcasting platforms, grants Ottawa the power to “choose what will or will not be published via television, social networks, newspapers, etc. C-21, which notably proposes to ban assault weapons in Canada, amounts to “banning firearms”. The expansion of medical assistance in dying, sanctioned in March 2021, is also part of the demands expressed by the group.
Jonathan Mongrain originally planned to hold the rally in Ottawa, but the adoption of Bill 100 in Ontario put an end to that ambition. This law provides for the imposition of heavy fines on persons or vehicles that interfere with protected transportation infrastructure by disrupting ordinary economic activity or public safety. For fear of being inflicted with penalties of up to $100,000, the organizers preferred to set their sights on Quebec.
The arrival of truckers asking for the lifting of sanitary measures, in February 2022, had scalded several citizens of the national capital. Although the rallies had not led to any outbursts, the coming and going of cars, coupled with the smell of gasoline and the incessant sound of car horns that floated downtown, had not attracted the sympathy of the premises.
The Quebec City police department (SPVQ) says it has been informed of an event on February 17, “where people want to express themselves on the theme of rights and freedoms”. The SPVQ intends to assess the situation and promises to ensure the safety of the population as well as that of the demonstrators if the rally takes place.
Last year, the police deployment put in place to ensure the smooth running of the two weekends of demonstrations cost the City more than a million dollars. The scale of the gathering planned for this year remains uncertain: at the time these lines were written, a thousand people were following the page of the demonstration created four days before. However, only 17 of them indicated that they wanted to participate.