Long ago, I blogged about being at the 2007 BC National Award for Nonfiction gala listening to Dragan Todorovic speak about watching his country disappear. Todorovic was nominated for his memoir, The Book of Revenge: A Blues for Yugoslavia. I wrote:
He recalled his experience of watching his native Yugoslavia torn apart, and about how powerful the urge can be among citizens to hope that everything will just get better somehow if we keep our heads down, say what everyone else is saying, and leave it to our leaders to sort deadly messes out.
At the end of his speech, Todorovic looked at us all in the audience and said, referring to a country's disassembling or changing its essential values: "Keep your heads up. Do not think it can never happen in Canada. We never thought it could happen in Yugoslavia, either."'
I'll never forget that speech, though I have certainly not heeded its wisdom enough. Not by a long stretch. I thought of this today while feeling grateful to many friends for posting regularly about the protest-that-is-not-a-protest ... the fake-protest that is actually an insurrection uniting extremists of every stripe that draws support – financial and otherwise – from powerful extreme-right-wing politicians and individuals in the US. It’s an insurrection that has gathered strength for a number of reasons, including pandemic fatigue and hardship among many law-abiding Canadians who are done with restrictions and lockdowns and life being interrupted for so long – and who therefore support the “principle” if not the extreme actions of the occupiers.
Now that the insurrection is this far along, and only gaining momentum and impact, we are all wondering when, and how, it will end. We have been gobsmacked by the unbelievable fact that this is happening in Ottawa, in Canada. But “This is not our Canada!” is feeling pretty frail in terms of a reaction at this stage. “Our Canada” is ever more a misnomer, a dangerous simplification that is increasingly unable to glue together deepening divides in our society.
I, for one, have not considered just how much our country has changed, in part because of a desperate focus on believing we could all come together to beat back infection and mortality rates and protect our most vulnerable. But we aren’t together. A recent Leger survey found that one-third (32%) of Canadians “support the message the trucker convoy (also known as Freedom Convoy) protests are conveying of no vaccine mandates and less public health measures.” More than half oppose the way the “protest” has taken shape but the fact that such a significant proportion of Canadians agree with the message is something that makes me pause. It makes me think that Trudeau’s dismissive stance towards anti-vaxxers/maskers and opponents of public health mandates has been a serious tactical error. As much as I have admittedly also been dismissive, I am not the leader of Canada. Trudeau's approach and rhetoric has obviously alienated too many and may be contributing to dangerous gaps in national outrage about what is happening on our streets. We are so fractured.
As of this writing, seemingly no one knows how to stop the madness. But the longer it goes on, the more fragile our faith in the strength of our democracy, the more tenuous our federal government’s grip on power (and by power I mean the ability of the government to actually govern), and the stronger the ability of the occupiers to terrorize and freeze our economy.
We can only hope that our governments, police, and military are consulting the most formidable minds out there right now about how to defuse this situation. If it can’t be defused, what happens next? I tell myself I can’t imagine, but I know I am also stopping myself from imagining. That’s something to think about, when I think back to Todorovic’s words of caution. Because as we speak, well-organized extremists are all too aware of our feeling exhausted by the pandemic and bleary-eyed as a result. They are banking on it.
We are so close to the end of this ordeal, right? We can feel the light at the end of the tunnel, a spring enjoyed with far fewer restrictions, gatherings with friends, adventures, kids being kids – finally – first kisses, travel, etc. The occupiers know we are close to those hard-won joys – and it's not stopping them. They can't wait. You have to wonder why. They are NOT the rightful representatives of a frustrated but democratic minority. They need to go, for the good of all of us.
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