Truck Off III - The Squish

 

WHEREAS the safety and security of the individual, the protection of the values of the body politic and the preservation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of the state are fundamental obligations of government. 

The paragraph above is a portion of the Canada's Emergency Act that was signed into law in 1985 with the most recent update being in 1988. It is with this piece of legislation that the Prime Minister of Canada, Justine Trudeau, shut down the Freedom Convoy 2022. While the specific details of the declaration have not been posted to the Government of Canada website, or at least not easy to find. In general the enactment allowed for the following: confiscation of truck, removal of insurance, removal of children if arrested, removal of pets if arrested, jail time or fine if  convicted, the tow truck companies could be ordered by the government, and the freezing of bank accounts at the discretion of the banking institution. 

Pensating on this situation, both as a mental and a political exercise has been a tumultuous exercise for the mind of  this author. Most conflicts are based on disagreements between two parties, in an attempt to be a good Canadian, a hockey game is a contest between two teams who feel that the puck belongs in the other teams net; and there in lies the contest. The Freedom Convoy 2022 is not much different from hockey in this respect, except that the puck has been exchanged for personable choice and personal autonomy. 

The word 'Freedom' has recently been labeled as an alt-right expression by many in the Main-Stream-Media (the MSM) this declaration does not come as a surprise to this author. While the political left and the political right do both exist, the real question, in this the current year is, is this all about power, has that become everything now? As such it seems that everything has become political and this is why politics ruins everything. In the mind of this author, the current problems found in our society is a trifecta of: the public Internet, truths and facts.

The noise to signal ratio on the public Internet is appalling and the MSM is more part of the cause than it is the solution; the economic incentive to capture clicks has turned many NEWS outlets into a modern day National Enquirer reminiscent of it's heyday between the 1950s and 1970s. Additionally, the public Internet provides an assortment of platforms for people seeking confirmation and monies for what they feel is most important to them. Adding to the signal is the ubiquitous adoption of the 'smart phone' equipped with cameras, as this allows for a fact to come out over the presentation of someone's truth. 

The word 'truth' has been detached from the word 'fact' in recent years. The term, 'you don't know my truth' has become common place these days. By including the word 'my' it is implied that it was a personal experience and  typically in these situations the personal experience of the opposition is fully ignored. Once again Plato's cave allegory comes back into the light of society.  

When the public is consistently and persistently subjected to both spin and narrative across the board, how can anyone be surprised of the side effects expressed by those people. Many people tend to mimic what they are exposed to, as an example - 'yippee ki yay mother fucker'; fell into and out of fashion in the late 1980s and now it is gone from the lexicon of the West only to be replaced by the verbiage of the latest blockbuster movie. Much in the same way, the NEWS outlets are putting forth messaging that many people will simply regurgitate. 

For the last two years, those who did not follow the machinations of the government have been labeled as 'the other'. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) has been a long standing means of public persuasion. FUD was used to invade a country looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in 1990, about Vietnam in the 1950s, in Germany in the 1930s. and Canada in 2020. All of these ventures were kicked off with propaganda which was shown not to be true over the course of time. 

In conclusion, we will see when we look back through time who were the heroes and who were the cowards. This author will leave it to the reader how to define the difference.

UPDATED at 4:57 AM 2/22/2022

When the sun rises on Canada this morning it will be a very different Canada than the one that existed yesterday at daybreak. There is still a glimmer of short term hope in that now the act has to pass the Senate. The only thing left is - we will see 

James Woods once wrote, "Scratch a liberal, and find a fascist every time..."

Truck Off II - The Squeeze (an OPED)

A layman's perspective.

By definition, a narrative is a written or spoken account of connected events, a story if the reader will permit such a simple simplification. The earliest stories were handed down generation to generation by word of mouth. Eventually, art was invented to convey a moment of story and of course writing came along and while it has been said that 'a picture is worth a thousand words'. There is no picture that comes to the mind of this author that will ever replace the two grand works of Homer; the Iliad and the Odyssey. 

This is just a throw in; when one looks up 'define Sophistry' on Google an example given is - "trying to argue that I had benefited in any way from the disaster was pure sophistry".

Two weeks to flatten the curve has now become two years of social destruction and control. Many countries across the globe have Charters of Rights and Freedoms or Constitutions. These foundational documents are being ignored if not even trod upon by every level of government; at least here in Toronto, Ontario Canada. It is the opinion of this author, that the NEWS outlets have been complicit in this effort; a form of Governmental sophists.

The question in hand is; has the last two years been the feeding of a narrative that has little to no actual demonstrative evidence being provided? This is the subject matter this article seeks to explore. 

A number of countries have already adjusted their COVID-19 death tolls after it was pointed out that there is a difference between 'dying "with" COVID' and 'dying "of" COVID'. A specific case towards this situation is; a man was listed as a COVID death after he collapsed on his drive with chest pain, which was the result of a gunshot wound. England dropped their death counts by 5,000 in 2021 over the distinction mentioned above. 

