Right-Wing Agendas? From Canada, the Rebellion Against the COVID-19 Restrictions Spreads in Various Capitals of the World

The crisis of protest against health measures and vaccination campaigns to combat the Coronavirus has reached an advanced stage, this came with the Canadian government’s announcement on February 15, 2022, to activate the state of emergency law to confront the protesters who closed major roads and paralyzed movement in the country.

The infection of the protests against health measures organized in Canada has spread to several countries. Western capitals witnessed confrontations between security forces and participants in protest processions, who objected to the health passport and periodic checks.

However, the demands of the movements that are related to the convoys of freedom are no longer limited to the COVID-19 clause, restrictions and passports.

Rather, it took a political turn and began to be exploited by the agendas of the far-right movements in a deep and far-reaching manner, according to observers.

 

Protest Convoys

The Freedom Convoys protests that started on January 22 in the Canadian capital Ottawa, and gathered massively in front of the federal parliament on January 29, against the restrictions of the Coronavirus and the imposition of mandatory vaccinations, have disrupted large parts of Canada in recent weeks.

Convoys of trucks and cars rushed to the capital, Ottawa, and their drivers decided to start a massive protest against mandatory vaccination and the restrictions of the Coronavirus pandemic.

This is in response to the Canadian authorities' decision to impose vaccination or quarantine on drivers crossing the border from the United States of America.

Then the wave of protests moved to other major cities, exacerbating the crisis, as the protests turned into a broad demonstration against increased public health measures and a carbon tax in Canada.

Thousands of trucks crowded near Parliament House and steps from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office.

Protesters in Canada are using the country’s road closures as a vital means of protest, aiming to force the government to act quickly and accede to their demands.

It is noteworthy that about 90 percent of truck drivers in Canada are fully vaccinated and eligible to cross the border, less than 10 percent of them joined the protest convoys, according to the Canadian government.

In recent weeks, Canada has witnessed great economic turmoil, specifically when protesters cut the Ambassador Bridge in Ontario for six days, through which 25% of all trade between the United States and Canada passes.

This led to supply chain problems for many companies, such as Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Honda, which had to close their factories due to a shortage of spare parts.

In turn, Trudeau pointed out that the protesters do not represent the vast majority of Canadians, more than 80% of whom chose to have their full vaccinations.

He also described the actions of the protesters in Ottawa as illegal and dangerous activities, declaring the imposition of a state of emergency in an attempt to stop the protests.

The Canadian authorities froze the donation accounts set up by the protesters' supporters, and the police tried to prevent fuel and food from reaching the places where the truck drivers decided to block the roads with their huge trucks.

In parallel with the forceful dispersal of sit-ins and the removal of protesters’ tents installed in various vital roads in the country, the Canadian government partially responded to the protests’ demands, for example: On February 14, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the abandonment of vaccination certificates in the province, which is the center of the protests.

 

Political Agendas

Participants in the Freedom Convoys protests in Canada say that their latest move is a cry of anger at the changes that have occurred in their lives due to the global pandemic, the health restrictions, and the obligation to subject them to COVID-19 vaccines.

However, the anti-vaccine movement and devolution in Canada has direct ties to the Yellow Vests movement, it is not difficult to see the commonalities between the two movements.

This was revealed by Kurt Phillips, a board member of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, who said: “Every one of the prominent Yellow Vests that I know is now an anti-extremist.”

Similar to the Yellow Vests movement, the anti-authorization and anti-vaccine movement in Canada was driven by economic deprivation, anti-government sentiment, and distrust of mainstream science; it has also become deeply involved with white supremacist organizations and the far right, according to what the Canadian Breach Media website reported on February 17th.

While many claim that far-right and neo-Nazis are in the minority, but they are at the heart of the protest movement, they organize under the banner of rights and freedoms in order to take advantage of grievances on a larger scale and expand their base. .

Among the organizers of these protests were figures such as: Tamara Lich, Benjamin J. Dichter, and James Bauder, all have some level of involvement with white nationalism, racism, Islamophobia, conspiracy theorists, and far-right movements, according to the report.

What make matters worse, the organizers of these convoys obtained funds from abroad, especially in Canada, where the names of 92,000 donors of money, including American right-wing figures and groups, were leaked to support those demonstrations and sit-ins, after hacking GiveSendGo, which raised $8.7 million; they previously raised more than $10 million via crowdfunding site GoFundMe.

