The Emergencies Act and double standards

"Freedom Convoy" protesters and Ottawa Police face off in a confrontation on Friday. Credit: Ottawa Police RABBLE.CA The top story this week was of course Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invoking of the federal Emergencies Act on Monday February 14. As we produce this newsletter, after weeks of inaction as described by Karl Nerenberg and Robin Browne, police forces have begun to end the occupation in Ottawa. As we continue to monitor events in Ottawa closely, the question everyone is asking - particularly residents who find themselves confined to “red zones” with limited movement - is how has this been permitted to go on for as long as it has? Writers on rabble.ca argue, because that’s what the police do: uphold white supremacy in Canada.  Monia Mazigh writes that "If there is a lesson to be drawn from the ongoing occupation of Ottawa’s downtown, it is that anti-terrorism legislation is unconstitutional and ultimately, useless in protecting public safety. It is time to repeal these laws and hold a public debate about the meaning of freedom. Instead of laws that curtail our civil liberties, we should reflect on the importance of respecting our human rights to ensure both our safety and our security." Rachel Snow agrees that the Ottawa convoy exposes the racism that First Nations have long known. When the truckers and supporters first descended on Ottawa in January, there was “practically a red-carpet welcome” from the police forces, writes Snow. Live footage posted on social media sites point to joviality between the police and protestors.  When the issue of all-night honking went to court, the judge was slow to grant an injunction at first. He maintained he could not issue anything because there was no surety in exactly “who was making the noise – the trucks or their supporters” so the honking noise was “indistinguishable.”  This sort of slow-moving justice has never been granted for Indigenous peoples. “What happens to First Nation people standing against injustice? They are beaten, cuffed and thrown into jail,” she writes. “This is your Canada. There is a rule of law for the First Nations and a rule of law that applies to non-First Nation people.”  Robin Browne observes that, “the Ottawa Police Service, like all police forces in Canada, has always had one mandate: protect the powerful – or at least don’t get in their way. And the thousands of convoy protesters, with their millions in the bank, are the powerful.” Become a monthly sustainer

In some cities, residents have taken it upon themselves to stop the convoys. Archana Rampure reports from the frontlines in Ottawa this week as 4,000 people marched in support of vaccines, mask mandates, and democracy. “We take care of ourselves. We have been abandoned by the police,” she writes. “What does it say about the state of affairs in the nation’s capital when ordinary people step up to what the police won’t?”  Meanwhile in Edmonton, a small group of counter-demonstrators managed to blockade a parade of “Freedom Convoy” supporters on their way to the city’s downtown last Saturday. The blockade had managed to stop a line of pickup trucks, SUVs and four semi-trailers cabs in the eastbound lane of River Valley. Wildly, police told the counter-demonstrators to remove themselves from the area and threatened them with application of Alberta’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act.