Quebec City’s newest mayor, Bruno Marchand, passed his first test of the high-risk protest with flying colors. Didn’t two festivals take place simultaneously in the crucial sector of the National Assembly this weekend, without the slightest excess or misconduct worthy of mention being reported? The gleaming trumpets of the Carnaval de Québec and the din of car horns of the “Convoi de la liberté” coexisted without a hitch.
Mr. Marchand’s recipe? Seen from the outside, sufficient attention to the grievances of the demonstrators, without unnecessary provocation; a high-level logistics strategy; adequate resources to react in the event of slippage; and an excellent level of preparation. All the observers present this weekend in the perimeter of the Parliament of Quebec spoke of a “carnival of freedom” docile and well supervised. At 5 p.m. Sunday evening, the Quebec City police department warned that a parked vehicle was liable to a ticket and towing. Present on site, our reporter observed that at 5:35 p.m., the “Freedom Convoy” was no longer visible near Parliament Hill.
Next to the bonhomie of Quebec, Ottawa presents a mine of besieged city. A few hundred trucks are still paralyzing the area around parliament, and a thousand demonstrators are still part of a movement that denounces all the health measures imposed by the Canadian government. They promise that they will only ride if they win their case: the end of all these measures, for a saving return to their “freedom”. For the moment, they are exercising their freedom to demonstrate with a bang.
An Ontario Superior Court judge granted a 10-day interim injunction on Monday afternoon to stop the concert of horns that has lasted for ten days, poisoning the lives of residents. But the nuisance has far exceeded the noise: passers-by wearing masks have claimed to be the target of intimidating words and gestures, not to mention journalists who are struggling to do their job without risking insults or a stampede. We can understand the citizens, merchants and employees working in the red zone wanting to get out of this real nightmare. A temporary injunction may protect the right to calm, but it does not solve the central problem of the continuing occupation.
The right to protest remains an inalienable right. Moreover, the dissatisfaction expressed by the forces present in Ottawa and elsewhere in the major Canadian cities has gone far beyond the first demand – to put an end to the obligation of compulsory vaccination for truckers crossing the Canada-US border. It also feeds on a feeling of collective exasperation with the authorities, who are accused of mismanaging the pandemic.
The authorities are currently passing the buck as to the responsibility for the fiasco they are witnessing, apparently more and more powerless as time goes by. After abruptly dismissing the demonstrators by calling them all conspiratorial, which helped to crystallize the discontent, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remains silent and isolates himself. He sent a brigade of ministers on Monday to vociferate that this situation could not last, but to reaffirm that the federal government could not interfere in the conduct of the police.
Alone at the front, the Ottawa police chief, Peter Sloly, multiplies the press briefings to take stock of the tickets that his team distributes, the seizure of equipment carried out in the hope of cutting off supplies to the demonstrators encrusted near of parliament. There is a lack of cohesion among the police forces involved — Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Ottawa Police Service and Ontario Provincial Police. The mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson, declared a state of emergency on Sunday, but it is still difficult to see what this will concretely bring to an end to this occupation. This “Freedom Convoy” did not arrive by surprise: it is incomprehensible that the City was not better prepared for its invasion.
The truth is that it will be very difficult to act now without setting fire to the powder keg, because the installation is too advanced. The vehicles are well installed, and it will not be easy to find towing teams ready to move these behemoths under the influence of force. Buildings have literally been erected, without this being prevented, and very unwelcome will be those who dare to ax them. Through leaders with nauseating extremist ideas with whom it is impossible to dialogue, “ordinary” citizens have slipped in to express their fed up. The corridor for action is narrow and boils down to an impossible leitmotif: no longer tolerate, without negotiating or provoking.