Laying It Out: Don’t let this be the moment we look back on with regret

By Scott Schmidt on February 19, 2022.

Correction: Last week I said the last thing I said about freedom convoys would be the last thing I say about freedom convoys. That was inaccurate.

I was recently called a bigot after not allowing someone to compare being unvaccinated in Canada to being sent to Auschwitz — in case you’re wondering where the country’s at these days.

I shrugged it off of course, but after going back to my daily routine of reading about politicians telling other politicians to stop being so divisive, I began to laugh.

I can’t speak for others but I feel OK about being divided from this person on that particular issue. With a slew of politicians who would likely address it talking about “salt-of-the-earth people” who just want their “freedoms back,” my hope is one or two might see why those who can’t eat at Denny’s don’t have it quite as bad as Jews being sent to a death camp.

In this instance, division as a problem that needs fixing is a ridiculous concept.

Democracy divides us by ideas the second we go to the polls, and those electoral choices continue to divide the satisfied from the unsatisfied until we head back.

The problem with debate over freedom convoys in Ottawa and around the country isn’t that we’re divided; the problem is being told we shouldn’t be. And, right now, the accusation of intentional division amounts to nothing more than opportunistic distraction from what is a frighteningly sharp rise in ultra-nationalistic behaviour by people seeking ways to overthrow fairly elected governments.

More importantly, perhaps, why do so many elected officials trip over themselves to find, point out and protect the peaceful, hand-holding freedom lovers whenever they’re faced with questions about the hate groups at the heart of (or, if you want to keep pretending this is about truckers, “who infiltrated”) it all?

Who cares if Johnny Tractorbeam from the Royal Canadian Farm and Ranch only parked across two lanes of highway at Coutts because he loves his country? Thirteen people were arrested following discovery of firearms, ammunition, body armour, hate symbols and a willingness to engage.

Who cares if parents held hands and sang O Canada in Ottawa while their kids played on bouncy castles because 10% of truckers can’t go to Detroit? Pat King, one of several organizers, is a vile, dangerous extremist with an entire series of racist, hate-filled video content online — some threatening lethal violence when “the bullets fly.”

What exactly happened to the idea of bad apples spoiling the whole bunch? That saying isn’t so much suggesting all apples are bad because of a rotten McIntosh. It’s suggesting that apple must be dealt with immediately, and until it is, no other apple matters.

The same principle must apply to these protests. You want to hold hands and sing for freedom? Knock yourself out. But we can’t allow it while white nationalists stand with you to claim the same cause.

Whether meaning to or not, politicians who gloss over the dangerous factions of these convoys in order to prop up the good folks who don’t even know what a Plaid Army is, are blurring the lines between the ripe and the spoiled.

Coming in a top-down manner such as this gives credence to the rottenness. As if having white nationalist hate groups stand for three weeks with the rest of these freedom fighters, all waving the same flag, singing the same songs and believing they share the same goal, wasn’t already a recipe for the spread of terrible ideas.

Fascism often arrives at the authoritarian dictatorships we’ve come to know from history, but it always begins with a form of ultra-nationalism attempting to create firm boundaries of belonging — most often rooted in white supremacy. Once momentum builds to where these groups begin to demand the end of, or control of, government, the situation is already critical.

Instead of stamping out the ideology of far-right extremists before it turns to all-out fascism, freedom-supportive politicians at best are telling the others they share the right goals, just not the same approach. But just because protesters find commonality in supposed problems, doesn’t mean they share a preferred endgame.

I think Jason Kenney is a terrible premier and shouldn’t do that job anymore, but someone who agrees so much they’re willing to accomplish that by any means necessary is not after the same thing I am. Would you be OK with Alberta’s NDP legitimizing a plan to overthrow Kenney just because he has a bad approval rating?

Neglecting to direct our full attention to these “small, organized” dangerous elements of these protests — and that means more than arrests — is empowering them. These groups truly believe Canadians are on their side, despite reality, and they have countless receipts from politicians backing them up.

Again, none of this is to say removing our focus from protesters not involved in hate groups means they ought to be lumped together with those who are. But if our supposed leaders keep telling them they share a common, decent goal, it does little more than prime the environment to do it on their own.

I’m certain this person who wrote to me doesn’t currently believe they have much common interest with organized hate groups, but if they feel so oppressed here that it resembles Nazi Germany, how hard is it to grasp the concept of innocent people being sucked in by a bad idea?

We have historical tendency to look back at truly awful occurrences wondering when it all went wrong. If we don’t immediately deal with the rise of hate groups in this country once and for all, the future answer to that question is going to be right now.

Scott Schmidt is the layout editor for the Medicine Hat News. He can be reached at sschmidt@medicinehatnews.com

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