Also, figures from the far-right in Canada participated, such as: Romana Didolo, the Ottawa rally called for the killing of health care workers, and former US President Donald Trump also expressed his support for those protests.

In turn, lawyer and political writer Zaid al-Azem expressed in a statement to Al-Estiklal his rejection of the idea of protest convoys against the restrictions of the Coronavirus pandemic, this is due to the chaos of this strategy and the selfishness of those who support it.

“There is a global pandemic that kills millions of people, and therefore countries are forced to take measures to protect the largest number of people. Most of these preventive measures were taken through parliamentary and governmental laws, based on scientific studies and research, and not on the desire of a president or minister,” he added.

“Freedom Convoys for me is classified within the anarchist current that hates the state and laws, and moves across countries with the slogan of freedom in the absolute sense. Its goals that it pursues affect the lives of many people; so I consider it a selfish move,” al-Azem explained.

“The majority of the participants in the Freedom Convoys are young people, those who do not differentiate between the meaning of absolute freedom and the meaning of your freedom ends when the freedom of others begins, who may not be affected if they contract COVID-19, unlike a large portion of the elderly who live in Europe,” he pointed out.

“Thus, the policies of countries do not depend on the desire of a small percentage of people who do not want to realize the magnitude of the seriousness of this global pandemic,” al-Azem said.

 

Infection or Inspiration?

The protests have echoed outside Canada and inspired similar rallies, with the announcement of a convoy bound for Washington, DC, a solidarity protest heading to London, and other rallies in New Zealand and Australia.

Truck protests also reached Europe on February 10, dozens of demonstrators gathered in the squares and streets of several European countries to pressure their governments to lift Coronavirus restrictions, according to the French press agency.

Rallies against Coronavirus vaccines and restrictions have been relatively common since the pandemic began, but they have taken a different turn in recent months.

Over the past weekend, protesters blocked the road to the Dutch parliament building in The Hague, while in the Belgian capital, Brussels, the authorities announced the prevention of the arrival of a protest convoy that responded to a call circulated on social media.

As they decided to make Brussels a meeting point from all over Europe as it represents the symbolism of the European Union.

In Germany, thousands of citizens took to the streets in many cities to protest against the measures taken to confront the Coronavirus pandemic.

Similar demonstrations in France against vaccination and health passport rules also caused some disturbances, traffic was brought to a standstill on Paris's Champs Elysees during a demonstration there last weekend.

However, the numbers of participants in the Freedom Convoys protests was low compared to the anti-vaccination demonstrations that included more than 200,000 people at their peak in July and August 2021.

Meanwhile, about 3,000 people, including some belonging to the Yellow Vests movement, participated in another protest, which got the necessary permit in Paris, against the restrictions of COVID-19 as well as against the decline in living standards with high inflation.

The government of President Emmanuel Macron sought to prevent the circle of protests from expanding, as happened in the 2018 protests.

Therefore, the police mobilized more than 7,000 of its personnel, set up checkpoints, deployed armored personnel carriers and trucks equipped with water cannons, in preparation for the protests that come less than two months before the date of the presidential elections.

Last month, France imposed strict vaccine restrictions that effectively banned unvaccinated people from all restaurants, sports arenas and other venues as cases of COVID, driven by the highly contagious Omicron mutant, soared across the country.

The anti-vaccine protests in Australia were largely without truck convoys, but there was widespread unrest in Canberra, and authorities arrested some people after calling on protesters to leave the campsite in the north of the city.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he understood the concerns of those protesting against mandatory vaccination decisions, saying: “Australia is a free country and they have the right to protest, and I would ask them to do so in a peaceful and respectful way.”

While in the New Zealand capital there was a camp set up by anti-lockdown protesters and anti-vaccine protesters near the executive wing of the New Zealand Parliament as part of the pressure on the New Zealand government, vehicle congestion was a problem in Wellington, and was a major cause of traffic jams.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: “There is a kind of imported protest. I think we all want them to go.”

It is noteworthy that the COVID certificate has recently become necessary in many countries to fly and ride trains, not to mention eating out at restaurants and attending big events.

The latest figures indicate that the number of Coronavirus infections has exceeded 418 million, while the pandemic has officially claimed more than 5,870,000 lives worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to Worldometers.

The World Health Organization estimates that the total number of deaths may be 2-3 times higher, taking into account the increased number of deaths due to COVID-19 directly and indirectly.