Organizers and supporters of the Ottawa “freedom protest” are seditionists who pose a danger to Canadian society

By Fareed Khan

The organizers and supporters of the so-called "freedom protests" that erupted in Ottawa and across the country three weeks ago present a danger to the political and economic stability of Canada and the security of Canadians.  Deeply troubling is the fact that the key protest organizers have a record of promoting messages of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and right-wing extremism.

The fact that the protesters in Ottawa and elsewhere across Canada are willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with such voices, and ignore the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who joined them in Parliament Hill should tell Canadians everything they need to know about who these people are.  The reality is that these people are as dangerous as those involved in the Capitol Hill insurrection in Washington DC on January 6, 2021.

What is happening in Ottawa since January 28th, and is now occurring across the country, is nothing less than an insurrection, with the protest organizers fomenting sedition.  The six-page, 1,500-word document which contained the protesters’ demands, which included overthrowing the government, has been removed from the website where it was posted, with protest organizers now backtracking about their goals.  Regardless, that document conveys the very real and very dangerous intentions of the protest organizers and their followers.

A majority of Canadians are now deeply angry at the protesters, even if they initially sympathized with their frustration around pandemic mandates.  The open displays of hate, with swastikas, the Confederate flag, and anti-trans messaging, and the distribution of yellow stars of David to be worn, equating pandemic mandates to Nazi persecution of Jews, is reprehensible, and indicative of the extremism of protesters.  The claims by some protesters that this is “only a few bad apples” is meaningless given that this behaviour was not condemned immediately by them.

It is also unacceptable that rather than standing with the majority of Canadians who support mask and vaccine mandates, and are demanding law and order, some Conservative MPs decided to support and encourage the insurrectionists.  It is a slap in the face to Canadians who want these protests to end, and it begs the question whether these MPs supported sedition.

Although they have changed their tune over the last week, the initial approach of Conservative interim leader Candice Bergen and her caucus is markedly different to how they reacted to Indigenous protests a couple of years ago.  Their current approach to the protest seems to mimic the playbook of US Republicans and their extremist right-wing allies.  It is blatant white privilege in action on the national stage, and seems that for the Tories being white is a “get out of jail free card”.

In 2014 when a lone gunman killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial and then forced his way into Parliament’s Centre Block, ultimately being killed in a shootout, Parliamentarians joined together in mutual support in the aftermath of that attack.  In the days and weeks that followed the full weight of Canada's police and national security infrastructure was put into action to deal with a potential national security threat involving a single person.

Today we have thousands of primarily white people across the country who have participated in illegal demonstrations, called for the overthrow of the Canadian government, held the City of Ottawa hostage, and disrupted the economic lifelines of the nation.  Their right to peaceful protest is no longer the issue. The issue now is that they violated the rights of other Canadians,  assaulted and intimidated those they do not agree with, and undermined the foundations of Canada’s democracy.  Throw into this mix the fact that they are being helped by former police officers and military personnel to counter police response to the protests and you have a recipe for a national disaster.

These protests are a defining moments in Canadian history, the same way that the 1970 October Crisis was.  Canadians have watched this protest with deep concern, and want the occupation at the heart of Canada’s democracy to end.  As in 2014 after the attack on Parliament, they want all MPs to put politics aside and join together for the sake of defending the nation, which is under attack from within, and from without by right-wing extremist elements in the US.

For the sake of all Canadians this protest needs to be dealt with decisively and quickly, with the protest leaders and many supporters being arrested and charged with sedition. Maybe now that the federal government has invoked the Emergencies Act the situation will be brought under control.

What the government and MPs do in the days and weeks to come will be one for the history books, and those who are on the wrong side of this will be remembered with infamy.

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