With No End in Sight, Ottawa Protests Extend Beyond Canada’s Borders
New York Times
Trucker Protests: Weapons Seized in Canada; Convoys in Belgium, Israel, US
Image copyright: Reuters [via the Washington Post]
The Facts
Canadian RCMP arrested 11 on Monday at protests near the border of Coutts and Montana, confiscating firearms, ammunition, and body armor. Separately, a tractor and semi-truck attempted to ram a police car.
The Ambassador Bridge linking Ontario and Detroit has reopened, with police making 46 arrests and removing 37 vehicles since the protest began.
The Spin
Left narrative
Freedom Convoys have become a grab bag of right-wing grievances spreading from Canada to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel. In the US, the convoys are a circus of Neo-Nazis, Stop the Steal, Q'anon, Fox News stars, GOP personalities, and grifters hawking merchandise and cryptocurrency. It's unclear how organized this will actually become, but for now it sounds a lot like Jan 6.
Right narrative
These Freedom Convoys are the most successful human rights protests in a generation. Working class people are resisting elitist and authoritarian COVID policies. These are not "insurrectionists" and "Neo-Nazis"--this is an organic blue collar movement. Trudeau's tyrannical policies are being pushed back, and leftist leaders like Biden had better take note.