Going Nuclear on the Truckers

Egging on the Prime Minister. Failing to distinguish between real & imaginary emergencies.

Part 1: Objective Ottawa Insiders?
Part 2: Canada's Activist Civil Service
Part 3: Going Nuclear on the Truckers
Part 4: The Many Meanings of Violence
Part 5: Shallow, Self-Serving Sanctimony

Janice Charette is Clerk of the Privy Council Office (PCO), and is therefore Canada’s top civil servant. In February, she wrote a memo to Justin Trudeau recommending he go nuclear on the truckers who’d been peacefully protesting in Ottawa.

The Prime Minister wasn’t presented with a range of options - including the most elementary and obvious one: talking to the protesters. He was urged to go full throttle, to take extreme action.

That memo is the paper trail. It is political cover. Its purpose is to lend an illusion of legitimacy to wholly illegitimate government action - responding to peaceful protest with police brutality.

The sections of the memo we’re allowed to see (large portions were blacked out prior to it entering the public record at the Emergencies Act hearings) suggest Ms. Charette is anything but an “objective, non-partisan” professional.

This isn’t an even-handed exploration of a complex situation. The memo expresses not the slightest understanding, concern, or sympathy for Ottawa protesters who’ve just endured two weeks of subzero temperatures, who’ve been cooking and eating outdoors, and who’ve been coping with limited access to showers and toilets.

It may be difficult for someone such as Ms. Charette (who has spent the past 40 years generously paid by the taxpayer) to appreciate, but truckers don’t usually have nannies. Pre-school youngsters are often raised in these rigs. When truckers joined the Freedom Convoy in their own communities thousands or hundreds of miles away, of course they brought their kids along.

Thousands of Canadian families then spent the next few weeks visiting Ottawa because they believed something historic was taking place. The grownups wanted the children to witness the Freedom Convoy firsthand.

Ms. Charette appears to have spent not even 30 seconds imagining herself in the shoes of either the truckers or their supporters. According to her memo:

Participants…have adopted a number of tactics that are disrupting the peace…This has included…reports of protesters bringing children to protest sites to limit the level and types of law enforcement intervention. [bold added]

Righto. The parents erecting bouncy castles and arranging bales-of-hay climbing activities weren’t trying to keep the kids amused hour after hour, day after day. They were coldblooded, anti-police operatives. Got it.

The memo insists the Emergencies Act represents a “proportional approach,” and that official public statements should emphasize its “fair and proportionate” nature.

So what would be the proportionate government response to violent rioters engaged in actual looting, arson, and assault? To mobs leaving smoldering police cars and city blocks of broken windows in their wake? To actual armed insurrection involving guns, bombs, and hostages?

Does Ms. Charette have a a SuperDuper Emergencies Act for those situations?