Was it really about vaccine mandates -- or something darker? The inside story of the convoy protestsA [View all]

Was it really about vaccine mandates — or something darker? The inside story of the convoy protests A Canadian protest movement appeared to be fuelled by opposition to COVID-19 restrictions, but conspiracy theories swirled just below the surface.

JL

By Justin Ling Special to the Star

Sat., March 19, 2022 timer 19 min. read

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/03/19/was-it-really-about-vaccine-mandates-or-something-darker-the-inside-story-of-the-convoy-protests.html

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For three weeks this winter, a so-called “Freedom Convoy” delivered thousands of demonstrators into downtown Ottawa, turning them into an occupying force that snarled daily life in the nation’s capital and dominated the national conversation.

But who were the demonstrators, really — and what were they after?

Many of them positioned the protest as a fight against vaccination mandates for cross-border truckers. Others saw it as a campaign against pandemic restrictions more broadly. No doubt the occupation was many things to many people. But for several of its organizers, the protest was the culmination of years of work, their best chance yet to coalesce a movement around their preferred conspiracy theories and a violent anti-government ideology.

The convoy protest was not about just the pandemic. But nor could it have happened without the pandemic. Organizers were able to leverage fatigue and frustration with government restrictions and social isolation to grow their movement, drawing on one particularly potent conspiracy theory in the process: the idea that an international cabal has taken control of Canada, and is weaponizing the pandemic to consolidate its dominance. This occupation was marketed as the last stand to stop tyranny — and has become a global rallying cry for a burgeoning anti-media, anti-science, anti-government political force.

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