A year later, it can't be about vaccine mandates any more

Jeff Green | Feb 01, 2023

A year later, it can't be about vaccine mandates any more

A year ago the freedom convoy had become a full blown occupation of the City of Ottawa.

It was already clear at that time that the reason so many people were protesting, and the support that they were receiving from across the country, went way beyond anger over covid restrictions.

By the time the protesters arrived in Ottawa, the restrictions were already in the process of being dismantled.

Although the timing may have been influenced by the protests, the mandates were also proving the be an outdated response to the new variants. When it became clear that vaccines, and even masks, were able to dull the impact of COVID, but not stop it from progressing through the population at a high rate, the mandates days were clearly numbered.

A year later, and COVID is still with us, but mandates are not coming back. Masking is recommended, but relatively few are using them, and the vaccine campaign has stalled, not because of the protest but because of vaccine fatigue and the fact that so many people have had COVID over the last 6 months and vaccines are not recommended for six months after an infection.

But while the protest scheduled for this weekend on the anniversary of the convoy fizzled, many of those who shared some or many of the views that the convoy protest got its strength from, still feel the same way as they did then.

Some of it is a visceral hatred of the Prime Minister.

It is not unusual for a Prime Minister to outlive their popularity in this country. It happened to Harper, it happened to Mulroney, and to the first Trudeau and to Lester B. Pearson before him.

The hatred for Trudeau is different, however, maybe because of the impact of social media, but also because of some of his own actions, I would argue.

In particular his assertion that people who did not choose to be vaccinated were selfish people. His decision to assign a moral value to a personal decision about whether to get vaccinated or not, was characteristic of the worst aspects of his political style, the moral crusader.

But there is something beyond that, there is a deeply held feeling that the people in power are trying to change not only the way we behave, but the way we think.

This plays out in opposition to climate change policies, opposition to what people call “woke” culture, and a tendency to see a grand conspiracy controlling the international agenda.

From my point of view, the attempt to respect the differences between people while clinging to those things that we all share, is a long term social project. It is sometimes uncomfortable, and sometimes it comes across the way Justin Trudeau does, self-righteous in the extreme, but social justice issues have been with us for a long time and progress is generational.

I know nothing about international conspiracies and back-room deals aimed at removing our freedoms, so I cannot comment on them.

I have no doubt, however, based on the data, that climate change is a real thing, that it is accelerating, and that everyone one of us needs to look at how we act individually and collectively if we hope to keep from shrinking the livable portion of our planet at a reasonable level.

It is fine to oppose any specific climate change mitigation measure, and it is fine to question the claims of governments and corporations about the impact of measures they are proposing and enacting, but only within the context of an understanding of the need to control net emissions quickly and measurably.

To oppose a tax on carbon as the Conservative Party does, is fine, but it is incumbent on the Conservatives to come up with an alternative that is binding on the individuals, companies and industries who are all responsible for the trajectory we are on right now.

That is my main fear about the remnants of the conspiratorial 'convoy energy', that in its opposition to some real and some apparent flaws in the way COVID was handled, and the way the way governments act in general, progress on climate change, and social justice issues, will end up being compromised.

The COVID pandemic is not over, scientists tell us, but it will be. We knew that all along.

Other threats to our collective well-being, will still be raging long after the concern over masks and vaccines and self isolation has faded away.