Andrew Coyne vs Eric Payne

Harvard-educated doctor dismissed as 'loon' by small-minded journalist.

Canadian journalists are a special breed. Exhibit 1: Andrew Coyne, who writes for the Globe and Mail and appears regularly on CBC. Last year, on the day Ottawa was inundated with thousands of Freedom Convoy vehicles from multiple directions, Coyne dismissed the trucker protest as irrelevant.

Nothing to see here, he insisted. “A few hundred anti-vaxxers” making “asses of themselves in downtown Ottawa.”

Fast forward 15 months, and this man hasn’t learned a thing. In a tweet last week about the behaviour of public servants who are currently on strike, Coyne again talked about the Freedom Convoy. Not in a civil manner. And certainly not in a neutral manner.

Small-minded. Bigoted. Illiberal. Dogmatic beyond belief. That’s our Mr Coyne.

Click image to see this on Twitter. At no time did the Freedom Convoy block access to buildings or railways. Big picture, Freedom Convoy protesters were careful to keep one lane of traffic open for emergency vehicles. (One Ottawa intersection out of dozens was blocked by the protesters for the duration. Early on, a small section of Kent Street was sometimes blocked. These are the exceptions that prove the rule.)

Despite everything that has happened since, despite the mountain of contrary evidence that has been assembled in the form of documentary films, photo journalism, and full-length books, the Andrew Coynes of the world are incapable of changing their mind. Don’t trouble them with facts. They specialize in scorn and derision.

A full 15 months later in the universe Andrew Coyne inhabits, Freedom Convoy participants are still “anti-vax loons.” Remember Dr Eric Payne, about whom I wrote yesterday? Who attended the Ottawa protest and thanked the truckers from the stage? That’s who Andrew Coyne is deriding.

The box on the right outlines Dr Payne’s credentials. Click image to enlarge. Click here for the video. Part 2 of Dr. Payne’s testimony begins at 4:38:10. Part 1 of his testimony was delivered on April 1st.

Eight years of medical school and medical training/residency. A three-year fellowship at Toronto’s Sick Kids Hospital. A Masters degree from Harvard. Six years working for the Mayo Clinic.

But in the eyes of non-medically-trained Andrew Coyne, Dr Payne isn’t entitled to a hearing. His perspective isn’t worth considering. He’s just a loon.

More than two years ago, I posed the following question, which remains highly relevant today:

How does it serve democracy to refuse to listen, with an open mind, to non-conformist points-of-view?