Essay from the UK
Sometimes it takes an outsider to reveal local truths.
Earlier this month, London-based KB Goldtooth published an essay titled Toppling Babel: How truckers took on Trudeau. It’s intelligent and insightful.
KB tells us things I didn’t know about Brigitte Belton, the Ontario trucker who kickstarted the rebellion that morphed into the Freedom Convoy. Crossing back into Canada from the US during the pandemic could be unpleasant. The pandemic didn’t bring out the best in some folks. Being rude to non-conformists was now A-OK.
As KB observes,
Covid exacerbated the scope for officiousness of every petty bureaucrat in the world, not least the good people at CBSA (Canadian Border Security Force).
Click here to read Toppling Babel. You can also press the big orange button and listen to it being read aloud in a lovely British accent (13 minutes long).
I’ve written about Brigitte here:
Scorning the Little People & Their Cries for Help: Canadians protested in Ottawa because their concerns weren't being heard (the last third of that post)
What Did You Want Me To Do? Lose Everything? 'I was asking for help. Nobody listened. Nobody helped.'
The Warning Signs Were Here: Immigrants who experienced Nazi Germany educated their grandkids about government oppression.
The Nameless Newsmakers: The two cross-border truckers who sparked the Freedom Convoy are disappeared by the Canadian Press wire service.
Chris Barber and Brigitte Belton — one man one woman, one vaccinated one not. They led the way. Donna Laframboise tells the story so well.
Brigitte Belton! What a courageous and amazing person. I have often wondered how they train border crossing personnel to be so freaking unfriendly, but these examples are sadistic. William Golding in “Lord of the Flies” captured beautifully what can happen to people when there are no expectations of civility. These examples show humanity at its worst; these border guard’s really relished in their sadistic cruelty when it was sanctioned. But what solution Brigitte found!