The election continues, and Liberals are losing ground to the CPC on the right and the NDP on the left. Trudeau’s Liberals are still in minority government territory on the seat count, but between the unpopular election call and the absolute shambles of his handling of the Afghanistan evacuation, they’ve lost a lot of traction on the popular vote. It’s starting to look like Trudeau has made an historic mistake calling this election. (Not that I want a Conservative victory; the last thing we need during a global pandemic is a return to “austerity” economics. But that’s not what I want to write this post about.)
I want to write about the “protesters” screaming obscenities at Justin Trudeau’s campaign stops.
The most recent incident (and most egregious to date) occured in Cambridge yesterday, but last week a similar event in Bolton was outright cancelled because of concerns that attendees wouldn’t be safe because of the “anti-vax protesters.”
These are not local protesters spontaneously coming out to their neighbourhood campaign stop to express their displeasure at the Prime Minister. There have been reports that some of the agitators have been spotted at multiple demonstrations, even ones that would require a lengthy flight to attend. Inevitably, claims of “paid provocateurs” or “Conservative agents” are being voiced. While it’s indisputable that these hateful demonstrations are being coordinated – in far-right extremist spaces on Telegram and other apps – I personally have serious doubts that they’re being coordinated by any specific political party in an official or even unofficial capacity. Not because such an action would be immoral, illegal and undemocratic – in the post-Trump age we all know that there’s no depth to which certain politicians would distain to sink – but because any competent political operative would realize the potential fallout if they got caught pulling that kind of ratfuckery would (or at least could) be politically devastating.
And as an aside, I always get skeptical when people start claiming “provocateurs”: In more than twenty years as an activist the only time I’ve ever seen provocateurs in action was at the Montebello protest in 2007, and I suspect that was an isolated incident because the Sûreté du Québec – never the country’s most competent police service – fucked it up so badly that they made their force into a national laughingstock and still sullenly refuse to comment on the affair.
In any case, the anti-vaxxers’ behavior makes it clear that the “anti-vax protesters” aren’t actually about vaccinations, or masks or lockdowns or whatever. I tweeted about this on the weekend, and I’ve been reading and thinking about it since, so let me make it clear: These people don’t give two shits about public health or personal freedoms or whatever slogan the’re chanting between the racist and sexist slurs. They’re out there screaming at the Prime Minister because it gives them an excuse to vent their hatred and bigotry.
Anti-vaccination is just their current excuse. That’s it and that’s all.
And when the pandemic is over, they’ll find another excuse. These are the same people who two years ago were standing out front of Hamilton City Hall calling themselves the “Yellow Vests” as an excuse for their homophobia and hatred of non-white immigrants. These are the same neo-fascist groups who’ve been threatening and vandalizing mosques across Canada. These are the same people who tried to attack LGBTQ+ families at Pride in the name of “Christ.” These are the same small-minded and hate-filled right-wing extremists who have always existed in this country, but in the era of COVID they’ve got a new “movement” to empower and radicalize them and media to pay attention to their hateful bullshit.
Their movement is not about vaccine refusal or hesitancy, because they’re not looking at science, they’re looking at conspiracies. They’ve managed to con the gullible, grift the credible and just plain lie to the stupid so that they can translate that into power and money — and money is definitely at stake.
There are definitely legitimate concerns about the development and implementation of vaccines that I respect, particularly when they come from People of Colour and Indigenous communities (which have been historically subjected to medical experimentation without their knowledge or consent.) The problem isn’t vaccine hesitancy – hell, I looked at how fast the mRNA vaccines were developed and was a bit concerned myself – but I looked at the science (or at least the articles written on the science) and made the reasoned and responsible decision that I ought to get vaccinated, which I did at the earliest possible opportunity afforded to me. (For the record, I haven’t been microchipped, rendered sterile or died, all of which is happening to people who have been vaccinated by the international “globalist” conspiracy according to anti-vaxxers.)
Their movement isn’t about government overreach, either. Speaking as an anarcho-syndicalist, I absolutely worry about government overreach. Right or Left, the threat is authoritarianism gaining power. On the far-right, authoritarianism is built in; on the far-left, it disguises itself as ideological purity and dogmatism but either way it’s ultimately one person (or one Central Committee, or one whatever) where the problem starts: It’s with authority saying “I’m the authority, do it or else.”
Which is why it’s been so interesting to me to watch Health Canada and the Prime Minister and even the Premier of Ontario bend over backwards to keep from making vaccines mandatory. In this country government can legally do things “in the name of public health” that absolutely would not be acceptable, like completely forbidding travel or forcibly vaccinating people, even though it would have stopped the pandemic in its tracks and saved many lives. It would have been a hell of a lot easier for these archists to just invoke the Emergency Measures Act and say “Do it or else.” And despite border restrictions and public mask mandates and so forth, they’ve actually gone about their pandemic response with a relatively gentle hand on the reins… even when the public was calling for more stringent measures.
But no more: I’m currently carefully watching the public debate on so-called “Vaccine Passports” (which is a media-drama way of saying “Proof of Vaccination.”)
I don’t like that showing proof of vaccination is about to become a part of everyday life. In an ideal situation, everyone who can be vaccinated would be vaccinated voluntarily. It’s the humane, responsible thing to do, and as of the end of August 2021 roughly two-thirds of all eligible Canadians have been double-dosed. Three quarters have received a single dose. Which leaves one quarter of the eligible population completely unprotected from the delta variant now tearing through the unvaccinated.
And for the record I am personally not happy with the notion of having to disclose any of my medical information in order to take a train or shop in a mall or whatever, but as an anarchist I understand that my rights come balanced with responsibilities. That’s why I’m still masking up and obeying social distancing guidelines despite the fact that I’m double-vaxxed – I can still potentially catch a mild case of COVID, and I can potentially pass that case on to someone who can’t be vaccinated… like my nephews and nieces under the age of twelve.
And it’s entirely the fault of this bogus anti-vaccination movement, with its thinly-veiled antisemitic conspiracy theories and its violent self-appointed leaders, that we’re going to get these vaccine passports. Every responsible person that I know – with the exception of exactly two people who have legitimate medical conditions that preclude vaccination – has voluntarily accepted vaccination at the earliest opportunity, the same way that they voluntarily embraced social distancing and wearing masks. Responsible people didn’t need to be ordered to do these things, they did them simply because it was the right thing to do.
Which is why it’s doubly-frustrating to realize that the anti-vaxxers aren’t actually about anti-vaccination. They’re about the victim mentality, the thrill of feeling powerful xenophobia and above all about having the freedom to indulge their ugly vicious bigotry without consequences.
Ultimately, the real problem isn’t vaccine hesitancy, government response or even the pandemic (although these are all problematic, of course.) The problem is that Canada has a growing number of far-right extremists who latch on to any social movement or cause and try and co-opt it for their own selfish ends.
And to conclude – maybe you’re anti-vaccination but you’re not a bigot. You have genuine concerns. You’re probably pretty pissed at me for writing this article and lumping you in with these assholes.
To you I say: Yesterday, in Cambridge Ontario, an “anti-vaccination protester” screamed threats at the Prime Minister, abused a female staffer with misogynistic slurs, and used the N-word to a person of colour.
If this is who you’re standing with, you need to reexamine what it is you think you’re standing for.
great blog post as always buddy