The American Virus | The Press

Here is a quote that says a lot about the Americanization of our political debate.

It comes from the husband of Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the protest convoy in Ottawa.

In Ontario court, he said, “I thought it was a peaceful protest and, based on the First Amendment, I thought it was part of our rights. »

The judge was incredulous. “What do you mean, the first amendment ? What is that ? »

Mr. Lich was unknowingly referring to the US Constitution…

In the United States, this amendment is often argued to justify the right to say or do anything. Donald Trump invoked it to defend his speech which preceded the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

It should come as no surprise that this amendment is resurfacing among the occupiers of Ottawa. They are inspired by American politics. They import its hypercleavage and tribalism.

In 2010, American satirists Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert organized the demonstration Restore Sanity. I remember a particularly successful poster. It read: “I don’t agree with you, but I don’t believe you are Hitler. »

This person was not listened to. The Tea Party was followed by Trumpism, and the debate turned into trench warfare, and this drift is now spreading to the North. Justin Trudeau is now compared to Castro and Hitler, among others.

To dialogue, it is necessary to share a minimal understanding of the facts and to accept that a reasonable disagreement remains. Not getting along is normal. This is the essence of political debate. The institutions serve to frame it while respecting major principles.

But in the United States, activists are tempted by another model. Back in 2016, Trump supporters yelled this about Hillary Clinton: “Jail her! »

Canadians have been inspired by it. In December 2016, the Rebel News media organized a demonstration in Edmonton. We heard the same sentence, uttered to the place of the Premier of Alberta, the New Democrat Rachel Notley^{⁠ 1}.

Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose reacted quickly. “It’s not only unoriginal, but it’s also completely out of place,” she said, before accusing these people of “behaving like idiots”.

Jason Kenney, who was running for the Conservative leadership of Alberta, also called the threat “ridiculous” and “offensive”.

Unlike the Republican Party, the Conservative Party of Canada is not yet plagued by this sectarianism. But this month in Ottawa, we saw a few MPs wholeheartedly supporting protesters who wanted to overthrow a democratically elected government.

The model is starting to make babies.

Rebel News is an “alternative” media. In the sense that it conveys “alternative” facts.

He has already propagated the false thesis of a Muslim killer at the great mosque of Quebec. He also denounced an alleged genocide against white people, published a text by Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys, entitled “10 things I hate about Jews”, and called the neo-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville “patriots”.

Following this event, the Conservative leaders themselves no longer gave interviews to this media.

The Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery refuses to accredit them. In the US, on the other hand, Rebel News founder Ezra Levant is a Fox News regular.

The polemicist Tucker Carlson invited him to comment on the siege in Ottawa^⁠2. In his eyes, Justin Trudeau would be a dictator, and the occupiers would represent the people. No mention of the fact that the majority supports health measures and disapproves of the occupation of the capital, and that nearly 89% of truckers are vaccinated.

Mr. Levant was also a guest on Mike Huckabee’s show^⁠3, former Republican presidential candidate. He is presented as one of the rare journalists to have covered the demonstrations on the ground. Yet he did it part-time and he was speaking in front of a picture of the CN Tower in Toronto.

Canada is the new obsession of these Republicans. Should we be surprised then at the pro-Trump posters seen at the convoy? And above all, its American funding?

On the GiveSendGo platform, the majority of donors were American (52,000 out of 92,844 individuals). They donated 3.6 million (40% of the total).

To defend his wife in Ottawa, Tamara Lich’s husband traveled by private jet. It was a gift from a donor. He refuses to name him.

We know well, however, the speech that influences him, and he has a slight accent from the South…

There is nothing wrong with criticizing the mandatory vaccination of truckers and federal employees, with denouncing the use of Emergency Measures Act or to recall that health constraints have harmed mental health.

The problem is elsewhere: it is the distortion of the facts, the contempt for the institutions, the rejection of the democratic process, the demonization of the adversary and the basic lack of respect towards others.

In other words: the American virus.