The vaccines are safe and once a person is vaccinated they will be safe and save others, was the party line and this was the mantra within the narrative being spewed by those informing the public. This has been shown to be incorrect on both counts and the government(s) and  NEWS outlets changed the narrative once again back to 'please help flatten the curve'. Additionally, this author has to ask why the NEWS outlets are making such an effort to hide to the people that Myocarditis, a swelling of the myocardium (heart muscle), is related to the application of vaccines, nor is there reporting on the women suffering from the disruption of their typical 28 day cycle. The numbers for these two conditions is minor but they do exist. The reader is ask to note; any defense is only required if there is a danger that it can solve; for example, no-one created anti-aircraft guns until attack planes were invented and deployed.

The Government of Ontario has been maintaining data on the case numbers of COVID-19, per 100,000. 

For Jan 14 2022 the numbers were: Full-VAXed 73.08, Partly-VAXed  42.20 and Un_VAXed 55.55

For Feb 12 2022 the numbers were: Full-VAXed 16.15, Partly-VAXed  15.30 and Un_VAXed 18.56

The reduction in case numbers are:  Full-VAXed 77.9%, Partly-VAXed 63.7% and Un_VAXed 66.59%

The Formula used for change is: 100 - (FEB/JAN×100) = Percentage drop

DATA Source: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/data/case-numbers-and-spread

What happened to the term 'super spreader event' as an excuse for control? This author is not suggesting that the Sars-Coronavirus-2 is gone from the planet or even individual societies. This author's concern is that the risk/reward ratio the politicians are playing with is being overplayed. Also, it must be under-stood that doctors don't save lives; they only prolong them, and that in of itself is not a bad thing. 

Politics can be both an easy game and a hard one; easy politics is when the politician looks after themselves and hard politics is when the politician weighs the needs of the one against the needs of the many; for the greater good has historically been a slippery slope. The human experience must not be reduced to just numbers.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 6 – Mobility Rights states, a Canadian citizen can, in simple terms; move between provinces, leave Canada and return to Canada. Some legal scholars have argued that even when the boarders are closed Canadian citizens still maintain the right to re-enter Canada. The PM himself supported this argument when he made arrangements in 2020 with Air Canada to repatriate Canadians on foreign soil as Sars-Coronavirus-2 was already spreading around the world.

 In Ottawa a number of steps have been taken to make the Truckers go back to their homes. An early step was smearing them with name calling. Names such as: racist, sexist, xenophobic, and misogynist where made common place and this did not sit well with the female drivers, the Hindi drivers and those from Romania. The next step was to deprive the truckers of fuel and so the Ottawa police seized jerry cans though eventually a court ordered the police to give them back. In the mind of this author, the most despicable threat made was to send in Child Protective Services, some of the truckers brought their families. The Canadian Government also convinced GoFundMe to freeze the donations to the truckers in order to remove support; the value of which was about million dollars Canadian, it was Milton Freedman who said that people first vote with their feet and then their wallets. It is assumed by this author, this idea will tested in the next election.

It should be mentioned that the truckers did leave a single lane open on each road, street and avenue for emergency vehicles. Additionally the reader should note that in downtown Ottawa crime rates have dropped since the start of the Freedom Convoy and that when the courts ordered those truckers in residential areas to stop honking the truckers stopped honking. 

Still referring to Ottawa, there is another side of this story; a CNN commentator stated something such as - 'the fuel should be drained, the tires slashed and the trucks towed away' and so it seems that this CNN commentator has never seen a truck. The trucker supporters set up food stations and fed the homeless in the area, which is not being reported, all the while the one trucker entering a soup kitchen who when informed the kitchen was for the homeless only exited the shelter and yet this one incident was exaggerated by the NEWS outlets to include the truckers at-large. Also, where are the news reports pointing out that Ottawa hospitals are being over whelmed due to COVID-19?

Other locations within Canada for the Freedom Convoy will not be addressed by this author at this time, as the amount of type would generate a small pamphlet at least. 

The Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, has at the time of this writing recently declared a state of emergency for Ontario. Premier Ford coupled his declaration with threats of fines, up to 100 K, property seizure, and jail time up to one year; when one does not comply with what Premier Ford tells you to do. The purpose of representative Government is to listen to the citizenry sooner or later. The latter is inevitabile, and that happens typically when an election is called. Yet, Premier Ford, and Prime Minister Trudeau, will not parley with the demonstrators; this author will leave it to the reader to sort out the title typically assigned to leaders who refuse to listen to the citizens they have power over.

In conclusion; this author feels that those informing the public are now in a bit of a corner. The numbers of cases, ICU and dead patients have dropped, though not through attrition. At some point in time the politicians at all levels will have to draw a line, by stepping over that line, they will have to explain to the people as to why it is now safe enough for things can reopen when it wasn't yesterday. Unfortunately society has long past the post; as so many small businesses have now been shuttered forever, and so many Canadians will not have a job to return to. 

Quote: Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

 - Mark Twain